The American Lawyer’s Litigation Daily named S&C Co-Chair Robert Giuffra Jr. a “Litigator of the Week” for a “blockbuster” victory for Goldman Sachs in one of the most closely watched securities cases in recent years. On August 10, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit reversed the certification of a class of Goldman Sachs shareholders seeking $13 billion and instructed the district court to decertify the class. The victory capped 13 years of litigation, including a favorable ruling for Goldman Sachs from the U.S. Supreme Court and three appeals of a grant of class certification. In his Q&A with the Litigation Daily, Bob called the result “a testament to Goldman’s perseverance” and “an incredible team effort.”
The S&C team also included David Rein, Richard Klapper, Benjamin Walker, Julia Malkina and Morgan Ratner. This marks the eighth time that Bob has been selected as a “Litigator of the Week.”
The case, Arkansas Teachers Retirement System v. Goldman Sachs, dates back to the 2008 financial crisis and alleged conflicts of interests in Goldman Sachs investment vehicles relating to subprime mortgages. Plaintiffs claimed that those alleged conflicts contradicted generic statements made by Goldman Sachs about its corporate principles and conflicts management procedures, which had supposedly inflated the price of Goldman Sachs stock. The Second Circuit expressed “the firm conviction that there is an insufficient link between [Goldman Sachs’s] corrective disclosures and the alleged misrepresentations.”
Bob noted that the Second Circuit’s decision adds important guardrails to the increasingly used “inflation-maintenance” theory of securities fraud, which the plaintiffs bar often cites when it sues a company after disruptive events, such as an environmental disaster, data privacy breach, employment scandal or government investigation. Bob said, “This decision sends the strong message that such events cannot so easily be enough for a securities class action.”
Read: “Litigators of the Week: A Resounding Class Certification Win for Goldman Sachs at the 2nd Circuit”