John Donovan > Ropes & Gray LLP > Boston, United States > Lawyer Profile
Ropes & Gray LLP Offices
800 BOYLSTON STREET
BOSTON, MA 02199
MASSACHUSETTS
United States
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John Donovan
Work Department
Litigation
Position
Senior Counsel
Career
John Donovan, a senior counsel in the litigation department, focuses his practice on business litigation, including corporate and securities matters, class actions, disputes in connection with mergers and acquisitions, and other complex business transactions. One of the nation’s premiere litigators, he is an accomplished courtroom advocate and experienced strategist for handling the most difficult, “bet the company” matters. Chambers USA calls him “exceptional,” a “brilliant litigator,” and “one of the best trial lawyers in Massachusetts,” ranks him among less than a half dozen securities litigators in the country labeled “Star Individuals,” and places him in the first band of nationally ranked securities lawyers. His clients include mutual funds complexes, private equity funds, investment banks, and public companies, including their officers and directors. John’s advocacy skills have been demonstrated in a full spectrum of courtroom situations nationwide: injunction proceedings in M&A litigation, dismissal and summary judgment arguments in complex securities, antitrust and commercial cases, bench and jury trials in both commercial cases and even (the rarest of trials) securities class actions. John has also argued dozens of appeals across the nation, in Massachusetts, New York, the Delaware Supreme Court, and the First, Second, Fifth, Seventh, Eighth and Eleventh Circuits. Recently, in what the New York Times labeled a “sweeping legal victory,” he secured a jury verdict for Goldman Sachs after a five-week trial that dismissed all claims by the founders of Dragon Systems about Goldman’s role as financial adviser in the sale of that company. And two years ago, he obtained a 9-0 victory in the United States Supreme Court, establishing the mutual fund industry’s standard for challenges to advisory fees.
Languages
French
Memberships
- American Bar Association
- Boston Bar Association
- Massachusetts Bar Association
Education
- JD, summa cum laude, Boston College Law School, 1981; Order of the Coif; Alumni Prize (class rank); Alpha Sigma Nu (National Jesuit Honor Society); Editor-In-Chief, Boston College Law Review
- AB, cum laude, Harvard College, 1975
Top Tier Firm Rankings
- Investment fund formation and management > Alternative/hedge funds
- Dispute resolution > E-discovery
- Investment fund formation and management > Mutual/registered/exchange-traded funds
- Healthcare > Service providers
Firm Rankings
- Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
- Finance > Capital markets: equity offerings
- Media, technology and telecoms > Cyber law (including data privacy and data protection)
- Labor and employment > Employee benefits, executive compensation and retirement plans: transactional
- Healthcare > Life sciences
- Dispute resolution > M&A litigation: defense
- Tax > Not-for-profit (nonprofit and tax exempt organizations)
- Intellectual property > Patents: licensing
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Private equity buyouts: large deals ($500m+)
- Investment fund formation and management > Private equity funds (including venture capital)
- Dispute resolution > Securities litigation: defense
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Shareholder activism
- Tax > US taxes: non-contentious
- Antitrust > Cartel
- M&A/corporate and commercial > M&A: large deals ($1bn+)
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (International Trade Commission)
- Real estate > Real estate
- Finance > Restructuring (including bankruptcy): corporate
- Government > State attorneys general
- Labor and employment > Workplace and employment counseling
- Finance > Capital markets: high-yield debt offerings
- Finance > Fintech
- Dispute resolution > General commercial disputes
- Antitrust > Merger control
- Intellectual property > Patents: litigation (full coverage)
- Finance > Structured finance: derivatives and structured products
- Media, technology and telecoms > Technology transactions
- Intellectual property > Trade secrets (litigation and non-contentious matters)
- Antitrust > Civil litigation/class actions: defense
- Tax > US taxes: contentious
- M&A/corporate and commercial > Venture capital and emerging companies
- Finance > Financial services regulation
- Dispute resolution > Appellate: courts of appeals / Appellate: supreme courts (states and federal)
- Finance > Capital markets: debt offerings
- Finance > Commercial lending
- Dispute resolution > Corporate investigations and white-collar criminal defense
- International Trade > Customs, export controls and economic sanctions
- Finance > Structured finance: securitization