NP represented Arkansas Public Employees Retirement System (“APERS”) and the Erie County (Pennsylvania) Employees Retirement System (“Erie”) as Class Counsel in this matter, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California (San Francisco). This was the first major case regarding “stock options backdating.” NP settled this case for $160.1 million. The settlement marks one, if not the, largest settlements ever in terms of the percentage of the class’ damages recovered. Indeed, depending on which damage model was accepted by the court and/or jury, the settlement marks close to a 100% recovery for the class. Further, at the time of settlement, it was the second-largest backdating settlement in history in terms of the total dollar amount of the settlement.
This case arose out of Brocade’s restatement of all of its financial statements over a five-year period. At the time we began prosecuting this case, the recent media headlines and outrage regarding options backdating had not yet begun. The complaint we filed against Brocade, and its officers and directors, set forth in precise, painstaking detail Brocade’s scheme to defraud investors by backdating option grants. It also formed the paradigm for subsequent backdating cases. This case has been featured in a Pulitzer Prize-winning series by the Wall Street Journal, as well as in articles in Bloomberg, the New York Times, the Washington Post, and Business Week.
The class was represented by NP partners Bradley Beckworth, Jeffrey Angelovich, and Susan Whatley.