For many, Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP is ‘currently the best plaintiffs’ side firm doing corporate litigation in the United States‘. Head of corporate governance and shareholder rights Jeroen van Kwawegen, and head of the Delaware office Greg Varallo (who is ‘unmatched in his experience, depth of knowledge and strategic thinking‘) lead the practice, which ‘routinely out-litigates first-class defense side firms‘. The firm continues handle litigation in the wake of the biggest deals, including a $400m post-trial opinion in a challenge to Columbia Pipeline’s $13bn merger with TransCanada, and a major win at trial for shareholders of Mindbody confirming legal principles regarding the fiduciary duties that directors and senior executives of public companies owe to their stockholders during a company sale. Up-and-coming partner Edward Timlin in New York has taken on settlement responsibilities for the work handled by veteran partner Mark Lebovitch, who retired from the law in 2023. Emerging talents at senior counsel level Andrew Blumberg in Delaware and the ‘highly intelligent and thoughtful‘ Thomas James in New York are key to the firm’s prosecution work in corporate governance and fiduciary duty cases. Christopher Orrico has left for Grant & Eisenhofer P.A..

With offices in Radnor, Pennsylvania and San Francisco, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP is one of the largest and most successful plaintiff-side shareholder litigation firms. It acts on behalf of states attorneys’ general offices and public and private entities, among them municipalities, state agencies, mutual fund managers, sovereign wealth funds, and multi-employer welfare funds. The corporate governance and M&A department handles matters in state and federal courts across the country, as well as being highly active in Delaware. Lee Rudy, Daniel Albert and Eric Zagar, who are all based in the Radnor office, are the key partners. Rudy, who practices in the area of corporate governance litigation with a focus on transactional and derivative cases, and Albert, who has a strong track record in recovering substantial damages for breaches of fiduciary duties, are preparing for a trial arising from a class action related to Discovery, Inc.’s 2022 acquisition of AT&T. Newly promoted partner Grant Goodhart also plays a key role in that matter. Darren Check, who manages the firm’s portfolio monitoring and claims filing service, SecuritiesTracker, also stands out for his role in key matters.

Grant & Eisenhofer P.A. is ‘fearless when it comes to litigating cases to trial‘, and practice heads Jay Eisenhofer in New York and Delaware-based partners Michael Barry and Christine Mackintosh are ‘very experienced and capable‘. The firm has a long-standing track record of success in high-value and cutting-edge matters, among them SPAC-related cases. Indeed, clients remark that ‘these lawyers have made waves in the SPAC litigation space, including being the first to flag a very nasty but hard to recognize disclosure defect common to many de-SPAC deals‘. Barry is recently defeated motions to dismiss brought by investors in two SPACs – Delman v. GigAcquisitions3 LLC and Laidlaw v. GigAcquisitions2 LLC. Barry and Mackintosh also brought a stockholder class action challenging the $900m merger between MSG Entertainment Corp. and MSG Networks Inc., ultimately securing a $48.5m settlement. Up-and-coming Wilmington-based partner Christopher Orrico, who is ‘exceptional‘ in corporate governance and securities litigation, joined from Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP. He has extensive experience in prosecuting breach of fiduciary duty claims in the Delaware Court of Chancery and in state and federal courts across the country.

Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP‘s Delaware office is home to ‘a first-rate stockholder litigation practice‘ and clients note that the lawyers led by the highly esteemed Ned Weinberger ‘identify good cases, discover the facts, and know the law as well as anyone on either side of the stockholder litigation bar‘. Weinberger, up-and-coming partner Mark Richardson, and newly promoted Brendan Sullivan are ‘extremely hardworking and knowledgeable, have good judgement and are tremendous oral advocates‘. All three, along with Michael Wagner recently served as co-lead counsel in a consolidated class action brought by investors in Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores challenging the take-private of the company by controlling stockholders, principally Edward S. Lampert. The firm’s most recent flagship result for was the award of a $1bn as settlement from Dell in a class action arising from a $23.9bn transaction involving the conversion of Dell Class V Common Stock. Led by Weinberger, plaintiffs alleged that Dell’s controlling stockholders– Michael Dell and Silver Lake Group – breached their fiduciary duties and expropriated billions of dollars in value from Class V stockholders.

Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is widely regarded as one of the leading firms handling the representation of shareholders in corporate takeover and shareholder derivative litigation. In 2023, the firm opened an office in Wilmington to cement the presence of its shareholder derivative and corporate governance practice in high-stakes corporate litigation. Practice heads Randall Baron in San Diego and Christopher Lyons in Nashville, who also works extensively in Wilmington, are the key practitioners. They recently represented shareholders in a challenge to the 2018 sale of Bioverativ, Inc. to Sanofi S.A. for $11.6bn, surviving motions to dismiss and ultimately securing a partial settlement of $84m. Shawn Williams in San Francisco, San Diego-based Travis Downs and New York partners Chad Johnson and Noam Mandel in New York also play key roles in the practice.

Brown Rudnick LLP has a small but active M&A and private equity litigation practice that handles cases in federal and state courts across the country, including the Delaware Court of Chancery and in the Southern District of New York. It is also frequently involved in matters concerning representations and warranties insurance in private M&A transactions, which sees it handle proceedings in both domestic and foreign arbitral forums. Dylan Kletter, who works from both New York and Hartford, co-leads the practice with Hartford-based Mark Baldwin. They handle a broad range of matters, among them fraud claims, earnout disputes, and pre- and post-closing litigation. Kletter recently acted for Prospect Medical in a dispute related to its $180m acquisition of a non-profit hospital network in Connecticut.