Blair Connelly > Latham & Watkins LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

At Latham & Watkins LLP, ‘the M&A litigation team is deeply experienced in this space and works seamlessly with the transactional team and client team‘. Clients remark that the lawyers are ‘zealous advocates while remaining pragmatic, and they focused on the broader outcome of a successful deal rather than focusing solely on winning the litigation‘. The firm is active in the Delaware Court of Chancery and the Delaware Supreme Court, as well as other fora around the country, and is involved in cutting-edge areas of the market, such as SPAC-related litigation. Michele Johnson in Orange County, Blair Connelly in New York and Colleen Smith in San Diego lead the securities litigation and professional liability practice, while up-and-coming partner Kristin Murphy in Orange County has a major role in SPAC-related cases.

Latham & Watkins LLP has a national securities litigation practice, combining an intimate understanding of the needs of major corporate issuers, among them Meta and Twitter, with in-depth experience in every stage of the litigation process from initial negotiations through discovery, motion practice, trial and appeal. It is one of the very few firms to have achieved successful jury verdicts in securities litigation in recent history. The practice is led by Andrew Clubok in Washington DC, New York partner Blair Connelly, and up-and-coming partner Colleen Smith in San Diego. For Twitter, Clubok was part of a large team that is defending a series of class actions alleging that the company misappropriated contact information collected for security purposes, and in turn, used that information for advertising purposes without consent. He is also acting for Meta in a securities class action concerning a stockdrop allegedly caused by the impact of Apple’s iOS privacy changes on the company’s advertising business. Matthew Rawlinson in Silicon Valley frequently handles cases in the technology sector, among them a series of lawsuits for Coinbase Global, Inc. arising out of the company’s innovative direct listing in 2021. In New York, Jeff Hammer, who is acting for Farfetch Limited in a securities class action that followed a nearly 45% decline in the company’s stock price, and emerging talent Jason Hegt are standout partners.