Achyut J. Phadke

Achyut J. Phadke

Achyut J. Phadke is a partner in the San Francisco office of Munger, Tolles & Olson.

He focuses on high-stakes securities and technology-related disputes. He regularly represents publicly traded companies and their officers and directors in securities class actions, shareholder litigation and government and internal investigations, and he has represented leading financial institutions in securities litigation. He also represents and advises technology companies in complex business disputes.

Mr. Phadke is Co-Chair of the ABA’s Securities Litigation Committee and has spoken and written on securities law topics. He also maintains an active pro bono practice. He helped lead litigation to open Foothills Park in Palo Alto to non-residents and overturn a ban on non-resident access that had been in place for over 50 years, a result that was recognized by the Daily Journal. He also represented the ACLU of Northern California in public records act litigation related to California’s proposed lethal injection regulations. Mr. Phadke is a past board member of the South Asian Bar Association of Northern California.

Mr. Phadke graduated from Stanford Law School with distinction, where he was elected to Order of the Coif and was an articles editor on the Stanford Law Review. After law school, he served as a law clerk with the Honorable Pamela Ann Rymer of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Experience

Key Representations

  • Granite Construction and its board of directors in successfully resolving multi-jurisdictional securities litigation, multiple shareholder derivative actions, and an SEC investigation relating to Granite’s earnings restatement. 
  • Mattel and its executives in a federal securities class action alleging illegal channel-stuffing, securing dismissal of all claims and affirmance of the dismissal order on appeal in the Ninth Circuit. 
  • Mattel and its executives in a federal securities class action alleging misrepresentations relating to cost-savings initiatives, securing dismissal of all claims, after which plaintiffs voluntarily dismissed the case with prejudice while waiving all appellate rights.  
  • The CEO of a Fortune 10 company in a shareholder derivative action alleging breach of fiduciary duty. 
  • Bank of America and Merrill Lynch in securities and state common law fraud cases in federal courts in California, New York, New Jersey, and Colorado relating to the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities. In many of these cases, MTO secured dismissal of all or a substantial portion of plaintiffs’ claims.
  • Majority shareholders of Books-a-Million in litigation challenging the company’s go-private transaction, securing dismissal with prejudice before Delaware Chancery Court.
  • Wachovia Securities in multiple securities actions brought by the National Credit Union Administration as liquidator of failed credit unions.
  • Hewlett Packard in successfully defeating a putative class plaintiff’s appeal from denial of class certification in a case alleging the improper escheatment of shareholders’ stock.
  • Intel Corporation and Intel Capital in numerous complex commercial and securities disputes.
  • Numerous internal and SEC investigations of publicly traded corporations and their current or former officers.