Q: What are some of the department’s most satisfying successes of the past year and why?
Latham’s New York Securities Litigation powerhouse resolves market-defining securities disputes that set federal and state precedents and showcase our innovative litigation strategies, including:
- A complete trial victory in a derivative lawsuit on behalf of Oracle’s Larry Ellison and Safra Catz in one of the largest acquisitions— $9.4 billion— to face a stockholder challenge through trial in the Delaware Court of Chancery;
- Affirming a rare complete defense verdict for Cantor Fitzgerald in the Delaware Court of Chancery under Delaware’s exacting entire fairness standard;
- Winning a jury trial on behalf of Toptal, with a unanimous jury awarding our client more than $16 million (including punitive damages) and defeating counterclaims of over $200 million;
- A complete victory for Telefónica in a New York State Supreme Court breach of contract dispute against a counterparty that improperly refused to close a half-billion dollar deal;
- A Second Circuit federal securities class action victory for Philip Morris International, addressing two issues of first impression regarding opinion liability under securities laws;
- A dismissal from the bench for Meta in one of the largest securities class actions ever filed, which plaintiffs claimed was “the largest single-day drop in value of a U.S. Company in history”;
- A complete dismissal for X (formerly Twitter) when a federal court judge dismissed, with prejudice, a proposed stock-drop class action over alleged cybersecurity, data privacy, and user-metric misrepresentations; and
- Winning a $700 million M&A dispute in the Southern District of New York, securing Origis USA’s full dismissal from a fraud and breach of contract case.