Community Health Systems. Lowey served as lead counsel representing the New York City Pension Funds and the certified class of investors against one of the nation’s largest hospital systems, Community Health Systems (“CHS”).  After nearly 9 years of hard-fought litigation at the district court and appellate levels, Lowey achieved a $53 million settlement with CHS and the company’s CEO and former CFO, which was finally approved in all respects on June 19, 2020 and provided redress for investors in CHS common stock from July 2006 through October 2011.

Norfolk Retirement Systems v. Community Health Systems, Inc., No. 11-cv-00433 ( M.D. Tenn.) (ETR).

Xerox. Lowey Dannenberg served as class counsel, successfully challenging a multi-billion-dollar merger between Xerox Corp. and Affiliated Computer Systems (“ACS”), which overcompensated ACS’ former Chairman Darwin Deason at the expense of other shareholders. Following expedited proceedings, Lowey achieved a $69 million settlement, one of the five largest settlements in Chancery Court history at the time, as well as structural protections in the shareholder vote on the merger.

In re ACS Shareholder Litigation, Consolidated C.A. No. 4940-VCP (Del. Ch.)

Madoff feeder fund. Lowey Dannenberg served as lead counsel in litigation arising from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. On March 15, 2013, the Honorable Colleen McMahon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted final approval of the $219.9 million settlement. Plaintiffs in these cases asserted claims under the federal securities laws, ERISA, and state laws arising out of hundreds of millions of investment losses sustained by unions and other investors in Bernard Madoff feeder funds. The extraordinary recovery represents approximately 70% of investors’ losses. This settlement, combined with money the victims are expected to recover from a separate liquidation of Madoff assets, is expected to restore the bulk of the pension funds for the local unions and other class members. In granting final approval, Judge McMahon praised both the result and the legal work in the complex, coordinated actions, noting that “[i]n the history of the world there has never been such a response to a notice of a class action settlement that I am aware of, certainly, not in my experience,” and that “[t]he settlement process really was quite extraordinary.”  In her written opinion, Judge McMahon stated that “[t]he quality of representation is not questioned here, especially for those attorneys (principally from Lowey Dannenberg) who worked so hard to achieve this creative and, in my experience, unprecedented global settlement.”  In re Beacon Associates Litig., 09 CIV. 777 CM, 2013 WL 2450960, at *14 (S.D.N.Y. May 9, 2013).

In re Beacon Associates Litigation, Civ. Act. No. 09-CV-0777 (S.D.N.Y.); In re J.P. Jeanneret Associates, Inc., et al., 09-cv-3907 (S.D.N.Y.)

Juniper Networks. Lowey Dannenberg served as lead counsel, representing the New York City Pension Funds and related class members, alleging that Juniper Networks, Inc. fraudulently concealed the backdating of millions of stock options, resulting in a $900 million financial restatement. Lowey secured a $169.5 million settlement with Juniper and certain officers and directors and a $500,000 settlement with Ernst & Young LLP, the company’s auditors, one of the largest settlements in an options backdating case.

In re Juniper Networks, Inc. Sec. Litig., No. 06-04327 JW (N.D. Cal)

Philip Services. After seven years of hard-fought litigation in the District Court and the Second Circuit Court of Appeals, Lowey Dannenberg achieved a $79 million settlement on behalf of United States investors of Philip Services Corp., a bankrupt Canadian resource recovery company.

In re Philip Services Corp. Securities Litigation, No. 99-cv-835 (S.D.N.Y.)

WorldCom. Lowey Dannenberg’s innovative strategy and aggressive prosecution produced an extraordinary recovery for the New York City Pension Funds in the In re WorldCom, Inc. Securities Litigation, substantially superior to that of any other WorldCom investor in either class or opt-out litigation. Following our advice to opt out of a class action in order to litigate their claims separately, the New York City Pension Funds recovered almost $79 million, including 100% of their damages resulting from investments in WorldCom bonds.

In re WorldCom, Inc. Sec. Litig., No. 02 Civ. 3288 (S.D.N.Y.)

New York Stock Exchange/Archipelago. the Firm acted as Co-Lead Counsel for a class of seatholders seeking to enjoin the merger between the New York Stock Exchange and Archipelago Holdings, Inc. Lowey’s representation achieved revised merger terms, providing the seatholders with more than $250 million in additional consideration. The NYSE also agreed to retain an independent financial adviser to report on the fairness of the deal, while Plaintiffs provided their expert’s analysis of the new independent financial adviser’s report, both of which were provided to the seatholders prior to the merger vote. The Court noted that “these competing presentations provide a fair and balanced view of the proposed merger and present the NYSE Seatholders with an opportunity to exercise their own business judgment with eyes wide open. The presentation of such differing viewpoints ensures transparency and complete disclosure.”

In In re New York Stock Exchange/Archipelago Merger Litigation, (N.Y. Sup. Ct.)

Lowey maintains a corporate governance practice group, which prosecutes actions designed to redress breaches of fiduciary duties by corporate boards. Lowey’s corporate governance group focuses on remedying wrongdoing pertaining to important social issues, including #MeToo related violations, sexual harassment, racial discrimination, environmental pollution, child labor, and many other issues plaguing American corporations. In prosecuting derivative shareholder actions, Lowey seeks meaningful corporate reforms and, if applicable, the return of executive exit packages through companies’ clawback policies, both of which greatly enhance the corporate brand, and therefore, return value to shareholders.
Lowey’s current efforts include, among other things, representation of a New York public fund against a corporate board of a Fortune 500 company for pervasive sexual harassment and race and gender discrimination, in which Lowey demands corporate reforms and the return of certain executive’s exit pay.
In the past, Lowey interceded in a multi-billion-dollar merger between Xerox Corp. and Affiliated Computer Systems (“ACS”), which grossly favored ACS’s CEO at the expense of our client, Federated Investors, and other shareholders. See In re ACS Shareholder Litigation, Consolidated C.A. No. 4940-VCP (Del. Ch.). There, the self-dealing was thwarted, and reforms adopted to the full satisfaction of Federated Investors, other shareholders, and the Court. At the end, Lowey achieved a $69 million settlement on the eve of trial, along with structural protections in the shareholder vote on the merger.
Additionally, Lowey has secured meaningful corporate reforms, which returned significant value to shareholders in Omnicare, Inc. v. NCS Healthcare, Inc. 818 A.2d 914 (Del. 2003), where Lowey enjoined a proposed merger between NCS Healthcare, Inc. and Genesis Health Ventures, Inc., based on unfair merger lock-up provisions, providing NCS’s shareholders with an additional $99 million.

Dollar General. Lowey Dannenberg is currently prosecuting a shareholder derivative case against Dollar General’s Board of Directors and certain officers for its persistent failure to implement and maintain an effective system of internal controls in violation of their fiduciary duties surrounding workplace safety. Over the past eight years, Dollar General’s Board of Directors and certain officers have permitted and condoned hazardous working conditions for its employees and have shown a willful disregard for federal safety standards. Since 2017, the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (“OSHA”) has issued more than $15 million in fines against Dollar General and its subsidiary, Dolgencorp LLLC for numerous willful, repeat, and serious violations relating to unsafe working conditions. In addition to being one of OSHA’s top violators since 2016, Dollar General also fails to protect workers from violent crime, which has resulted in several deaths. This shareholder derivative action is currently pending in the Middle District of Tennessee and demands that Dollar General take all necessary actions to reform and improve its corporate governance. See Conforti v. Owen et al, No. 3:23-CV-00059 (M.D. Tenn.).