securities & derivatives litigation

The firm has defended many individual and class claims of alleged securities fraud. In addition, BLF lawyers have represented brokers and individual investors in courts and before arbitrators.

Our representative engagements in this area include:

• Representing fourteen 401(k) plans in a case against a securities firm, whose registered agent had pleaded guilty to fraud and then filed for bankruptcy. The securities firm counterclaimed against BLF’s clients for contribution and other relief, but these counterclaims were dismissed by the court under ERISA, and BLF negotiated a favorable settlement of its clients’ claims.
• Representing sixteen investors who had been victimized in a Ponzi scheme run by their investment broker. After a multi-week consolidated arbitration proceedings, BLF obtained a verdict against the brokerage firms that had employed the miscreant broker, holding them jointly and severally liable for plaintiffs’ losses.
• Representing an investor group comprised of attorneys from one of the country’s largest law firms in a lawsuit against a real estate company and its principals. BLF clients asserted federal securities and RICO claims against the defendants. The case was tried before a jury. At the end of the plaintiffs’ case, defendants moved to dismiss, but the court ruled that plaintiffs presented a prima facie case under both statutes and denied the motion. The case was then settled favorably to BLF’s clients.
• Obtaining a significant recovery from the Securities Investor Protection Corporation for a BLF client who had been defrauded by Bernard Madoff.

Representative cases:

Merger of Harleysville Mutual/Nationwide Mutual (Phila. Cty. Common Pleas 2012). BLF represented an independent Special Litigation Committee of the Board of Directors of Harleysville Mutual, in connection with derivative lawsuits arising out of the proposed merger. ... Read More

401K Plans v. AIG (M.D. Tenn. 2011). BLF obtained a favorable settlement for our clients, fourteen 401(k) Plans, in a case against the securities firm whose registered agent pleaded guilty to fraud and then filed bankruptcy. ... Read More

Cymrot v. Smith Barney (11th Cir. 1999). BLF obtained summary judgment in favor of our client, a real estate developer, in this securities fraud class action arising out of a project home financed by industrial development bonds. ... Read More