Omar Jafri
Partner
OFFICE
Chicago
PRACTICE AREAS
Securities Litigation
LAW SCHOOL
University of Illinois College of Law
ADMITTED
Illinois; the United States District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar) and the Northern District of Indiana; and the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits
CONTACT
Omar Jafri is a Partner at Pomerantz. He represents defrauded investors in individual and class action securities litigation. In 2021, Omar was recognized by the National Law Journal as a Rising Star of the Plaintiffs’ Bar. The National Law Journal selected lawyers who “demonstrated repeated success in cutting-edge work on behalf of plaintiffs over the last 18 months [and] possess a solid track record of client wins over the past three to five years.” In 2021, 2022 and 2023, Omar was recognized by Super Lawyers® as a Rising Star in Securities Litigation.
Omar has played an integral role in numerous cases where the Firm achieved significant recoveries for defrauded shareholders as Lead, Co-Lead or Additional Counsel, including: In re Chicago Bridge & Iron Co. N.V. Securities Litigation ($44 million recovery); In re Juno Therapeutics, Inc. Securities Litigation ($24 million recovery); In re Aveo Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Securities Litigation ($18 million recovery, which was more than four times larger than the SEC’s fair fund recovery in its parallel litigation); Sudunagunta v. NantKwest, Inc. ($12 million settlement); Cooper v. Thoratec Corporation et al. ($11.9 million settlement following a reversal in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit after the lower court repeatedly dismissed the case); Thomas v. MagnaChip Semiconductor Corp. Securities Litigation ($6.2 million settlement with majority shareholder, Avenue Capital); Solomon v. Sprint Corporation et al. ($3.75 million settlement); Schaeffer v. Nabriva Therapeutics plc et al. ($3 million settlement); and In re Sequans Communications S.A. Securities Litigation ($2.75 million settlement).
Through vigorous litigation, Omar has helped shape important precedents for all investors. NantKwest was the first case in the United States to recognize statistical proof of traceability. In Roofer’s Pension Fund v. Papa et al., the District Court independently analyzed the market of a security traded on a foreign exchange and found that it met the standards of market efficiency to allow for class certification for the first time since the U.S. Supreme Court decided Morrison. Nabriva was the first case in the Second Circuit to sustain a complaint based on the failure to disclose the FDA’s serious criticisms identified in a Form 483 letter. In Yan v. ReWalk Robotics et al., while the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit disagreed on the merits, the Circuit held that it is erroneous to dismiss a case for lack of standing when a named plaintiff can be substituted with another class member, shutting the door on such defense tactics in any future case filed in that Circuit. In re Bed Bath & Beyond Corporation Securities Litigation was one of the first decisions in the country to conclude that the dissemination of a misleading emoji can be an actionable misrepresentation under the federal securities laws. And in Glazer Capital Management, L.P. et al. v. Forescout Technologies, Inc. et al., Omar won a rare reversal in a securities fraud class action in the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. In a published decision that reversed the dismissal in Forescout, the Ninth Circuit held that lower courts must not comingle the lower standard for falsity with the higher standard for scienter in analyzing the sufficiency of a securities fraud complaint, and repudiated numerous arguments concerning the testimony of Confidential Witnesses that the defense bar had convinced many lower courts to erroneously endorse over the years.
Omar started his legal career at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and has litigated major disputes on behalf of institutional investors arising out of the credit crisis, including disputes related to Collateralized Debt Obligations, Residential Mortgage-Backed Securities, Credit Default Swaps and other complex financial investments. Omar also represented the Examiner in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy, the largest in history at the time, and helped draft a report that identified colorable claims against Lehman’s senior executives for violating their fiduciary duties. He also has a robust pro bono criminal defense practice and has represented indigent defendants charged with crimes that range from simple battery to arson and murder.
Before joining Pomerantz, Omar was a law clerk to Judge William S. Duffey, Jr. of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia, and an associate at an international law firm where he represented clients in a wide variety of matters, including securities litigation, complex commercial litigation, white collar criminal defense, and internal investigations.
Omar is a 2004 honors graduate of the University of Texas at Austin, and a 2008, magna cum laude, graduate of the University of Illinois College of Law, where he was inducted into the Order of the Coif and received the Rickert Award for Excellence in Advocacy. He is a fellow of the American Bar Foundation.
Omar is admitted to practice in Illinois; the United States District Courts for the Northern District of Illinois (Trial Bar) and the Northern District of Indiana; and the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Fifth, and Ninth Circuits.