Cohen Milstein

Julie Goldsmith Reiser joined Cohen Milstein in 1999.  Ms. Reiser is a member of the Securities Fraud/Investor Protection practice group.  She has extensive experience with motion practice, developing and implementing discovery strategies, depositions, expert discovery and case resolution. Ms. Reiser focuses much of her practice on enforcement of the federal securities laws on behalf of sophisticated domestic and international institutional investors.  She has represented these investors in class action and individual “opt-out” actions as well as in transaction-related litigation in Delaware Chancery Court.

Ms. Reiser currently works on several securities fraud actions seeking to return assets lost due to corporate fraud.  She represents the New York State Common Retirement Fund in a securities class action against BP Plc and certain of its former officers and directors.  She also represents Iowa, Oregon and Orange County public retirement systems in a class action litigation against Countrywide related to its issuance of mortgage-backed securities. Ms. Reiser acted as co-lead counsel representing investors in the largest fraud in European corporate history, In re Parmalat Sec. Litig. (S.D.N.Y.).  She was co-lead counsel in In re SCOR Holding (Switzerland) Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.) and was a member of the team representing Pacific Life Insurance Company in an opt-out action against WorldCom.

In the employment area, Ms. Reiser was a member of the legal team working on Dukes v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (N.D. Cal.), representing current and former female employees of Wal-Mart with complaints of discrimination in pay and promotion.  Ms. Reiser also represented and settled claims on behalf of African American employees who claimed that Kroger discriminated against them in pay and promotions in Wade v. Kroger (W.D. Ky.).  She was involved in the litigation and successful settlement of Beck v. The Boeing Co. (W. D. Wash.), which alleged sex discrimination in compensation and promotions and was resolved for $72.5 million.

Ms. Reiser is the author of “Why Courts Should Favor Certification of MBS Actions,” ABA Securities Litigation Journal, Volume 22, Number 1, Fall 2011, and the co-author of “The Misapplication of American Pipe Tolling Principles,” ABA Securities Litigation Journal, Volume 21, Number 2, Winter 2011.  She also co-authored Opt-Outs: Making Private Enforcement of the Securities Laws Even Better, featured in the Winter/Spring 2008 edition of the ABA's Class Action and Derivative Suit Committee Newsletter and Companies in the Cross Hairs: When Plaintiffs Lawyers Choose Their Targets, They Look for These Employment Practices, The Legal Times, February 21, 2005.  In 1999, she co-authored Antitrust Introduction for the General Practitioner, a chapter in the Washington Lawyer’s Practice Manual.

Ms. Reiser was recognized in 2013 as a Washington, D.C. “Super Lawyer”, and in 2012, she was selected as a "Leading Plaintiffs Star in the District of Columbia" by Benchmark: Litigation, the Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys.

Ms. Reiser was President of the Board of Directors of Seattle Works and on the Executive Committee for the Board of Directors of the Eastside Domestic Violence Program.  She also served a term as a Trustee for the Pacific Northwest Ballet.  Ms. Reiser worked as a Legal Intern for U.S. Senator Patty Murray.

Ms. Reiser graduated from Vassar College (B.A. with honors) and the University of Virginia School of Law (J.D.).  

Ms. Reiser is admitted to practice in Washington State and the District of Columbia.