Broker-Dealer Litigation and Arbitration

Well-Recognized Leaders in the Field

Broker-dealer litigation and arbitration has been a cornerstone of our practice for more than three decades.
We have represented virtually every major brokerage house in regulatory, litigation and arbitration matters.
Our firm has successfully handled hundreds of cases through trial before arbitration panels in more than thirty different states.
Our lawyers are routinely recognized as among the top tier of practitioners who focus on the particular needs of broker-dealer clients.
We work in partnership with in-house legal teams and focus our efforts on meeting our clients’ long-term needs and objectives.

Experience and Expertise in Complex Securities Matters

Broker-dealer matters involve complex and unique issues, which require specialized expertise and deep familiarity with industry standards and practices. Our firm has been fully involved in the issues for decades and remains committed to staying on the cutting edge of legal and compliance issues in this rapidly evolving business. We are proud of our reputation for high quality and responsive service, which causes us to be considered among a select group of the most widely-respected law firms serving the financial services industry. We recognize that every litigation or arbitration case can have collateral consequences for the respondent firm and must be managed in a consistent and coordinated manner with the firm's other potential sources of exposure.

Throughout the past three decades, we have been involved as counsel for the major wire houses in virtually every significant aspect of securities litigation from early insider trading, suitability and churning cases to more recent matters involving complex derivative transactions and auction rate securities. We often have served as National counsel for large financial institutions to efficiently handle large numbers of related cases that may be pending in courts or before arbitration panels across the country. Recently, we served among a handful of counsel selected as lead trial attorneys for thousands of arbitrations arising from billions of dollars in research-related claims. We strive to be the first counsel of choice for sophisticated clients who face high stakes litigation involving complex securities matters.

Our broad experience and expertise in securities matters has led us to act as lead counsel for clients seeking a coordinated approach to defending:

Large customer arbitration claims before FINRA and its predecessor entities;
Court cases involving challenges to or enforcement of arbitration agreements;
Bankruptcy proceedings arising in connection with securities accounts or claims;
Internal investigations in connection with large-scale sales practice issues or firm procedures;
Employment-related disputes and claims brought by former agents or employees of a firm;
Regulatory investigations and proceedings – including successful settlements and trials on the merits of regulatory complaints.

Coordinated Defense of High Stakes Securities Litigation

Client: One of the largest financial institutions in the world.
Challenge: Arbitration and regulatory complaints alleging broad-based sales practice and research violations involving employee stock plan of a large technology company with more than 40,000 individual participants.
Our Role: Constructing and implementing a coordinated strategy for the simultaneous defense of major regulatory actions and hundreds of arbitration claims brought across the country by individual brokerage firm customers.
Outcome: Prompt resolutions, on favorable terms, of all regulatory inquiries and customer complaints, including full defense verdicts in several cases tried to conclusion before industry arbitration panels. These results helped to limit the firm's potential exposure to only a small fraction of the plan participants.
Our Approach: There were several keys to our successful handling of these matters, including: 1) our immediate responsiveness to understand and contain the varied sources of potential exposure; 2) our internal capacity to quickly control, review and assimilate large volumes of important data crucial to the defense of the cases; 3) our cooperation and coordination with in-house and other outside counsel for the firm, which included providing key information and analyses to enhance the effectiveness of other lawyers representing our client; and 4) our strong reputation and credibility with regulators, which allowed us to address their inquiries in an expeditious and favorable manner.

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Broker-Dealer Litigation and Arbitration

Well-Recognized Leaders in the Field

Experience and Expertise in Complex Securities Matters

Coordinated Defense of High Stakes Securities Litigation

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