Another Stellar Batch of Litigator of the Week Runners-Up and Shout Outs
Boies Schiller Flexner, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check and Grant & Eisenhofer won more than $600 million in damages for shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac at trial against the Federal Housing Finance Agency.
August 18, 2023 at 07:25 AM
7 minute read
Quick TakesOur first runners-up this week are lawyers at Boies Schiller Flexner, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check and Grant & Eisenhofer who scored a big win for shareholders of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in a dispute with the Federal Housing Finance Agency that has its roots in FHFA's bailout of those congressionally chartered companies during the subprime mortgage crisis. After a two-week trial and eight hours of deliberations, a federal jury in Washington, D.C. this week found that the FHFA improperly amended stock purchase agreements to sweep up the net worths of Fannie and Freddie and avoid paying shareholders dividends. Jurors awarded shareholders a total of $612.4 million in damages. The trial team for the plaintiffs included Kenya Davis and Hamish Hume of Boies Schiller, who presented opening and closing arguments respectively, as well as Robert "Rocky" Kravetz of Bernstein Litowitz and Lee Rudy of Kessler Topaz.
Mike Bonanno of Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan and Ethan Glass of Cooley take home our other runner-up spot this week for securing a summary judgment win for the National Association of Realtors in a high-stakes antitrust case accusing the association of conspiring to prevent listings from real estate startup REX from showing up on Zillow. REX had sought upwards of $1 billion from NAR, but Senior U.S. District Judge Thomas Zilly in Seattle this week found that the optional NAR policy cited by REX didn't support the "existence of an alleged agreement" with Zillow, and dismissed NAR from the case outright.
Shout out to lawyers at Baker Botts and Gibbs & Bruns who got appellate affirmance of a trade secrets trial win for off-shore drilling equipment maker Dril-Quip Inc. and Richard Murphy, an employee who joined from rival FMC Technologies Inc. FMC alleged that Murphy conspired with Dril-Quip to steal trade secrets to develop its VXTe subsea tree system. But in a 60-page unanimous opinion last week, the First Court of Appeals in Houston, Texas found the trial evidence supported the jury's finding that FMC didn't have a trade secret that qualified for protection. The Baker Botts team representing Dril-Quip included partners Macey Reasoner Stokes, Paul Morico, Danny David, Liz Flannery, David Wille, Amy Hefley, Susan Kennedy, Thomas Phillips, and associates Travis Gray, Elisabeth Butler, Amy Bergeron and Nischay Bhan. Murphy was represented by Barrett Reasoner, Brice Wilkinson, Ross MacDonald, Conor McEvily and Shannon Smith of Gibbs & Bruns.
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Law Firms Mentioned
- Paul Hastings
- Grant & Eisenhofer
- Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan
- Gibbs & Bruns
- Covington & Burling
- Cooley
- Barroway Topaz Kessler
- Mayer Brown
- Boies Schiller Flexner
- Baker Botts
- Davis Polk & Wardwell
- Bernstein Litowitz Berger
- Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell LLP
- Hunton Andrews Kurth
- Latham & Watkins
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Who Got The Work
Michael G. Bongiorno, Andrew Scott Dulberg and Elizabeth E. Driscoll from Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dorr have stepped in to represent Symbotic Inc., an A.I.-enabled technology platform that focuses on increasing supply chain efficiency, and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The case, filed Oct. 2 in Massachusetts District Court by the Brown Law Firm on behalf of Stephen Austen, accuses certain officers and directors of misleading investors in regard to Symbotic's potential for margin growth by failing to disclose that the company was not equipped to timely deploy its systems or manage expenses through project delays. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Nathaniel M. Gorton, is 1:24-cv-12522, Austen v. Cohen et al.
Who Got The Work
Edmund Polubinski and Marie Killmond of Davis Polk & Wardwell have entered appearances for data platform software development company MongoDB and other defendants in a pending shareholder derivative lawsuit. The action, filed Oct. 7 in New York Southern District Court by the Brown Law Firm, accuses the company's directors and/or officers of falsely expressing confidence in the company’s restructuring of its sales incentive plan and downplaying the severity of decreases in its upfront commitments. The case is 1:24-cv-07594, Roy v. Ittycheria et al.
Who Got The Work
Amy O. Bruchs and Kurt F. Ellison of Michael Best & Friedrich have entered appearances for Epic Systems Corp. in a pending employment discrimination lawsuit. The suit was filed Sept. 7 in Wisconsin Western District Court by Levine Eisberner LLC and Siri & Glimstad on behalf of a project manager who claims that he was wrongfully terminated after applying for a religious exemption to the defendant's COVID-19 vaccine mandate. The case, assigned to U.S. Magistrate Judge Anita Marie Boor, is 3:24-cv-00630, Secker, Nathan v. Epic Systems Corporation.
Who Got The Work
David X. Sullivan, Thomas J. Finn and Gregory A. Hall from McCarter & English have entered appearances for Sunrun Installation Services in a pending civil rights lawsuit. The complaint was filed Sept. 4 in Connecticut District Court by attorney Robert M. Berke on behalf of former employee George Edward Steins, who was arrested and charged with employing an unregistered home improvement salesperson. The complaint alleges that had Sunrun informed the Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection that the plaintiff's employment had ended in 2017 and that he no longer held Sunrun's home improvement contractor license, he would not have been hit with charges, which were dismissed in May 2024. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Jeffrey A. Meyer, is 3:24-cv-01423, Steins v. Sunrun, Inc. et al.
Who Got The Work
Greenberg Traurig shareholder Joshua L. Raskin has entered an appearance for boohoo.com UK Ltd. in a pending patent infringement lawsuit. The suit, filed Sept. 3 in Texas Eastern District Court by Rozier Hardt McDonough on behalf of Alto Dynamics, asserts five patents related to an online shopping platform. The case, assigned to U.S. District Judge Rodney Gilstrap, is 2:24-cv-00719, Alto Dynamics, LLC v. boohoo.com UK Limited.
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