In Re: Securities Fraud Class Action

Representation: Officers of Public Corporation

District Court – Western District of Pennsylvania

Situation: Because they were joined with their company and several other individuals as defendants in a securities fraud class action suit, two former officers of a Pittsburgh-based national corporation retained Bernstein and Bernstein, P.C. to represent them in the case with potential damages of more than $35 million.

Action: Working with (and sometimes against) the other defendants, the law firm united all involved parties with a strategy designed to press the company’s insurance companies into an active role in settling the case. These insurance companies held Errors and Omissions coverage, as well as Directors and Officers Liability coverage. Bernstein and Bernstein, P.C. worked to convince the insurance companies to shoulder the major burden of the settlement.

When the multi-million dollar settlement was reached, the law firm’s two clients paid less than $20,000 between them. With seven defendants and three insurance companies, based locally and in New York, the attorneys of Bernstein and Bernstein, P.C. provided services to reach a settlement costing their clients less than the potential cost of defense, had the case gone to trial.