Securities Litigation

Our securities litigators prosecute and defend securities actions of all sorts, including state “blue sky” law claims, Section 10(b), Rule 10b-5, and other federal claims, class and non-class actions, and derivative actions. We have also successfully represented hedge funds and other financial institutions in litigation against many of the world’s largest investment and commercial banks.

Over the past several years, our attorneys have pursued successful securities actions against many of the world’s largest investment and commercial banks on behalf of leading hedge funds and institutional investors, including Aegon, AIG, Allstate, John Hancock, Oaktree Capital, PIMCO, Principal, and Prudential, among others. In these cutting-edge actions, we demonstrated to institutional investors the value of pursuing actions separate from related class actions to maximize recoveries. Our firm is also one of only a few to successfully secure a jury verdict for securities fraud based on an investment fund’s secondary-market securities purchases after an issuer announced poor financial results.

McKool Smith attorneys have extensive experience litigating claims involving RMBS, CMBS and other structured products—including claims for breach of representation and warranty, common-law fraud and violation of state and federal securities laws.  Indeed, even before the financial crisis, we were successfully trying “put-back” cases on behalf of investors and securitization trustees.  After the financial crisis, McKool Smith formed a nationwide mortgage-backed securities task force consisting of attorneys and financial consultants in New York, Dallas, Houston and Los Angeles to harness this experience and pursue recoveries for investors.  Since then, our litigators have assessed, developed and prosecuted claims on behalf of some of the largest RMBS investors in the world, including Freddie Mac, AIG, and numerous hedge funds.