Apart from their assigned mod courses, 1L students may only enroll in courses offered as 1L electives. A complete list of these courses can be found on the 1L Elective Listings page. 1L students must use the 1L class number listed on the course description when enrolling.
255.51 sec. 001 - Federal Securities and Corporate Governance Litigation (Spring 2025)
Instructor: Catherine Moreno (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
Instructor: Steven Schatz (view instructor's teaching evaluations - degree students only)
Instructor: Paul Vizcarrondo
View all teaching evaluations for this course - degree students only
Units: 2
Grading Designation: Graded
Mode of Instruction: In-Person
Meeting:
M 6:25 PM - 8:15 PM
Location: Law 113
From January 13, 2025
To April 29, 2025
Course End: April 29, 2025
Class Number: 32964
Enrollment info:
Enrolled: 18
Waitlisted: 0
Enroll Limit: 24
As of: 11/22 01:05 PM
A comprehensive course for students analyzing advanced topics in securities litigation and corporate governance litigation. This course will explore the strategic and tactical choices inherent in today’s litigation landscape, as well as underlying doctrinal principles. This course will provide students the opportunity to experience many aspects of securities and corporate governance litigation, ranging from the legal and doctrinal issues facing both plaintiffs and defendants to the strategic and tactical choices modern litigants must face.
Class discussions will incorporate hypotheticals that replicate typical shareholder lawsuits, such as allegations of product failures and delays, accounting issues, corporate governance issues, management and board breaches of fiduciary duties, fintech, crypto, and ESG. There will be an opportunity for students to participate as the “lawyers” in simulated cases, adopting various roles. The goal: a realistic picture of securities and governance litigation.
Steven Schatz recently retired as a senior litigation partner specializing in shareholder disputes
and fraud matters. He practiced for 50 years, the last 38 years as a senior partner at Wilson
Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto. Mr. Schatz was lead counsel in over 175 securities and M&A disputes in federal courts throughout the country and in state courts including California and Delaware. Many of Mr. Schatz’s matters were significant cases for well-known clients. Previously, Mr. Schatz served in the Securities Fraud Unit as an Assistant U.S. Attorney in the Criminal Division of the U.S. Attorney's office of the Southern Division of New York where among his trials are the successful prosecution of the former manager of the Beatles, Allen Klein. Currently, Mr. Schatz serves as an independent arbitrator and mediator affiliated with FedArb.
Paul Vizcarrondo is Of Counsel to Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz, where he was a litigation partner for 40 years. Among the matters in which Mr. Vizcarrondo has been lead counsel in federal and state courts throughout the United States have been cases alleging violations of federal securities and state corporate laws, as well as major corporate contract disputes, and he has tried many to verdicts in favor of his clients, including from juries. Before joining Wachtell, Lipton, Mr. Vizcarrondo served as an Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, including in the Securities Fraud Unit, where he obtained convictions from juries in major securities, commodities and tax fraud cases.
Catherine Moreno has been a securities litigator for over 20 years, and was a partner at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati for over a decade. She has represented companies, their officers, and directors in dozens of securities class actions, derivative lawsuits, internal investigations and SEC investigations. She has regularly counseled companies on matters of corporate governance and fiduciary duties, and is a frequent speaker and lecturer on matters of securities fraud, disclosure issues, and insider trading.
* There is no textbook for this course. All materials will be posted on bCourses*
Attendance at the first class is mandatory for all currently enrolled and waitlisted students; any currently enrolled or waitlisted students who are not present on the first day of class (without prior permission of the instructor) will be dropped. The instructor will continue to take attendance throughout the add/drop period and anyone who moves off the waitlist into the class must continue to attend or have prior permission of the instructor in order not to be dropped.
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Requirements Satisfaction:
This class may be counted as either an Option 1 class (two Option 1 classes satisfy the J.D. writing requirement) or units from this class may count toward the J.D. Experiential Requirement. This class may count for both requirements if and only if a student is electing Option 1 and the student's other Option 1 class being used to satisfy the J.D. writing requirement is not being counted towards any other requirement. |
Exam Notes: (P) Final paper
(Subject to change by faculty member only through the first two weeks of instruction)
Course Category: Business Law
This course is listed in the following sub-categories:
Litigation and Procedure
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Readers:
No reader.
Books:
Instructor has indicated that no books will be assigned.