Whether the task is conducting a Sarbanes-Oxley whistleblower investigation, advising a client facing an SEC or DOJ investigation, or defending multi-billion dollar shareholder class action litigation, Drinker Biddle has the resources, capabilities and experience to handle the engagement.  The Securities and Corporate Governance Litigation practice complements the firm’s active public securities practice.

Drinker Biddle represents public registrants, underwriters, directors, officers, and accountants in shareholder class actions, derivative suits, governmental investigations and enforcement proceedings, and internal investigations.  The firm’s experience in defending shareholder and other securities litigation, and in corporate governance litigation, spans decades, and includes many well-known cases.

For example, the firm has represented a Big Four accounting firm in several securities fraud class actions, including the PNC Securities Litigation in the Western District of Pennsylvania and the IKON Office Solutions Securities Litigation in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania and the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit.

The firm represented a prominent computer services provider, first in shareholder class action litigation and then in an SEC enforcement action involving allegations of fraudulent insider trading and a broad challenge to the company’s MD&A disclosure.  The enforcement action drew national attention and was viewed as a key component of the SEC’s enforcement agenda.

The firm defended a bank holding company when its shareholders sued for hundreds of millions of dollars, claiming that the holding company had not disclosed problems with real estate and other loans.  Earlier, Drinker represented a major bank in a two-week trial of somewhat similar shareholder claims.

Another bank holding company called on Drinker Biddle to defend it against an attack by a group of dissident shareholders.  The firm represented the company in a series of cases, in New Jersey state and federal courts, involving the adequacy of the shareholders’ SEC filings, the company’s proxy solicitations, the timing of the company’s annual meeting, and the voting at that meeting.

In 2004, the firm represented the audit committee of a New York Stock Exchange listed company, investigating a whistleblower complaint charging improprieties in the accounting at a subsidiary.  The firm has handled numerous other governmental and internal investigations.

Drinker’s securities litigation practice is conducted in trial and appellate courts throughout the United States.  This nationwide practice keeps the firm’s litigators on top of the latest theories and techniques in the defense of securities class action litigation, other shareholder litigation, administrative proceedings, and government investigations.