Securities Enforcement & Litigation
Akin’s securities enforcement and litigation lawyers litigate high-stakes, high-visibility matters that place a premium on skilled advocacy. We are equipped to face all types of securities claims—from fraud in sale of securities, aggressive projections, stock drop allegations, false guidance and missed forecasts to accounting fraud, misleading statements and restatements, to commodity manipulation. We have successfully navigated numerous cases involving sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5.
National Team of Seasoned Securities Litigators
Our securities enforcement and litigation practice comprises a national team of experienced lawyers who have achieved excellent results in helping defend clients in litigation stemming from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), U.K. Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), self-regulatory organizations such as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) and state authorities, often in parallel with civil securities litigation.
Collectively, our securities litigators have decades of practical, hands-on experience in private practice and as government lawyers for the SEC and U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ), including from U.S. Attorneys' offices around the country.
We have represented scores of public companies and their officers and directors, as well as many of the country’s largest and most sophisticated hedge funds and private equity funds, broker-dealers, investment banks and public accounting firms.
Full Suite of Services
Our lawyers have represented clients in securities class actions and derivative suits arising from:
- Mergers and acquisitions (M&A)
- Breach of fiduciary duties
- Restatements and financial fraud
- Excessive officer compensation
- Related party transactions
- Mismanagement and misappropriation of corporate opportunities
- Extraordinary corporate transactions
- Whistleblower claims
- Corporate waste
- Proxy violations
- Stock option plan violations
- Fiduciary litigation in bankruptcy adversary proceedings.
We’ve also conducted a number of sensitive and high-pressure internal investigations for companies, audit committees and special committees of boards, and represented senior officers and directors under investigation.
Working closely with in-house legal and management teams, we identify sound strategies at the outset of a securities lawsuit or investigation with the goal of a swift and favorable resolution. Our lawyers have a long history of successfully litigating securities class actions against aggressive plaintiffs’ firms that typically come into play in these cases in key jurisdictions.
Services In-depth
Class Actions
Our team has defended public companies in securities class actions involving all manner of claims, from accounting fraud and restatements to aggressive projections and missed forecasts.
M&A Litigation
Whether we are representing companies, officers, directors or special committees, we are familiar with the available options for resisting efforts to sidetrack a major transaction. Just as important, we evaluate potential strategies, relationships and credibility with regulators necessary to achieve our clients’ objectives.
SEC and Other Regulatory Investigations and Enforcement Actions
We regularly handle matters arising from alleged insider trading, market manipulation, accounting improprieties, disclosure issues and SEC reporting, violations of the Investment Disclosures Act, and market abuse under U.K. law.
Internal Investigations and Special Representations
Our lawyers conduct sensitive and high-stakes internal investigations on behalf of audit or special committees of boards. We also represent senior officers and directors who are the subjects of such investigations.
Investment Product Litigation
We bring case-specific experience to the issues at hand, whether the claims involve government enforcement of established rules in new ways or broad new rules.
Avoiding Litigation Risks
Every public company and soon-to-be-public company can benefit from a review of its disclosure and corporate governance practices. We offer a litigation risk audit that provides a comprehensive, tailored examination of a company’s securities litigation risk.
Representative Matters
- Achieved significant victory on behalf of Eastman Kodak Company in multiple shareholder derivative and purported class actions. The court granted in full Kodak’s and the individual defendants’ joint motion to dismiss the consolidated putative securities class actions, without leave for plaintiffs to replead.
- Obtained a complete dismissal of a securities class action in the Northern District of Texas against a special retailer and wholesale distributor of retail products and its current and former officers and directors. The plaintiff alleged the retailer made materially false or misleading statements, and failed to disclose material adverse facts about the business by improperly valuing inventory and misstating financial results. Following the filing of dispositive motions and opposition of the lead plaintiff and class certification, the court ruled against the plaintiff.
- Secured the first-ever deferred prosecution agreement with the SEC in an insider trading investigation.
- Served as counsel to the officers and directors of an energy company in securities derivative claims stemming from the company’s bankruptcy proceedings in the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Southern District of Texas. The trustee in the bankruptcy action and two other shareholders filed claims for wrongful acts, negligence and breach of fiduciary duty, among others. All the plaintiffs have voluntarily dismissed their action with the exception of one, with whom we negotiated a highly favorable settlement.
- Represented a high frequency trading firm in investigations by the DOJ, CFTC and CME into an alleged scheme to manipulate the futures markets through spoofing.
- Obtained a favorable settlement for a real estate advisory firm and several of its officers in a purported class action based on violations of the Texas Securities Act and other Texas law. The plaintiffs claimed to represent a class of investors who were defrauded by real estate investment trusts and their principals and affiliates in a multimillion-dollar Ponzi scheme orchestrated by a group of defendants including, among dozens of others, our clients.
- Advised hedge funds and their employees in multiple investigations by the SEC, DOJ and U.S. Congress into issues related to the application of insider trading rules to the political intelligence industry under the Stop Trading on Congressional Knowledge (STOCK) Act.
- Defended a multibillion-dollar hedge fund and its founder in connection with a significant insider dealing investigation by the FSA that raised novel issues related to distinctions between U.S. and UK securities laws.
