The Firm regularly handles complex legal matters for an impressive clientele, both domestic and international, private as well as publicly owned. Our work includes a wide variety of securities, finance, and business disputes, in courts and arbitration forums throughout the country, and corporate, securities and business transactions. We successfully have defended our clients from numerous claims and lawsuits, and obtained over $1 billion of settlements and verdicts, including acting as co-counsel in the Nasdaq Market-Makers Antitrust Litigation, which alleged collusion amongst Wall Street traders, resulting in one of the largest settlements at the time, $1.027 billion.
The following is a partial listing of the Firm's current and historical endeavors:
We have handled hundreds of FINRA arbitrations and related cases for broker-dealers, registered representatives, investment advisory firms and advisors, and public investors. While most of these typically are resolved by confidential settlements reached through careful mediation prior to hearings, we have extensive experience litigating and arbitrating both intra-industry and public customer FINRA cases.
This is a representative sampling of the FINRA awards we have obtained for our clients:
2022
Full Denial of $1,140,954.00 Claim; Award of $254,000.00 in Legal Fees and Costs to Our Client – Deukmedjian Revocable Family Trust v. Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. and David Pathe, FINRA Case No. 19-02176. We represented a retired accountant who held power of attorney over another investor’s Schwab accounts. The Claimant-investor asserted claims against our client and Charles Schwab & Co., Inc. for breach of fiduciary duty and negligence. Her complaint involved more than $1.1 million alleged losses she sustained in connection with an options trading strategy in ProShares Short VIX Short-Term Futures ETF (SVXY). In its Award, the Arbitration Panel denied the Claimants’ claims in their entirety and awarded our client $254,000.00 in attorneys’ fees and costs.
2021
Full Expungement of Customer Complaint – Chen v. M.S. Howells & Co., Inc., FINRA Case No. 21-00468. We represented an experienced financial professional, Tim C. Chen, in an expungement claim involving false and erroneous allegations by a former client. In its Award, the Arbitrator granted our client’s expungement request in full, ordering the false and erroneous complaint to be removed from his CRD record and FINRA BrokerCheck report.
2020
$174,608.00 – Campbell v. Entoro Securities, LLC, FINRA Case No. 19-00422. We represented a registered representative who asserted claims against his former employer for breach of contract and violation of the California Labor Code. His complaints were that he was not paid commissions that were owed, was misclassified as an independent contractor, and was not reimbursed for business expenses. The Award included damages for the unpaid commissions and unreimbursed business expenses, as well as attorneys’ fees.
2019
$1,800,000.00 – Christopher Johnson & Lee Przybyla v. USAA Financial Advisors, Inc., FINRA Case No. 17-03279. We represented two former USAA wealth managers who were terminated for alleged "improper practices" in the publication of financial plans. On behalf of the Claimants, we asserted claims for defamation, wrongful termination, breach of contract, tortious interference and negligent supervision and retention. After the evidentiary hearings, the FINRA Arbitration Panel issued an Award directing USAA to pay a total of $1.8 million to the Claimants. Notably, of the $1.8 million, $700,000.00 was for punitive damages based on USAA's conduct and $250,000.00 was for attorney's fees. In addition, the Panel recommended the full expungement and removal of the defamatory disclosures USAA made on the Claimants' CRD record following their improper termination. The Award was among the largest intra-industry/employment awards of 2019 and contained one of the largest punitive damage awards in the past several years.
2018
FINRA Arbitration Award Expunging Three Customer Complaints from Financial Advisor's CRD Record – We represented an experienced financial advisor in a FINRA arbitration proceeding seeking expungement of three individual customer complaints from the advisor's CRD record and FINRA BrokerCheck report. In a reasoned award issued in October 2018, the Arbitrator granted expungement of all three customer complaints, including one complaint that arose out of a prior FINRA arbitration in which the advisor had been named.
2014
$320,000.00 – Underdahl v. Morgan Stanley, FINRA Case No. 11-03247. We represented a former Morgan Stanley broker who asserted claims against Morgan Stanley for breach of contract and violation of the California Labor Code. One of his complaints was a Labor Code violation in which he claimed he paid a portion of his sales assistant’s salary which should have been paid for by Morgan Stanley.
2013
Dismissal before hearings of entire FINRA case against our broker-dealer client – Lieberman v. Financial Northeastern Securities, Inc., FINRA No. 10-00231. We obtained dismissal before hearings of all claims against our broker-dealer client brought by a former client who alleged she suffered losses based on unsuitable investments. The decision was unusual since it is very difficult, and very rare to have FINRA cases dismissed before hearings.
2012
$4,965,016.54 – Vitale and Paladino v. Morgan Stanley, FINRA Case No. 11-01633. We represented two former Morgan Stanley brokers who were hired by Morgan Stanley under false pretenses and broken promises. This was the largest broker/firm intra industry award of the year.
2011
$622,250.00 – Brown v. Fidelity Brokerage Services LLC, FINRA Case No. 10-05727. We represented an elderly widower who claimed Fidelity erroneously opened what should have been a joint account with right of survivorship as a co-tenancy account which caused substantial estate tax and other losses for our client.
2010
$334,000.00 – Kramer, et al. v. CapWest Securities, Inc., et al., FINRA No. 09-05581. We represented an elderly widow who claimed she was induced to invest in a failed TIC (Tenants in Common) 1031 tax free exchange.
Case Dismissed for our Brokerage Firm Client and All Costs Recovered – Gina Coco, et al. v. Cetera Financial Group, Inc., successor in interest to ING Brokers Network, et al., Los Angeles Superior Court Case No. YC063454. We successfully defended and obtained the full dismissal before trial of a multi-million-dollar breach of contract claim against our broker-dealer client, Cetera Financial Group. We also recovered over $24,000.00 in taxable costs for our client, resulting in a complete vindication.
$275,000.00 – Lovins v. UBS Financial Services, Inc., FINRA Case No. 09-00593. We represented a former UBS broker who alleged UBS wrongly terminated her when she was physically incapacitated and denied certain benefits to which she was entitled.
2008
$1,800,000.00 – Ronald W. May and Kathryn R. Chapman vs. LPL, FINRA Case No. 07-02717. We represented two orphans who lost their entire inheritance when their long-time family friend and trustee, an LPL broker, stole their entire inheritance. The award included interest and legal fees to make our clients whole.
2005
$450,000.00 – Exline v. ABD Financial Services, et al., NASD Case No. 04-03461. We represented a young, successful businesswoman who suffered a substantial loss of her life savings based on the self-interested and negligent advice of her friend and trusted financial advisor.
2004
$750,000.00 – Joyce S. Douglas 1998 Revocable Trust v. Morgan Stanley DW, Inc., NYSE Case No. 2003-011292. We represented an elderly, mentally incapacitated woman who suffered a substantial loss of her life savings at the hands of a negligent Morgan Stanley broker who decimated her savings at his and his firm’s benefit.
$153,500.00 – Gertrude Goldstein Revocable Trust v. American Skandia, et al., NASD Case No. 03-03319. We helped our client, a 93-year-old widow, recover losses she sustained on purchasing an unsuitable life insurance annuity. The evidence at hearings showed the broker had forged a beneficiary’s signature. We recovered all of our client’s losses.
2002
$167,896.00 – Hae Sim Lee, et al. v. Charles Schwab, NASD Case No. 01-00947. We recovered losses sustained by a Korean client who was taken advantage of by a fellow Korean, Charles Schwab’s broker who deceived her as to the amount of gains, and losses, she sustained in her account.
2001
$450,000.00 – Vito Colonna, et al. v. Merrill Lynch, et al., NASD Case No. 99-05049. We recovered losses our client sustained when a Merrill broker induced him to switch his entire portfolio from U.S. treasuries to a handful of speculative, foreign telecommunications stocks.
2000
$426,160.00 – Ray Neufeld, et al. v. Maurice Arthur Gross, et al., NASD Case No. 99-02210. We helped our clients recover losses they sustained arising out of unsuitable investment advice they received from their trusted financial advisor.
1996
$122,359.00 – Financial Northeastern Securities, Inc. v. Norman Steel, et al., NASD Case No. 94-04965. We successfully defended our broker-dealer client in a case against it by a sophisticated Michigan builder who hand-picked, selected, and purchased $10 million of CDO’s (collateralized debt obligations) and then alleged the investments were unsuitable. We proved to the panel the investor was highly sophisticated; understood the nature of the investments; and the inherent risks. All claims against our client were dismissed and we recovered over $120,000 of legal fees and costs our client incurred in defending itself.
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The cases and results described above are not intended to constitute and shall not be construed as a guarantee, warranty, or prediction regarding the outcome of a potential legal claim. Every case is different, and the outcome of a particular case will depend on a number of factors and circumstances unique to that particular legal matter. Call us to discuss your particular legal need:
San Diego
(619) 696-9500
Irvine
(949) 451-6800
Los Angeles
(310) 430-4688
San Francisco
(415) 282-4200
New York
(212) 688-5900