Joel Haims > McDermott Will & Emery LLP > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

McDermott Will & Emery LLP
340 MADISON AVENUE
NEW YORK, NY 10173-1922
NEW YORK
United States
Joel Haims photo

Work Department

Trial

Position

Joel C. Haims focuses his practice on securities litigation, including class actions, shareholder derivative cases, and corporate control litigation, as well as Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement proceedings and corporate internal investigations. He regularly represents public companies and their officers, directors, and board committees in cases before trial and appellate courts throughout the country and in mediation to facilitate settlement. He defends clients across a diverse range of industries and has extensive experience representing foreign-based companies in US securities litigation. He is also frequently called upon by boards and senior executives to advise on directors’ and officers’ (D&O) insurance coverage.

 

Joel also has extensive experience litigating complex commercial cases, including commercial real estate disputes and bankruptcies. For example, he has represented clients, including secured lenders, property owners, developers, and loan participants, in state and federal courts on a wide range of issues, including contractual matters such as buy-sell agreements and security enforcement, and recovering secured or unsecured assets.

In addition, Joel has extensive experience litigating religious rights cases, particularly under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). For example, he served as lead trial counsel for the Westchester Day School in its landmark litigation against the Village of Mamaroneck and its Zoning Board of Appeals under RLUIPA, and he successfully defended the United States Tennis Association (USTA) in a religious discrimination lawsuit.

Lawyer Rankings

United States > Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense

McDermott Will & Emery LLP has an ‘outstanding securities litigation defense team, both in SEC regulatory and civil litigation matters’. The firm is best known for its work in class action matters in the key fora of New York, Delaware, Massachusetts, California, Illinois and Washington DC. Its client base spans a range of industries including energy, venture capital, investment banking, entertainment and accounting. Timothy Hoeffner in New York and Steven Scholes in Chicago are the lead partners. Scholes and ‘outstanding defense attorney’ Paul Helms, in Washington DC, are acting for seven former officers and directors of PG&E in a high-profile breach of fiduciary duty action originally filed as several shareholder derivative actions arising from the 2017 and 2018 wildfires in Northern California. Hoeffner achieved the dismissal of claims against accounting firm BDO in In re AmTrust Financial Services Inc., Securities Litigation. Seth Friedman is also recommended for defending accounting firms. New York’s Joel Haims  joined the team from Morrison Foerster in June 2022.