NEWARK, NJ — McKool Smith, McKool Smith, along with Stone & Magnanini LLP, Whistleblower Law Collaborative, Whistleblower Partners LLP, and Motley Rice secured a unanimous victory before the New Jersey Supreme Court on behalf of Edelweiss Fund LLC in its New Jersey False Claims Act suit against JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, and Morgan Stanley.
The Court, in a decision authored by Justice Pierre-Louis, reversed the Appellate Division and held that a 2023 amendment to the New Jersey False Claims Act allowing the Attorney General to oppose the public disclosure bar without formally intervening is procedural in nature and took effect immediately. The ruling confirms that the Attorney General’s notice of opposition, filed after the amendment’s effective date, properly blocked dismissal of the case on public disclosure grounds, allowing Edelweiss’s suit alleged fraud in the resetting of Variable Rate Demand Obligation interest rates to proceed.
McKool Smith Principal Dan Levy was the principal author of the certification petition and merits brief before the New Jersey Supreme Court.
The case: State ex rel. Edelweiss Fund, LLC v. JPMorgan Chase & Co., No. A-60-24 (090285) (N.J. July 16, 2026).
With more than 130 trial lawyers across offices in Austin, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, Marshall, New York, and Washington, D.C., McKool Smith has established a reputation as one of America’s leading trial firms. The firm has secured 19 nine-figure jury verdicts and 16 eight-figure jury verdicts, obtaining more VerdictSearch and The National Law Journal “Top 100 Verdicts” than any other law firm. McKool Smith represents clients in complex commercial litigation, intellectual property, bankruptcy, insurance recovery, and white-collar defense matters.
