For persuading the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to reverse the certification of a class of Goldman Sachs shareholders claiming $13 billion in losses, S&C won the Financial Times’ top award for “Innovative Lawyers in Dispute Resolution” at the publication’s Innovative Lawyers North America Awards.
The ruling ended 13 years of litigation and marked just the second time that the Second Circuit has granted three discretionary Rule 23(f) appeals. The decision also established critical precedent for securities class actions by adding important guardrails to the increasingly popular “inflation-maintenance” theory of securities fraud, which may help curb event-driven securities litigation. Prior to the Second Circuit’s ruling, S&C won a favorable ruling for Goldman from the U.S. Supreme Court.
The team included Robert Giuffra Jr., David Rein, Benjamin Walker, Julia Malkina and Morgan Ratner.