Richard E. Lorant, Director of Institutional Client Relations at Cohen Milstein, works primarily with the Securities Litigation & Investor Protection attorneys.
Richard has spent the last two decades developing and maintaining lasting, mutually productive connections with public employee retirement systems and other institutional investors. He represents the firm in the public fund community and acts as a liaison to help deliver responsive and client-centric service. By doing so, he supports the firm’s mission to help shareholders recover money lost due to corporate wrongdoing in the United States and abroad. He also connects clients with lawyers in the firm’s Antitrust and Ethics & Fiduciary Counsel practices.
A former journalist, Richard works with the firm’s attorneys to identify and keep clients apprised of legal and regulatory developments that may impact their funds and fund management. He is a regular contributor to the Shareholder Advocate, Cohen Milstein’s quarterly newsletter.
A longtime member of organizations devoted to investor education and advocacy, and a former member of the National Association of State Treasurers Corporate Affiliate Advisory Board, Richard regularly makes presentations to pension boards and investor groups, most recently moderating panels at meetings of the Michigan Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems and the National Council on Teacher Retirement. He acts as an honest broker for trustees and staff looking to develop best practices to protect their fund assets, including monitoring strategies to identify new securities class actions that may impact their funds.
Richard joined Cohen Milstein in 2015, having served for more than a decade as the director of marketing and client relations at a nationally recognized plaintiffs’ law firm, where he was instrumental in creating a client development program that brought in over 100 public pension fund clients.
Before turning to legal marketing, Richard was an account executive for a public relations firm specializing in financial services clients. Prior to that, he spent 15 years as a news reporter and editor, including more than a decade with The Associated Press. He spent eight years in Spain, five as an AP foreign correspondent in Madrid, and earned the Associated Press Managing Editors award in 1994.
Richard speaks fluent Spanish and has a working knowledge of Italian and French.
- Director of Marketing & Client Relations, Boston, MA, law firm, 2000-2015
- Senior Vice President, The Hubbell Group, 1998-2000
- Reporter, The Associated Press, 1987-1998
- Moderator, Panel on Changes to U.S. Regulatory, Legislative and Legal Landscape, Michigan Association of Public Employee Retirement Systems, 2017
- Moderator, Panel on U.S. Litigation Trends, International Financial Litigation Network, 2015
- Moderator, Legal Officers Panel, National Council on Teacher Retirement, 2014
- Speaker, Florida Public Pension Trustee Association, 2014-2015
- Oberlin College, B.A., 1982
February 16, 2024
Judge Certifies Class in Pluralsight Securities Litigation
A federal judge in Utah has certified a class of Pluralsight, Inc. investors seeking damages after Pluralsight stock dropped 40% when executives allegedly admitted they had exaggerated the size of the sales force key to the company’s continued growth.
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Winter 2024
January 30, 2024
Shareholder Advocate Winter 2024 Issue Released
Read the Winter 2024 edition of the Shareholder Advocate, our securities litigation and investor protection newsletter.
In the News | Cohen Milstein
October 25, 2023
Report: Shareholder Suits Abroad Gravitate Toward Low-Risk Countries with Strong Track Records
Even as avenues for consumers to pursue group litigation abroad expand, activity in shareholder lawsuits outside the United States has grown more narrowly focused on jurisdictions with lower adverse risks and better histories of recovery, according to recent publications by service providers. While the number of non-US shareholder actions filed in the first half of […]
Articles
October 25, 2023
Shareholder Advocate Fall 2023
The Fall 2023 issue of the Shareholder Advocate includes: Download the Fall 2023 issue (PDF).
Resources | Cohen Milstein
July 25, 2023
Some Criteria for Active Involvement in Securities Fraud Lawsuits
By Christopher Lometti and Richard E. LorantSecurities Litigation 101Shareholder Advocate Summer 2023 In prior articles, we have mentioned the importance of enacting a policy to govern a pension fund’s approach to tracking and managing its securities litigation assets. Today we will focus on a key section of that policy: the criteria for active involvement in […]
Articles
July 25, 2023
Shareholder Advocate Summer 2023
The Summer 2023 issue of the Shareholder Advocate includes: Download the Summer 2023 issue (PDF).
Articles
February 17, 2023
The Role of the Lead Plaintiff
In previous articles, we wrote about factors a fund may consider when deciding whether to file a motion for lead plaintiff in a securities class action and the criteria a judge uses to select among competing movants. In this installment, we discuss what is required and expected of the court-appointed lead plaintiff during the litigation, […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Winter 2023
February 2, 2023
Cohen Milstein Announces Expansion into Boston and Minneapolis
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Media Contact: cohenmilstein@berlinrosen.com WASHINGTON, DC – Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC, one of the nation’s leading plaintiffs’ law firms, has announced its expansion into Massachusetts and Minnesota with the opening of offices in Boston and Minneapolis. This expansion allows the firm to further serve client needs across practices and act as […]
Press Releases | Cohen Milstein
October 27, 2022
Portfolio Monitoring Best Practices
Securities Litigation 101 Download PDF. Securities fraud costs investors billions of dollars a year and shareholder lawsuits are the best available tool to recover fraud-related losses. The top 100 securities class action settlements alone have returned more than $68.6 billion to defrauded investors since 2001; approximately $10 billion in settlement proceeds awaited distribution as of […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Fall 2022
July 27, 2022
Selecting a Lead Plaintiff: How Courts Decide Which Party Should Represent the Proposed Class
By Christopher Lometti and Richard E. LorantSecurities Litigation 101Shareholder Advocate Summer 2022 Download PDF. When it comes time to determine which plaintiffs will act as representatives for all class members, lawsuits brought under the U.S. federal securities laws are unlike any others. That’s because securities class actions are subject to the Private Securities Litigation Reform […]
Articles
March 4, 2022
NCPERS Signs Amicus Brief in Support of Investors’ Appeal of Overstock Dismissal, NCPERS Legal
Shareholders of online-retailer-turned-blockchain-technology-company Overstock.com Inc. have asked a federal appeals court to revive their securities fraud class action against Overstock and its founder, Patrick Byrne, after the district court ruled that Byrne’s plan to manipulate Overstock’s stock to harm short sellers was legal. The complaint filed by Cohen Milstein on behalf of lead plaintiff Mangrove […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Spring 2022
October 21, 2021
SEC Chair Gensler’s Ambitious Agenda Has Wall Street ‘Trembling’
By Richard E. Lorant In testimony to Congress and other public comments, Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler has outlined a broad, ambitious regulatory agenda that inspired breathless tabloid-like headlines in normally staid financial broadsheets. “SEC Chief to Wall Street: The Everything Crackdown Is Coming,” warned an October 8 Bloomberg article that included a […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate, Fall 2021
July 15, 2021
Federal Judge Dismisses Latest Lawsuit Seeking to Legitimize Forced Arbitration
By Richard E. Lorant A federal judge has quashed a high-profile attempt to force Johnson & Johnson to present shareholders with a proposal requiring the use of arbitration, instead of the courts, to resolve their legal disputes with the company. In his June 30, 2021 Memorandum Opinion and Order, Judge Michael A. Shipp of the […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Summer 2021
April 22, 2021
“What the SPAC?! Blank-Check Explosion Draws New Regulatory Scrutiny,” Shareholder Advocate Spring 2021
By Richard E. Lorant By now even casual followers of financial news have heard of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies, or SPACs, blank-check companies that purportedly provide a smoother path for privately held companies to go public with less exposure to liability. Initial public offerings of SPACs have exploded over the last several years, driven by […]
Articles
January 28, 2021
In Goldman, Supreme Court to Clarify Defendants’ Ability to Rebut Class-Wide Reliance
By Richard E. Lorant The U.S. Supreme Court has agreed to address the circumstances under which defendants in a securities class action can rebut the “fraud on the market” presumption of class-wide reliance necessary for plaintiffs to form a certified class. On December 11, 2020, the Supreme Court granted defendants’ petition to consider whether the […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Winter 2021
July 28, 2020
Summer 2020 Edition of the Shareholder Advocate
The Summer 2020 edition of the Shareholder Advocate includes: Pressed by Investors, Foreign Litigation Continues to Evolve – Richard E. Lorant Supreme Court Upholds SEC’s Power to Disgorge Fraudulent Profits – Laura H. Posner Delaware Supreme Court Allows Companies to Restrict 1933 Act Claims to Federal Court – Carol V. Gilden Court Certifies Class of […]
Articles
July 28, 2020
Pressed by Investors, Foreign Litigation Continues to Evolve
The stunning collapse of Wirecard AG, a German payment processing company that lost 98 percent of its market value and filed for insolvency after admitting that €1.9 billion ($2.1 billion) on its books likely never existed, offers investors a reminder that accounting fraud can happen anywhere. The Wirecard saga evokes epic frauds of the past, […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Summer 2020
February 10, 2020
Judge in Greensky Allows Plaintiffs to Move Forward
Investors suing GreenSky, Inc. and its underwriters for failing to disclose important changes to the company’s business in documents accompanying its 2018 initial public offering (“IPO”) cleared an important procedural hurdle recently when a federal judge denied defendants’ motion to dismiss the case. Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of the U.S. District Court for the Southern […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Winter 2020
October 16, 2019
New Studies Look at Trends in Opt-Out Cases and Litigation by Mutual Fund Companies
Even casual observers of securities litigation trends know that in recent years case filings have increased. Using new data, a pair of recent empirical studies addressed questions of interest to institutional investors: is the number of opt-out cases going up and how involved are mutual funds in shareholder lawsuits? The first study titled Opt-Out Cases […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Fall 2019
July 23, 2019
Congress Considers Laws to Curb Insider Trading
By Richard E. Lorant Securities laws and regulations exist, in part, to make sure securities trade on a level playing field where all investors have access to the same company information at the same time. But while it is unlawful for corporate insiders to trade securities based on nonpublic information, there is plenty of evidence […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Summer 2019
April 25, 2019
Rick Fleming: Investors’ Inside Voice SEC’s First Investor Advocate Weighs in on Issues Facing Shareholders
By Richard E. Lorant and Laura H. Posner Rick Fleming is the Securities and Exchange Commission’s first Investor Advocate. Established in 2014 under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act, the SEC’s Office of the Investor Advocate has four core functions: to provide a voice for investors, to assist retail investors, to study […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Spring 2019
April 25, 2019
Under Lorenzo, Liability Can Extend to Those Who Knowingly Disseminate False Statements
By Richard E. Lorant Editor’s Note: As reported in the Fall 2018 issue of Shareholder Advocate, Cohen Milstein Partner Laura Posner and Associate Eric Berelovich submitted an amicus curiae (“friend of the court”) brief in support of the Securities and Exchange Commission in Lorenzo v. SEC. In a victory for plain language, the Supreme Court […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Spring 2019
January 24, 2019
SEC Considers Eliminating Quarterly Reporting Requirement
At the urging of President Trump, the Securities and Exchange Commission is studying the impact of allowing publicly traded companies to file financial reports just twice a year instead of quarterly, a reduced standard that would turn back the regulatory clock a half century. On December 18, four months after President Trump raised the idea […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Winter 2019
October 18, 2018
Ninth Circuit Allows Plaintiffs to Argue That Over-the-Counter Toshiba ADRs Are Subject to U.S. Securities Laws
Eight years after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the federal securities laws only applied to securities acquired domestically, courts continue to differ over how to apply that “transactional test” to American Depositary Receipts (“ADRs”), tradeable certificates issued by U.S. banks that correspond to shares of foreign stock. In the latest example, Stoyas, et al. […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Fall 2018
July 18, 2018
Cohen Milstein Issues Summer 2018 Edition of the Shareholder Advocate
The Summer 2018 edition of the Shareholder Advocate includes: New Options for European Collective Redress Emerge from the Fumes of ‘Dieselgate’ – Richard E. Lorant Ninth Circuit Holds Section 14(E) Requires Negligence, Creating Circuit Split – Christina D. Saler Changes at SEC Won’t Affect Trump Agenda – Carol V. Gilden An Interview on Cybersecurity with Brian […]
Articles | Cohen Milstein
July 18, 2018
New Options for European Collective Redress Emerge from the Fumes of ‘Dieselgate
The 2015 Volkswagen emissions scandal, which laid bare European consumers’ difficulties in obtaining monetary compensation for mass harm, is now fueling a continental shift toward group litigation—one that will give defrauded investors new legal options to consider. In April, the European Commission unveiled a proposed directive that would require all 28 EU member countries to […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Summer 2018
April 24, 2018
Placing Limits on Dual-Class Stock
Debate is sharpening over the value of dual-class stock, the controversial governance structure that multiplies the voting power of founders and other insiders—often forever—at the expense of ordinary shareholders. The number of publicly traded U.S. companies with multi-class stock increased 44% from 2005 to 2015, and nearly one in five IPOs now feature the structure, […]
Articles | Shareholder Advocate Spring 2018