Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs
Robins Kaplan partner Michael Collyard secured pre- and post-judgment interest on a $564 million jury verdict he won last year against BMO Harris Bank stemming from one the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history.
June 30, 2023 at 07:25 AM
6 minute read
Our first runner-up this week is Robins Kaplan partner Michael Collyard, who secured an order forcing BMO Harris Bank to pay pre- and post-judgment interest on a $564 million jury verdict the firm won last year stemming from one the largest Ponzi schemes in U.S. history. After a four-week trial, jurors found in November that the bank's predecessors at M&I Marshall and Ilsley Bank aided and abetted Ponzi schemer Tom Petters and his accomplices in laundering billions in proceeds through 2008. Last week's order from U.S. District Judge Wilhelmina Wright in St. Paul brings the total award to Collyard's client, BMO litigation trustee Douglas A. Kelly, to more than $1 billion.
Runners-up honors also go to lawyers at Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld who worked alongside lawyers at the American Civil Liberties Union, ACLU of Tennessee and Lambda Legal to get a preliminary junction blocking Tennessee's ban on gender-affirming medical care for transgender youth. U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson in Nashville this week found the team's clients, parents of transgender youth, demonstrated irreparable harm and met their burden of showing that the law, SB1, is most likely unconstitutional on its face. The Akin team on the matter was led by Dean Chapman and includes David Bethea, Kristen Chin, Martine Cicconi, Rick D'Amato, Chris Gessner, Taylor Leighton, Kyle McGoey, Amama Rasani, James Salwen, Lizzy Scott, Joseph Sorkin, Joe Sullivan and Jen Langmack.
Runners-up honors also go to a Dechert team led by partners Jeffrey Brown and David Kotler, who represented former Hertz CEO Mark Frissora in a first-of-its-kind federal clawback suit in New Jersey federal court. The company, which restated its financial statements from fiscal years 2011, 2012, and 2013, was seeking more than $150 million from Frissora, who left the company in 2014 under a separation agreement that provided severance, golden parachute payments and benefits. U.S. District Judge Evelyn Padin in New Jersey this week sided with Frissora on summary judgment finding the company's clawback policies were not enforceable contracts and its rescission claims were barred, in part because Hertz waited four years after Frissora's departure to file suit.
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