Latham Again Named Securities Group of the Year
For the second year running, Latham has been named a Securities Group of the Year by Law360 for beating “multiple big-ticket securities actions against companies” like Chipotle Mexican Grill, Funko, Ligand Pharmaceuticals, and General Electric, and for helping “pave the way for new law on forum selection provisions in initial public offering documents.”
In a feature story, Securities Litigation & Professional Liability Practice Global Chair Andrew Clubok noted that the practice has been combating a recent explosion in securities suits and joked that the group is “constantly trying to put ourselves out of business” by continuing to win precedent-setting victories.
Law360 highlighted Latham’s role paving the way for new law concerning how corporations can use forum selection provisions in their governing documents to sidestep the Supreme Court’s Cyan decision which held that the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act did not strip state courts of jurisdiction to adjudicate class actions alleging only 1933 Securities Act violations. Noting Latham’s collaboration across practices, Law360 described the firm’s victory for Restoration Robotics in which Brian Cuneo, Global Chair of Latham's Healthcare & Life Sciences Industry Group and Co-Chair of the firm's Bay Area Corporate Department, laid the groundwork for Latham’s litigation win by advising the company to include a forum provision in its public offering documents, which was untested in the courts at the time. This advice allowed Latham’s securities litigators to be the first to win a case in California enforcing such a provision in a matter filed against Restoration Robotics after its IPO. Bay Area partner Hilary Mattis said, “the win highlights how [Latham’s] litigation and corporate partners work together to provide stellar outcomes for our clients.”
Latham also landed a post-Cyan win for Funko in Washington state court, in which New York partner Kevin McDonough said, “Looking back on it, we think the work provides a nice roadmap for successfully defeating federal securities act cases in state court, because we focused on telling the story of the case and not making it too technical.”
The firm’s Securities Litigation & Professional Liability Practice, also led by Co-Chairs Blair Connelly and Matthew Rawlinson, has achieved outstanding results for clients in some of the most high-profile actions filed since passage of the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act. The more than 80 lawyers in this practice — including many of the profession’s most experienced trial lawyers — work in coordination with the firm’s corporate transactional practice. Considered a “go to” law firm for all of the Big 4 accounting firms, Latham represents a collection of Fortune 500 companies and Wall Street financial institutions.