United States • Dispute resolution
3

Securities litigation: plaintiff

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Berman Tabacco

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Berman Tabacco is active in many fora across the US through its offices in San Francisco, California, and Boston, Massachusetts, and acting predominantly for state pension funds. Nicole Lavallee, who is managing partner of the San Francisco office, and Leslie Stern in Boston are the lead partners. Founding partner Joseph Tabacco in San Francisco is highly acclaimed for his work on anti-trust and securities fraud cases. Working with Lavallee, Tabacco helped to secure settlements with four foreign defendants for Utah Retirement Systems  in In re Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, Inc. Securities Litigation, which concerned a fraudulent scheme in which the company’s founder and former officers and directors allegedly overstated the company’s income and revenue and issued false and misleading financial statements. Also in San Francisco, Daniel Barenbaum is ‘super-responsive and incredibly competent’, leading one client to remark that ’if you’ve got a fire drill, Daniel is the lawyer to call’. Barenbaum worked with Lavallee to secure a settlement in Hayden v. Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc., et al., on behalf of Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association.
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Accolades

Client satisfaction

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • ‘Not that other firms can't claim this as well, but Daniel Barenbaum at Berman Tabacco is super responsive and incredibly competent. If you've got a fire drill, Daniel is the lawyer to call, especially because being smaller than mega-firms, they can clear conflicts in a flash.’

  • 'Berman Tabacco is an experienced, highly professional firm that is able to put the most qualified practitioners on the field in any matter for which they are hired. Individually and as a group they hold their own against much larger firms and consistently deliver outstanding results.'

  • 'Joseph Tabacco's experience, sterling reputation and daunting legal skills provide the expertise at the helm of a very qualified group of attorneys.'

Key clients

  • California Public Employees’ Retirement System
  • California State Teachers’ Retirement System
  • Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association
  • Oklahoma Police Pension and Retirement System
  • Oklahoma Firefighters’ Pension & Retirement System
  • Norfolk County Retirement System
  • Plymouth County Retirement Association
  • San Bernardino County Employees' Retirement Association
  • Orange County Employees Retirement System
  • West Palm Beach Firefighters’ Pension Fund

Work highlights

  • As sole Lead Counsel, settled a securities fraud class action for $41.749 million on behalf of a state pension fund and the class in In re Aegean Marine Petroleum Network, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 18-cv-04993-NRB (S.D.N.Y.).
  • As Lead Counsel, settled a securities fraud class action for $17.5 million on behalf of Lead Plaintiff Alameda County Employees’ Retirement Association and the class in Hayden v. Portola Pharmaceuticals Inc., et al., No. 3:20-cv-00367-VC (N.D. Cal.).
  • As Lead Counsel, settled a securities fraud class action for $12.5 million on behalf of Lead Plaintiff Oklahoma Police Pension & Retirement System and the class in Oklahoma Police Pension & Retirement System v. Sterling Bancorp, Inc, et al., No. 5:20-cv-10490-JEL-EAS (E.D. Mich.).

Lawyers

Practice head

Nicole Lavallee; Leslie Stern

Other key lawyers

Joseph Tabacco; Daniel Barenbaum