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

Pomerantz is proud to announce that Partners Michael Grunfeld and Austin P. Van were, for the second year in a row, named to Benchmark Litigation’s 40 & Under Hot List for 2021.

The list honors the most notable, up-and-coming litigation partners in the United States, ages 40 years or younger, who have played significant roles in some of their firms’ “most noteworthy recent cases and have earned praise from clients and peers regarding the quality of their work.” Honorees have established themselves in their respective practice areas, distinguishing themselves though a track record of superior recent case work, and earning exceptional feedback from peers and clients during Benchmark Litigation’s research review.

In June 2021, in a rare instance where he found himself siding with the defense, Michael Grunfeld, acting on behalf of the Colorado Public Employees’ Retirement Association as an intervenor, alongside defendant Johnson & Johnson (“J&J”), obtained an important victory for shareholders when the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted J&J’s and the Intervenors’ Motion to Dismiss an action seeking to have J&J shareholders vote on a proxy proposal instituting a corporate bylaw that would require all securities fraud claims against the company to be pursued through mandatory arbitration, which would would waive shareholders’ rights to bring securities class actions.

Michael has played a leading role in some of Pomerantz’s most significant class action litigations, including its case against Yahoo! Inc., arising out of one of the biggest data breaches in U.S. history, in which the Firm, as Lead Counsel, achieved an $80 million settlement on behalf of the Class. This settlement made history as the first substantial shareholder recovery in a securities fraud class action related to a cybersecurity breach. He also 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 on how to protect the settlement from objections.

Michael leads Pomerantz’s consumer class action against Apple, related to the allegation that the iOS 9 operating system harmed the performance of iPhone 4s devices (Lerman, et al. v. Apple Inc., No. 1:15-cv-7381-SJ-LB (E.D.N.Y.)). 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.

Austin Van led Pomerantz’s securities class action against TechnipFMC, an oil and gas services provider. He 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. After defeating the defendants’ motion to dismiss and successfully arguing for class certification, Austin led the class through complete preparations for trial.  The case settled in 2020 for approximately $20 million (Prause v. TechnipFMC plc, No. 4:17-cv-02368 (S.D.N.Y.)).

With Pomerantz Managing Partner Jeremy Lieberman, Austin leads the firm’s securities class action against drug behemoth Mylan N.V. (In re Mylan N.V. Securities Litigation, No. 1:16-CV-07926 (S.D.N.Y.)). This multi-billion-dollar litigation is one of the largest securities class actions pending anywhere, alleging 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 devised the central theories of the case and authored all three amended complaints and all of the lead plaintiffs’ three successful opposition briefs to the defendants’ motions to dismiss, in 2018, 2019, and 2020 respectively, as well as lead the plaintiffs’ successful arguments for class certification in 2019. In April 2020, the court rejected the defendants’ motion to dismiss the third amended complaint in a precedent-setting decision concerning scheme liability, and certified a class of investors spanning five years. The case is currently being prepared for trial.

Visit www.pomlaw.com to learn more about Michael Grunfeld and Austin P. Van.