Our runners up for Litigator of the Week include Sandra Goldstein and Stefan Atkinson of Kirkland & Ellis, who succeeded in getting the Connecticut Superior Court to dismiss a federal securities case against client Pitney Bowes and its directors.
The case is notable because it was filed a few months after the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in Cyan v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund, which made clear that plaintiffs can bring lawsuits in state court under the Securities Act of 1933—a federal securities statute. But it hasn’t been clear how state courts would handle such claims. Here, the court adopted Kirkland’s argument that the securities laws didn’t obligate Pitney Bowes to disclose supposed challenges when it issued $700 million in debt in 2017.