Emma Gilmore Named to Benchmark Litigation Shortlist for Plaintiff Litigator of the Year
Pomerantz is proud to announce that Partner Emma Gilmore has been shortlisted for Benchmark Litigation’s 2023 Plaintiff Litigator of the Year award.
Benchmark’s annual awards recognize and honor “the country's most distinguished litigators and their firms for their exemplary work over the last twelve months.”
In September 2022, Emma scored a major victory for investors by securing a settlement to end a securities litigation against Deutsche Bank AG., The complaint alleges that Deutsche Bank represented that it had robust anti-money-laundering and Know Your Customer policies, when, in reality, it either failed to properly monitor or gave exemptions to high-risk, high-wealth customers such as Jeffrey Epstein, an accused sex offender, and foreign oligarchs who sponsor terrorism. The recovery represents almost 50% of the likely recoverable damages, an extraordinarily high percentage for such a case. Stated Emma, “As a woman prosecuting the case against Deutsche Bank, this victory is all the more rewarding.”
Emma led Pomerantz attorneys and twenty-seven independent experts in submitting an amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court in Goldman Sachs Group Inc. et al v. Arkansas Teachers Retirement System, et al. It was the sole amicus brief submitted on a hotly contested issue: whether, to rebut the presumption of reliance originated by the Court in the landmark Basic v. Levinson decision, defendants bear the burden of persuasion, or whether they bear only the much lower burden of production. The Supreme Court, in a 6-3 decision, ruled in favor of the arguments presented by Pomerantz on this issue. This win ensures that investors can continue aggregating their securities fraud claims as a class by safeguarding the vitality of the Basic presumption of reliance that a plurality of the Supreme Court established decades ago.
Alongside Managing Partner Jeremy Lieberman, Emma led the Firm’s historic class action litigation against Brazil’s largest oil company, Petrobras – which arose from a multi-billion-dollar kickback and bribery scheme – and achieved a record-breaking $3 billion settlement for defrauded investors. Emma also played an instrumental role in securing ground-breaking precedents in the litigation at the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
Emma has been named by Benchmark Litigation as one of the Top 250 Women Lawyers in the U.S. from 2020 through 2022. In 2021, Emma was awarded a place on the National Law Journal’s Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar list. Both the National Law Journal and the New York Law Journal honored her as a “Plaintiffs’ Lawyer Trailblazer.” Emma was honored by Law360 in 2018 as an MVP in Securities Litigation, part of an “elite slate of attorneys [who] have distinguished themselves from their peers by securing hard-earned successes in high-stakes litigation, complex global matters and record-breaking deals.” Only up to six attorneys nationwide are selected each year as MVPs in Securities Litigation. Emma was the first woman plaintiff attorney to receive this award since it was initiated in 2011. She has also been honored as a Super Lawyer® every year since 2018 and recognized by Lawdragon as one of the top 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers.
Benchmark will announce the 2023 Plaintiff Litigator of the Year at their U.S. Awards event on March 15, 2023, in New York City.