Following S&C’s victory on behalf of client UBS before the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals last week, S&C litigation partner
Robert Giuffra was featured by
The AmLaw Litigation Daily. The article, titled “
Sullivan & Cromwell’s Giuffra Seals the Deal on Appeal,” explores the 17-year path that Bob, together with fellow S&C litigators
Brendan Cullen and
William Wagener, took to a successful win for UBS in the last major case arising out of the 2001 bankruptcy of Enron, once the world’s largest energy trading company.
In 2002, Enron stockholders, bondholders and Enron employees who received stock options sued UBS for securities fraud. While other banks elected to settle, UBS fought this suit for years. In 2017, the District Court dismissed the bondholders action – a victory for which
The American Lawyer named
Bob and Brendan “Litigators of the Week.” Last week, the United States Court of Appeals affirmed the dismissal of the action.
The AmLaw Litigation Daily said of the ruling, “It’s one of those decisions that’s as notable for what it didn’t do as for what it did,” noting that had the court ruled the other way, financial services firms would have found themselves burdened with unprecedented new duties and facing the risk of massive liability over the grant of stock options.