George M. Garvey

Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in stockholder litigation challenging acquisitions by Berkshire of H.J. Heinz Company, Burlington Northern Santa Fe Corporation and Wesco Financial Corporation; and in litigation related to its acquisition of Pilot Travel Centers and its investment in USG Corporation.

Audit Committee of Baxter International, Inc. in overseeing the company’s internal investigation, earnings restatement and self-reporting to the SEC after the discovery that employees were effecting intra-company transactions for the purpose of generating foreign currency gains.

Founder of NetSuite, Inc. – won dismissal of claims against for allegedly aiding and abetting breaches of fiduciary duty on the part of Oracle’s executives in Oracle’s acquisition of NetSuite.

Founder/former CEO of Twitter, Inc. – won dismissal of securities class action that piggybacked on allegations made by Elon Musk in his unsuccessful effort to avoid completing his purchase of Twitter.

Rent-A-Center, Inc. in expedited trial establishing Rent-A-Center’s right to terminate a proposed merger, followed by a settlement enabling Rent-A-Center to collect a termination fee of $92.5 million.

Bank of America – won dismissals with prejudice in:

• securities class action that alleged that Bank of America should have disclosed threat by AIG to sue the bank over AIG’s mortgage-backed securities losses; court found that the bank’s statements were not misleading and that accounting standards did not require disclosure of the potential AIG lawsuit.
• Florida litigation for alleged misrepresentations in prospectuses of collateralized debt obligations.

Founder of a social media platform – defended in litigation challenging proposal to issue non-voting stock alleged to extend the founder’s control of the company; action dismissed as moot. Follow-on stockholder suit for damages was dismissed, with dismissal affirmed by the Delaware Supreme Court.

Avanos Medical, Inc. (formerly the medical products business of Kimberly-Clark Corporation) in litigation against Kimberly-Clark concerning indemnification for liabilities arising before the spin-off.

Founders of Google, Inc. – defended in litigation challenging proposal to issue non-voting stock alleged to extend the founders’ control of Google; a settlement reached the day before trial permitted the issuance of the challenged stock.

General Reinsurance Corporation in a case of first impression in Delaware, won dismissal of derivative action on in pari delicto grounds for financial counterparties who allegedly aided and abetted accounting fraud.

99 Cents Only Stores – successfully defended in litigation related to its going-private transaction.

The global markets arm of an international bank – successfully defended (and obtained an award of costs for):

• an arbitration alleging unfair competition and misappropriation of trade secrets in connection with the recruiting of the most successful financial advisors from competitor’s flagship office.
• an investment bank/broker-dealer in claims by failed technology company that the bank had wrongfully interfered with its efforts to obtain financing.

Simon Property Group, Inc. – successfully defended leading shopping center REIT against litigation brought by its former partner in the development of The Forum Shops at Caesars Palace. Action was settled for a confidential amount after client won dismissal or summary judgment on most of the claims (including all claims under federal and state securities and RICO laws) and an order striking the jury demand on the principal remaining claim.Confidential clients – represented in SEC investigations resulting in staff decisions not to recommend charges against those clients (subject matters included corporate acquisition disclosure issues, cybersecurity disclosures, municipal finance, investment advisor fees and Regulation FD).