Securities Litigation & Investor Protection

Powerful advocates for corporate accountability.

When companies commit fraud or executives breach their fiduciary duties, we partner with investors to hold the wrongdoers accountable – pursuing class or derivative actions that recover significant monetary damages and achieve meaningful change.

We have returned billions of dollars to defrauded shareholders through the development of groundbreaking legal theories, efficient and effective case-management techniques, zealous advocacy, and skillful litigation.

We have achieved some of the largest securities class action settlements in history, including the historic, all-cash $1 billion settlement against Wells Fargo, now the 17th largest securities class action settlement of all time and the 6th largest in the last decade; and the $500 million Bear Stearns Mortgage Pass-Through Certificates Litigation, one of nine cases we led that recouped more than $2.5 billion for investors in mortgage-backed securities. We also represent shareholders of publicly traded companies in derivative lawsuits that hold accountable corporate leaders who breach their fiduciary duties, harming the company and investors. We crafted settlements with Alphabet ($310 million), Wynn Resorts ($90 million), L Brands ($90 million), and other companies that combined large financial commitments with sweeping corporate governance reforms aimed at preserving long-term shareholder value.

We work with our colleagues in the Antitrust practice to represent institutional investors in class actions that use the antitrust laws to break big banks’ costly stranglehold on the multi-trillion-dollar markets for stock lending, interest-rate swaps, and other opaquely traded financial products. Our work doesn’t stop at the U.S. borders. Drawing on a deep expertise, we help investors determine their best approach to pursuing foreign securities cases. The counsel we selected for our clients in a case against Fortis N.V. in Belgium achieved the largest ever non-U.S. securities settlement, €1.3 billion ($1.5 billion).

Beyond litigation, we provide customized and comprehensive portfolio monitoring and case evaluation services to approximately 200 institutional investors. All of our portfolio monitoring services are performed exclusively in-house and designed to ensure clients meet their fiduciary obligations to their members by making informed choices when faced with substantial losses and in determining whether to remain an absent class member, seek lead plaintiff status, or opt-in to foreign litigation. 

Our work on behalf of investors has earned thanks from our pension fund clients, respect from opposing counsel, and praise from judges.  

  • California Superior Court Judge Brian C. Walsh said our “groundbreaking” $310 million settlement in the Alphabet Derivative Litigation codified a “best in class approach … to address sexual harassment sexual misconduct, discrimination, retaliation, inequity and inclusion in the workplace.”  He called the result “a credit to what … your profession can do to solve a problem.” 
  • And in approving the $335 million RALI MBS settlement, U.S. District Judge Katherine P. Failla praised Cohen Milstein’s prescience and perseverance in pursuing the case: “I don’t want to demean this by saying that fortune favors the brave, but that is what happened here,” she said.  “Plaintiffs’ counsel took on an enormous amount of risk and stuck with it for nearly seven years.”

Current Cases

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Coinbase Securities Litigation

State of Oregon v. Coinbase, Inc., et al (Circ. Crt., Multnomah Cnty. Or.): Cohen Milstein represents the Oregon Attorney General in an enforcement action against Coinbase for, allegedly, illegally soliciting and facilitating the sale of unregistered securities in the form of numerous cryptocurrencies to Oregon residents. In addition to depriving Oregonians of important disclosures and protections about these highly speculative investments, Oregonians have allegedly incurred substantial losses.

Illumina Stockholder Derivative Litigation

The Pavers and Road Builders Benefit Funds v. deSouza, et al. (Del. Ch.): Cohen Milstein represents stockholders in a derivative lawsuit against the board of directors of Illumina, Inc., a biotech company, for flagrant breaches of fiduciary duty and positive law related to Illumina’s $8 billion reacquisition of GRAIL, a healthcare company. Stockholders claim that the board’s decision to close the merger violated binding standstill obligations under Article 7(1) of the European Union Merger Regulation and flouted U.S. antitrust law, exposing Illumina to regulatory scrutiny and massive fines.

In Re Nike, Inc. Securities Litigation

In Re Nike, Inc. Securities Litigation (D. Or.): Cohen Milstein represents investors in a securities class action against Nike and certain directors and officers for making misstatements and omissions about the success of a key corporate strategy called “Consumer Direct Acceleration,” which had the purpose and effect of propelling long-term sustainable financial growth for the benefit of Nike and its shareholders. However, when Nike’s alleged fraud was finally revealed Nike’s stock collapsed nearly 20%—the largest stock price drop in Nike’s history, wiping out billions of dollars in shareholder value.

Past Cases

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In re Lucent Technologies Securities Litigation

In re Lucent Technologies Securities Litigation (D.N.J.): Cohen Milstein represented The Parnassus Fund, one of the co-lead plaintiffs, in this massive securities fraud class action. Allegedly, Lucent made false and misleading statements regarding its financial results and failed to disclose serious problems in its optical networking business. On December 15, 2003, the court granted final approval of a historic settlement against Lucent of $500 million in cash, stock and warrants, ranking it one of the largest securities class action settlements of all time.

In re Huron Consulting Group, Inc. Securities Litigation

In re Huron Consulting Group, Inc. Securities Litigation (N.D. Ill.): Cohen Milstein served as co-lead counsel in this securities fraud class action against Huron Consulting Group and its former CEO, CFO, and CAO for their alleged participation in or reckless disregard of an ongoing accounting fraud, resulting in a single-day stock drop of 70%. On May 6, 2011, the court granted final approval of settlement totaling more than $42 million, consisting of $27 million in cash plus 474,547 shares of common stock., valued at $13,292,061.

Impax Laboratories, Inc. Securities Litigation

Mulligan v. Impax Laboratories, Inc. et al. (N.D. Cal.): Cohen Milstein served as Co-Lead Counsel in this securities class action against Impax Laboratories, Inc. Investors claimed that Impax knowingly made false or misleading statements about serious deficiencies at a manufacturing facility, as well as its inability to timely remedy those deficiencies as was required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration. On July 23, 2015, the court granted final approval to an $8 million cash settlement.