Serena Hallowell concentrates her practice on prosecuting complex securities fraud cases on behalf of institutional investors. Currently, she is prosecuting In re Coinstar Securities Litigation. Most recently, Ms. Hallowell had been actively involved in the matter of In re BankAtlantic Bancorp Inc. Securities Litigation, and was a member of the trial team for the shareholder class. After a four-week trial in the federal court in Miami, the jury found BankAtlantic and its two senior officers liable for securities fraud because they intentionally lied about and failed to disclose the extent of the bank's lending risk. This was only the 10th securities fraud class action to go to trial since passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act in 1995 and is the first securities class action case arising out of the financial crisis to go to jury verdict. On April 25, 2011, Judge Ungaro vacated the jury's verdict. Lead counsel is looking forward to a favorable review of the issues by the appellate court. Prior to joining Labaton Sucharow, Ms. Hallowell was an attorney at Ohrenstein & Brown LLP, where she participated in various federal and state commercial litigation matters. During her time there, she also defended financial companies in regulatory proceedings and assisted in high profile coverage litigation matters in connection with mutual funds trading investigations. Ms. Hallowell is the co-author of "Does 'Dukes' Require Full 'Daubert' Scrutiny at Class Certification?," The New York Law Journal, November 25, 2011. Ms. Hallowell received a J.D. from Boston University School of Law, where she served as the note editor for the Journal of Science & Technology Law. She earned a B.A. in Political Science from Occidental College. Ms. Hallowell is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, the Federal Bar Council and the National Association of Women Lawyers. She is conversational in Urdu/Hindi. Ongoing Cases In re Coinstar Inc. Securities Litigation In re BankAtlantic Bancorp, Inc. Securities Litigation |