Michael Grunfeld and Austin P. Van Named to Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under Hot List

Pomerantz is proud to announce that Partners Michael Grunfeld and Austin P. Van were named to Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under Hot List for 2020.

The list honors the most notable, up-and-coming litigation partners in the United States, ages 40 years or younger, who play crucial roles in their firms’ “most noteworthy recent cases and have earned praise from clients and peers regarding the quality of their work.”

Michael played a key role in shepherding the historic $3 billion settlement in In re Petrobras Securities Litigation, No. 1:14-cv-09662 (S.D.N.Y.), to submission and court approval, serving as the point person in drafting the settlement papers, negotiating the settlement details with defendants, and strategizing how to protect the settlement from objections.

Michael also played an integral role in Pomerantz’s ground-breaking litigation against Yahoo! Inc. for Yahoo’s alleged failure to disclose data breaches that occurred in 2014 and 2015 – the two largest data breaches in history at the time. In re Yahoo! Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 5:17-cv-00373 (N.D. Cal.) The force of his arguments in the plaintiffs’ opposition to defendants’ motion to dismiss briefing directly led defendants to the negotiating table, ultimately resulting in an $80 million settlement that made history as the first substantial shareholder recovery in a securities fraud class action related to a cybersecurity breach.

Michael leads the litigation in Lerman, et al. v. Apple Inc., No. 1:15-cv-7381-SJ-LB (E.D.N.Y.), which is a putative consumer class action against Apple related to the allegation that the iOS 9 operating system harmed the performance of iPhone 4s devices. He also leads the Firm’s litigation in a series of cases against Chinese companies that are alleged to have delisted from U.S. stock exchanges at deflated values without disclosing to shareholders their intent to extract greater value out of the companies through relisting and other extraordinary transactions following their privatization. These cases include ODS Capital LLC v. JA Solar Holdings Co., Ltd., et al., 18-cv-12083 (S.D.N.Y.) and Altimeo Asset Management v. WuXi Pharmatech (Cayman) Inc., et al., 19-cv-1654 (S.D.N.Y.).

Austin, with Pomerantz Managing Partner Jeremy Lieberman, heads the firm’s representation of lead plaintiffs in this securities class action against the drug behemoth Mylan N.V.  This multi-billion-dollar litigation is one of the largest securities class actions pending anywhere.  The complaint alleges that Mylan misled investors about wide-ranging wrongful conduct in what some estimate to be the largest price-fixing conspiracy in U.S. history. 

Austin also serves as the partner in charge of Pomerantz’s multi-billion-dollar securities class action against TechnipFMC, an oil and gas services provider.  Austin personally uncovered the theory of this case:  that TechnipFMC massively overstated its net income in its initial registration statement due to its use of incorrect foreign exchange rates. He currently leads the preparation for trial, where he will represent the class before the Court and jury.

Austin also recently secured highly favorable settlements in Too v. Rockwell Medical, Inc., No. 1:18-cv-04253 (E.D.N.Y.), In re Sunrun Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 3:17-cv-02537 (N.D. Cal.) and In re Stemline Therapeutics, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 1:17-cv-00832.