Practice Areas & Industries: Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney PC

Practice/Industry Group Overview

The attorneys in Buchanan Ingersoll & Rooney's Securities Litigation Group have experience in representing corporations, their officers and directors in SEC enforcement proceedings, hostile takeover litigation, shareholder class and derivative actions arising under federal and state securities laws, and SEC and NASD investigations. We have represented professional service firms, including commercial banks, underwriters, mortgage insurers, accounting firms and brokerages, in actions related to the Securities Act of 1933 and the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, broker/dealer consumer actions, disciplinary proceedings instituted by self-regulatory organizations (SROs), insider trading allegations and all manner of securities arbitrations overseen by the NASD, NYSE and other SROs. Our experience in advising companies on the intricacies of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is considerable.

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The breadth of our experience is evidenced by a sampling of our clients. We have represented:

• Stonepath Inc. in obtaining a dismissal of a derivative lawsuit against it - the first time a U.S. court had ruled that a private plaintiff cannot seek disgorgement from a company's officers under Sarbanes-Oxley.
• Amerisource Bergen against a shareholder derivative suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.
• Conrail Inc. in many derivative and class action lawsuits.
• General Electric Corporation PLC in securities class actions.
• The Keane Organization in SEC matters.

Our litigators represent brokerage firms before state and federal courts and in various arbitration forums such as the NASD, AAA and NYSE. We have handled matters for, among others, Janney Montgomery Scott LLC, Citigroup Global Markets Inc. (Salomon Smith Barney) and Raymond James Financial Services, Inc. We have dealt with claimants advancing allegations of unauthorized trading, churning, unsuitability, fraud, front running, parking selling away and failure to supervise. We have also handled employment issues for our brokerage firm clients, including claims arising from the hiring and termination of employees, restrictive covenants, privacy issues, protection of trade secrets and customer information and claims concerning raiding and unfair competition.

Some of our attorneys are NASD arbitrators and bring to their client representations this unique perspective on the workings of NASD panels. We also counsel clients in investigations by the SEC, NASD, NYSE, other SROs and state securities regulators.

Our clients are not confined to corporations; we have many times represented individuals in NASD, SEC and litigation matters. We pride ourselves in giving the same attention -- and the same desire for excellent results -- to the individual or the smaller corporation as to the Fortune 500 company. Moreover, in undertaking our representation, we are always aware that many times the best result is not found in litigation, but in negotiation with either the governmental entity or the SRO. We take pains to educate our clients on the risk/rewards of litigation as opposed to a negotiated settlement.

Because civil investigations sometimes veer into the criminal area, we work closely with our colleagues in the White Collar Defense and Investigations Group. That group is composed of attorneys well versed in representing a wide variety of clients who are under investigation or charged with white collar financial or business related crimes, and includes former assistant U.S. attorneys, Department of Justice trial lawyers, FBI agents, SEC officials and state and local prosecutors.

Our Corporate Finance Group attorneys help us advise brokerage firms on how best to comply with the myriad regulatory laws and regulations, including those dealing with money laundering, and we regularly structure in-house seminars for clients on such topics such as insider trading, recent NASD and SEC regulations, and the intricacies of Sarbanes-Oxley. In a similar educational vein, our litigators are often featured on seminar panels dealing with class actions, securities arbitration, the fiduciary duties of directors and the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act.

In a related area, our litigators also offer advice and counsel on directors and officers (D&O) insurance policies. Because securities litigation is typically expensive, the correct interpretation of these policies is critical to tapping into the necessary funds to enable the litigation to proceed smoothly and successfully. We have years of experience in negotiating with insurers over both coverage and fees.

While our litigators travel on a national basis, having offices based in several major metropolitan areas means that we can often times staff cases with attorneys who are intimately familiar with local rules, jurists and arbitrators. We have successfully litigated matters in federal and state courts in a large number of jurisdictions throughout the country, including Delaware, New York, California, Pennsylvania, Florida, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Jersey, Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia.