David Kessler

This securities fraud class action in Manhattan federal court arose out of Pfizer’s concealment of clinical results for two arthritic pain drugs, Celebrex and Bextra. Despite being aware of significant cardiovascular adverse events in clinical trials, Pfizer misrepresented the safety profile of the drugs until the U.S. Food & Drug Administration discontinued a key trial, forced the withdrawal of Bextra from the market, and issued an enhanced warning label for Celebrex. Following a summary judgment order dismissing the case several weeks before trial was set to begin, we successfully appealed the dismissal at the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit and the case was remanded for trial.

After twelve years of litigation, the case resolved in 2016 with Pfizer agreeing to pay the shareholder class $486 million, the largest-ever securities fraud settlement against a pharmaceutical company in the Southern District of New York.

Obtained a $2.4 billion settlement in litigation against Bank of America (BoA) relating to its merger with Merrill Lynch & Co. (Merrill). Our clients, Dutch National pension fund PGGM and Swedish National pension fund AP4, alleged that BoA gave shareholders false and misleading information about Merrill’s financial condition and obligations prior to a key vote on the merger. 

The settlement, which included an undertaking to improve corporate governance policies, was the 6^th-largest ever in a securities class action and the largest so far to come out of the subprime meltdown and credit crisis.

This landmark $3.2 billion settlement included the largest securities class action recovery from a single corporate defendant in history ($2.975 billion), and the second largest auditor settlement ($225 million) in securities class action history at the time. 

The action asserted federal securities claims on behalf of all purchasers of Tyco International, Ltd. (Tyco) securities over a two-and-a-half-year period during which Tyco allegedly overstated its income through a multitude of accounting manipulations, and was subject to looting and self-dealing by its officers and directors. Developing critical areas of law, the litigation overcame defendants’ arguments that the class should recover nothing because Tyco had been defrauded by its own management. 

In one of the most significant cases arising out of the financial crisis, we recovered $627 million for purchasers of certain Wachovia Corporation (Wachovia) preferred securities.

Our client, the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Pension Fund, alleged that registration statements, prospectuses and prospectus supplements used to market 30 separate offerings had contained materially false and misleading statements and omissions regarding Wachovia’s liquidity and portfolio value. The settlement included a $37 million recovery from the company’s outside auditor.