Law360 Names Motley Rice a 2021 Securities Practice Group of the Year
Law360 recognized Motley Rice’s Securities and Consumer Fraud team as a 2021 Practice Group of the Year today, citing the firm’s role in negotiating an $809.5 million settlement for Twitter, Inc. shareholders. Other case involvement, such as leadership in the multidistrict litigation over the Blackbaud data breach and the resolution of litigation filed for SCANA Corp. shareholders, the largest securities class action settlement ever reached in the District of the South Carolina, also garnered attention from Law360.
View Law360’s full feature on Motley Rice’s securities practice here.
Motley Rice attorneys Max Gruetzmacher, Gregg Levin, Meghan Oliver, and Lance Oliver served as Lead Counsel for Twitter shareholders and reached the $809.5 million settlement days before trial in the Northern District of California. Shareholders had alleged the social media network and two of its former senior executives inflated the company’s stock price in 2015 by misleading the public on daily user growth and other metrics.
In an interview with Law360, Meghan Oliver said cases like In re Twitter Inc. Securities Litigation are “critical to the proper functioning of the markets in this country.” She added “the size of the result shows how some of these more subtle frauds can have just as significant an impact on the market.”
Securities trials are a rarity, Lance Oliver told Law360, and this case is unique in that it resolved the Friday before trial.
“We were very proud," Lance Oliver told Law360. "We felt like we brought the team up to the level that we'd always been shooting for."
Motley Rice’s trial and litigation experience across numerous practice areas bolstered the firm’s ability to navigate a case of this magnitude during negotiations and in the courtroom, he told Law360.
Motley Rice was one of only five firms across the country recognized by Law360 in the securities category. Law360 also recognized Motley Rice in the Product Liability category, in addition to previous recognitions as a 2020 and 2019 Product Liability Group of the Year, a 2018 Consumer Protection Group of the Year and a “Most Feared Plaintiffs Firm” in 2013 and 2015.
Securities attorney Serena Hallowell, who joined Motley Rice in 2021, told Law360 that the firm’s experience litigating a broad range of high-profile cases across different practice areas is an asset when litigating its securities matters, which include complex class actions, opt outs, and SEC whistleblower cases filed under Dodd Frank.
“We’re able [to leverage] that diversity of perspective and knowledge when we litigate our securities cases,” Hallowell said.
In an interview with attorney Marlon Kimpson, co-lead counsel for the Blackbaud MDL and one of few African Americans to hold a leadership position in a major class action, told Law360 he predicts that shareholder protections will benefit from growing diversity that is evident within MDLs and other class actions nationwide, and that gender and ethnic diversity continues to be a priority internally within the firm.
“I think this firm has a bright, bright future, Kimpson said.”
View all the 2021 Practice Group of the Year award recipients here.
About Law360’s Practice Group of the Year Award
Law360 selected 186 winning groups across 39 practice areas for its 2021 Practice Groups of the Year award, the award’s 12th year. The award honors “the attorney teams behind litigation wins and major deals that resonated throughout the legal industry this past year,” according to Law360. In all, 91 law firms were selected from nearly 900 submissions. Read more about the selection criteria.