Ms Carol C. Villegas > Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP
140 BROADWAY
NEW YORK, NY 10005
NEW YORK
United States

Work Department

Securities Litgation

Position

Partner

Career

Carol C. Villegas is a Partner in the New York office of Labaton Sucharow LLP.  Carol focuses on prosecuting complex securities fraud and consumer cases on behalf of institutional investors and individuals.  Leading one of the Firm’s litigation teams, she is actively overseeing litigation against AT&T, Marriott, Nielsen Holdings, Mindbody, Danske Bank, Peabody Energy, Flo Health, Amazon, and Hain.  In addition to her litigation responsibilities, Carol holds a variety of leadership positions within the Firm, including serving on the Firm’s Executive Committee, as Chair of the Firm’s Women’s Networking and Mentoring Initiative, and as the Chief of Compliance.  She also leads the Firm’s ESG Taskforce, which provides clients with tailored advice regarding corporate responsibility and environmental, social, and corporate governance risks and opportunities.

Carol’s development of innovative case theories in complex cases, her skillful handling of discovery work, and her adept ability during oral arguments has earned her accolades from The National Law Journal as a “Plaintiffs’ Trailblazer” and the New York Law Journal as a “Top Woman in Law” and a “New York Trailblazer.”  The National Law Journal recognized Carol’s superb ability to excel in high-stakes matters on behalf of plaintiffs and selected her to its 2020 class of “Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar.”  She has also been recognized as a “Future Star” by Benchmark Litigation and a “Next Generation Partner” by The Legal 500, where clients praised her for helping them “better understand the process and how to value a case.” Lawdragon has named her one of the “500 Leading Lawyers in America,” one of the country’s top “Plaintiff Financial Lawyers,” and “Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers” and Crain’s New York Business selected Carol to its list of “Notable Women in Law.” Euromoney’s Women in Business Law Awards has also shortlisted Carol as “Securities Litigator of the Year” and Chambers and Partners named Carol a finalist for Diversity & Inclusion: Outstanding Contribution.

Carol has played a pivotal role in securing favorable settlements for investors, including DeVry, a for-profit university; AMD, a multi-national semiconductor company; Liquidity Services, an online auction marketplace; Aeropostale, a leader in the international retail apparel industry; Vocera, a healthcare communications provider; Prothena, a biopharmaceutical company; and World Wrestling Entertainment, a media and entertainment company, among others.  Carol has also helped revive a securities class action against LifeLock after arguing an appeal before the Ninth Circuit.  The case settled shortly thereafter.

Prior to joining Labaton Sucharow, Carol served as the Assistant District Attorney in the Supreme Court Bureau for the Richmond County District Attorney’s office, where she took several cases to trial.  She began her career as an Associate at King & Spalding LLP, where she worked as a federal litigator.

Languages

Spanish

Memberships

Carol is an active member of the New York State Bar Association’s Women in the Law Section and Chair of the Board of Directors of the City Bar Fund, the nonprofit 501(c)(3) arm of the New York City Bar Association. She is also a member of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, the National Association of Women Lawyers, and the Hispanic National Bar Association.  In addition, Carol currently serves on Law360’s Securities Editorial Board.

Education

New York University School of Law
J.D., 2002

New York University
B.A., English and Politics, with honors, 1999

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: plaintiff

(Next Generation Partners)

Carol C. VillegasLabaton Keller Sucharow LLP

Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP in New York has a 21-partner practice that is ‘very knowledgeable and experienced’, and clients remark that the firm is ‘superb in their securities litigation’. It represents more than 220 institutional investors, among them 130 public pension plans, with collective assets under management in excess of $2.5 trillion. Over the years, the firm has recovered more than $18bn for investors, among its key victories being In re SCANA Corporation Securities Litigation, in which it recovered $192.5m. ‘The people I have worked with are very personable and knowledgeable’, remarks one client, noting that ‘not every firm has the ability to encompass both’. Chairman Christopher Keller and head of litigation Jonathan Gardner oversee the practice, which includes standout partner Thomas Dubbs. Dubbs and James Johnson are acting as co-lead counsel in a high-profile case based on Goldman Sachs’s concealment of misconduct related to multiple collateralized debt obligations shorting the mortgage market leading up to the 2008 financial crisis. Carol Villegas, who secured a $73m settlement in a securities class action against data analytics company Nielsen, is one of the most prominent women in the securities litigation field. Clients also single out Michael Rogers and up-and-coming partner James Christie for praise. Both are key to a securities class action against EV company Nikola Corporation.