United States Second Circuit

In a securities fraud action against outside counsel for a corporation that allegedly made false statements in connection with a securities offering, the dismissal of the action is affirmed where: 1) a secondary actor can be held liable for false statements in a private damages action for securities fraud only if the statements were attributed to the defendant at the time the statements were disseminated; and 2) plaintiffs' claims that defendants participated in a scheme to defraud investors were not meaningfully distinguishable from the claim at issue in Stoneridge Inv. Ptnrs., LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., 552 U.S. 148 (2008).

Appellate Information

• Argued 12/14/2009
• Decided 04/27/2010
• Published 04/27/2010

Judges

• Before CABRANES and PARKER, Circuit Judges, and AMON, District Judge.

Court

• United States Second Circuit

Counsel

• For Appellant:
  
• James J. Sabella (Stuart M. Grant, Brenda F. Szydlo, Megan D. McIntyre, and Christine M. Mackintosh, on the brief), Grant & Eisenhoffer P.A., New York, NY, and Wilmington, DE, for plaintiff-appellant Pacific Investment Management Company LLC., John P. Coffey (Salvatore J. Graziano, John C. Browne, Elliott Weiss, Ann M. Lipton, and Jeremy P. Robinson, on the brief), Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP, New York, NY, for plaintiff-appellant RH Capital Associates LLC., Christopher Paik, Special Counsel (David M. Becker, General Counsel, and Jacob H. Stillman, Solicitor, on the brief), Securities and Exchange Commission, Washington, DC, for amicus curiae the Securities and Exchange Commission.


• For Appellees:
  
• John K. Villa (George A. Borden and Craig D. Singer, on the brief), Williams & Connolly LLP, Washington, DC, for defendant-appellee Mayer Brown LLP., William J. Schwartz (Jonathan P. Bach and Kathleen E. Cassidy, on the brief), Cooley Godward Kronish LLP, New York, NY, for defendant-appellee Joseph P. Collins., David M. Cooper (Donald B. Ayer and Peter J. Romatowski, on the brief), Jones Day, New York, NY, and Washington, DC, for amicus curiae Law Firms in support of appellees., Erik S. Jaffe, Erik S. Jaffe, P.C., Washington, DC, for amicus curiae former SEC Commissioners and Officials, Law and Finance Professors, and Securities Law Practitioners in support of appellees., Lucian T. Pera (Brian S. Faughnan, on the brief), Adams and Reese, LLP, Memphis, TN (Susan Hackett, Senior Vice President and General Counsel, Association of Corporate Counsel, Washington, DC, on the brief), for amicus curiae Association of Corporate Counsel in support of appellees., Gary A. Orseck (Lawrence S. Robbins, Roy T. Englert, Alan E. Untereiner, Katherine S. Zecca, and Damon W. Taaffe, on the brief), Robbins, Russell, Englert, Orseck, Untereiner & Sauber LLP, Washington, DC (Robin S. Conrad and Amar D. Sarwal, National Chamber Litigation Center, Washington, DC, on the brief), for amicus curiae Chamber of Commerce of the United States of America in support of appellees.