Securities Litigation

Cohen & Grigsby’s Securities Litigation Practice concentrates in litigation involving corporate finance and securities related matters.  Attorneys from the Firm’s Litigation Group have defended a wide variety of cases for issuers and underwriters of publicly-traded securities, brokerage firms, financial institutions and accounting firms.  We have defended various types of “targets” – accountants, directors, officers, financial institutions, and public corporations – who are regularly sued in class action and derivative lawsuits in federal and state courts.  We have defended these claims in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, Massachusetts, North Carolina, Georgia, Michigan, Utah, California and other jurisdictions.  

• Claims against issuers, underwriters and accounting firms involving the purchase and sale of securities pursuant to registration statements and prospectuses, including the defense of class action and derivative lawsuits.
• Claims against broker-dealers by customers alleging violations of securities laws, unauthorized trading and other conduct, including those brought in state or federal court or in arbitration.
• Claims against broker-dealers and registered representatives by the securities industry’s self-regulatory organizations (such as the CBOE, NASD and NYSE) involving proposed disciplinary action for alleged violations of applicable rules.
• Claims against corporations by shareholders, including former high-ranking management employees, concerning the parties’ respective buy-sell obligations.
• Claims against accounting firms for professional negligence in the auditing of financial statements and the performance of other accounting services.
• Claims against financial institutions alleging violations of consumer protection and similar laws arising out of the institution’s banking practices.
• Claims alleging violations of federal and state securities laws, including alleged Racketeering Influenced Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) violations.
• Representation of financial intermediaries which have acted as financing sources for mergers and acquisitions in connection with lawsuits arising out of various circumstances.
• Representation of officers, directors and others in Securities and Exchange Commission investigations.

• Successfully defending Grant Thornton LLP, an international accounting firm, in a $30 million securities class action suit brought against the accounting firm and its client, Digitran Systems, Inc.  The case, McEwen v. Digitran Systems, Inc., et al., was cited by The National Law Journal as one of the biggest defense wins in civil jury trials in the United States for 1996.
• Successfully defended Grant Thornton LLP in a $2.1 billion professional negligence suit brought by it client, Carnegie International Corporation, in a multi-week bench trial in state court in Maryland.
• Successfully defended Grant Thornton LLP in a $95 million professional negligence suit brought by its client, Pilot Industries, in a bench trial in state court in Michigan.
• Successfully defended Grant Thornton LLP in a multi-million dollar suit brought by the bankruptcy trustee of Jack Greenberg, Inc. in federal court in Philadelphia (settled following bench trial).
• Successfully defended a class of underwriters in a Section 11 claim involving allegations of material misrepresentations contained in a multi-million dollar prospectus offering.