John Clarke > DLA Piper LLP (US) > New York, United States > Lawyer Profile

DLA Piper LLP (US) has a strong transactional team and a litigation practice to match, giving it a prominent role in cases concerning breaches of fiduciary duty, and it is active in courts across the US, as well as in the main forum of Delaware. John Clarke in New York, who is co-chair of the corporate and securities litigation group, and head of Delaware litigation John Reed in Wilmington are the lead partners. ‘Masterful litigator and trial counsel‘ James Mathias in Baltimore represented Ray Berry, the founder, former CEO and chairman of The Fresh Market specialty grocery chain in an action asserting breach of fiduciary duty in challenging his role in the company’s 2016 going-private transaction. Rob Hoffman in Dallas and Baltimore-based Benjamin Schuman, who is ‘pleasant and unassuming, yet possesses a powerful intellect that commands respect‘, also have key roles in the practice.

DLA Piper LLP (US) has a strong presence in key litigation centres across the US, notably New York, California, and Delaware, and its work spans class actions and other investor litigation asserting claims under the federal securities laws, stockholder derivative litigation, and investigations and enforcement actions by government regulators. The firm is currently acting for a prominent national personal lines insurance company in a putative securities class action pending in the Northern District of Illinois, in which plaintiffs allege that the company misrepresented the reasons for a sudden increase in auto insurance claim frequency between October 2014 and August 2015. John Clarke in New York, who is leading that case, is head of the corporate and securities litigation practice, while James Brogan in Philadelphia leads the litigation and regulatory group. John Hillebrecht and Jeffrey Rotenberg in New York, and Jason Lewis in Dallas also play key roles in the practice.