Benchmark Litigation names Motley Rice Plaintiff Firm of the Year
Benchmark Litigation U.S. Awards recognized Motley Rice in four categories at its annual ceremony in New York City on March 25, including 2022 Plaintiff Firm of the Year, citing the firm’s lead role in negotiating an $809.5 million settlement for Twitter shareholders as an achievement worthy of the award.
In addition to Plaintiff Firm of the Year, Benchmark awarded Motley Rice its S.C. State Award, where the firm is headquartered. Securities attorney Lance Oliver received two awards: Benchmark’s Plaintiff Litigator of the Year and its Impact Case award for his role as trial counsel for Twitter shareholders.
“A lot of hard work went into litigating this challenging case. To have that nationally recognized is an honor,” said Motley Rice attorney Lance Oliver. “We strive to achieve the best result possible for our clients, and I’m glad our team was able to accomplish that here.”
Motley Rice’s trial team, as Lead Counsel and co-Class Counsel, also included securities attorneys Max Gruetzmacher, Gregg Levin, Meghan Oliver and Meredith Weatherby in addition to Lance Oliver. Plaintiff shareholders had alleged that the social media giant and two of its former senior executives concealed the company’s declining daily user growth metrics to inflate its stock price between February and July of 2015. Motley Rice negotiated the $809.5 million agreement days before trial was set to begin in September 2021. It will likely be counted among the top 20 securities class action settlements in the history of the federal Private Securities Litigation Reform Act; the second-largest ever within the federal 9th Circuit; and the largest securities fraud settlement in U.S. history with a social media company. The case is captioned In re: Twitter Securities Litigation.
In addition to the latest Benchmark awards, legal publication Law360 recognized Motley Rice’s Securities and Consumer Fraud team as a 2021 Practice Group of the Year. AmLaw Litigation Daily also featured Lance Oliver in its Litigators of the Week column the week the settlement was announced.
About Benchmark Litigation
According to Benchmark Litigation, its guide is a result of months of research in which its researchers conduct interviews with litigators, dispute resolution specialists and their clients regarding recent casework handled by law firms and their professional opinion of their peers within their jurisdiction or practice area. This award was based on research conducted between February and October 2021. Visit the Benchmark Litigation website to view the listings and learn more about the methodology.
View our feature in the 2013 edition of Benchmark Plaintiff Litigation.