Pomerantz LLP

Securities Litigation

Partner

A Partner since 2013, Matthew L. Tuccillo joined Pomerantz in 2011.  With 22+ years of experience, he is recognized as a top national securities litigator.

Matt was named a Super Lawyers® “Top-Rated Securities Litigation Attorney” (2016-present), Legal 500 recommended securities litigator (2021, 2016), Benchmark Litigation Star (2021), American Lawyer Northeast Trailblazer (2021), Lawdragon Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer (2019-2020), Lawyer Monthly’s 2018 U.S. Federal Tort Lawyer of the Year (2018), and Martindale-Hubbell AV® Preeminent™ peer-rated attorney (2014-present).  His advocacy has been covered by Bloomberg, Law360, the Houston Chronicle, the Hartford Business Journal, and other outlets.

Matt regularly serves as Pomerantz’s lead litigator on securities fraud lawsuits pending nationwide, including these representative matters:

•           In Edwards v. McDermott Int’l, Inc., No. 4:18-cv-4330-AB (S.D. Tex.), Matt successfully opposed a motion to dismiss class action claims alleging a multi-year, several-prong fraud by a leading oil and gas technology, engineering, and construction company that completed a risky merger, belatedly reported massive write-downs of distressed projects, and declared bankruptcy.  The lawsuit is proceeding through discovery.

•           In Odonate Therapeutics, Inc., et al., No. 3:20-01828-H-LL (S.D. Cal.), Matt successfully opposed a motion to dismiss in a securities lawsuit arising from a company’s failure to complete clinical trials and gain FDA approval of a drug candidate.  Notably, the court held that defendants’ scienter was sufficiently alleged, even though they bought, rather than sold, company stock during the period of alleged fraud.  After a mediation, the case settled for $12.75 million, and the settlement was granted preliminary approval by the court in early 2022.

•           In Chun v. Fluor Corp., et al., No. 3:18-cv-01338-S (N.D. Tex.), working with co-lead counsel, Matt succeeded in partially opposing the motion to dismiss a class action lawsuit alleging a company’s underbidding and misrepresenting the status of large, fixed-price projects.  After a lengthy mediation process, a tentative settlement has been reached, for which court approval will be sought in early 2022.

•           In Crutchfield v. Match Group, et al., No. 3:19-cv-2356 (N.D. Tex.), Matt persuaded the court, after an initial dismissal, to uphold a second amended complaint alleging a multi-year, multi-prong fraud by the largest online dating company, based on misstatements and nondisclosures as to underlying bad actor user accounts, marketing based thereon, and the impacts to the company’s GAAP-compliant reported results.  The lawsuit is proceeding through discovery.

•           In In re BP p.l.c. Secs. Litig., No. 4:10-md-2185 (S.D. Tex.), where the court praised the “uniformly excellent” “quality of lawyering,” Matt spearheaded lawsuits over BP’s Gulf of Mexico oil spill by 125+ global institutional investors.  Over 9 years, he successfully opposed three motions to dismiss, oversaw e-discovery of 1.75 million documents, led the Plaintiffs Steering Committee, was the sole interface with BP and the Court, and secured some of the Firm’s most ground-breaking rulings.  In a ruling of first impression, he successfully argued that investors asserted viable English law “holder claims” for losses due to retention of already-owned shares in reliance on a fraud, a theory barred under U.S. law since Blue Chip Stamps v. Manor Drug Stores, 421 U.S. 723 (1975).  He successfully argued against forum non conveniens (wrong forum) dismissal of 80+ global institutions’ lawsuits - the first ruling after Morrison v. Nat’l Australia Bank Ltd., 130 S. Ct. 2869 (2010), to permit foreign investors to pursue in U.S. court their foreign law claims for losses in a foreign company’s securities traded on a foreign exchange.   He successfully argued that the U.S. Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (SLUSA), which extinguishes U.S. state law claims in deference to the U.S. federal law, should not extend to the foreign law claims of U.S. and foreign investors, a ruling that saved those claims from dismissal where U.S. federal law afforded no remedy after Morrison.  In 2021, Matt achieved mediator-assisted, confidential, favorable monetary settlement for all 35 Firm clients, including public and private pension funds, money management firms, partnerships, and trusts from the U.S., Canada, the U.K., France, the Netherlands, and Australia.

•           In In re Toronto-Dominion Bank Securities Litigation, No. 1:17-cv-01735 (D.N.J.), Matt pled a multi-year fraud arising at one of Canada’s largest banks, based on extensive statements by former employees detailing underlying retail banking misconduct.  Matt persuaded the court to reject defendants’ motion to dismiss and to approve a $13.25 million class-wide settlement.

•           In Perez v. Higher One Holdings, Inc., et al., No. 14-cv-00755-AWT (D. Conn.), Matt persuaded the court, after an initial dismissal, to uphold a second amended complaint asserting five threads of fraud by an education funding company and its founders and to approve a $7.5 million class-wide settlement.  Notably, the court held that the company’s reported financial results violated SEC Regulation S-K, Item 303, for failure to disclose known trends and impacts from underlying misconduct – a rare ruling absent an accounting restatement.

•           In re KaloBios Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 15-cv-05841 (N.D. Cal.) concerned a bankrupt drug company and its jailed ex-CEO.  Matt negotiated two class-wide settlements totaling $3.25+ million, including cash payments and stock from the company, approved by the bankruptcy court and district court.

•           In re Silvercorp Metals, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 1:12-cv-09456 (S.D.N.Y.) concerned a Canadian company with mining operations in China and NYSE-traded stock.  Matt worked with mining, accounting, damages, and market efficiency experts to survive a motion to dismiss, oversee discovery, and negotiate a $14 million class-wide settlement after two mediations.  In approving the settlement, Judge Rakoff called the case was “unusually complex,” given the technical nature of mining metrics, the need to compare mining standards in Canada, China, and the U.S., and the volume of Chinese-language evidence.

Matt’s prior casework includes litigation and resolution of complex disputes over roll up combinations. At Pomerantz, he was on the multi-firm team that litigated and settled In re Empire State Realty Trust, Inc. Investor Litig., No. 650607/2012 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.), representing investors in public and private commercial real estate interests against the Empire State Building’s long-term lessees/operators regarding a consolidation, REIT formation, and IPO centered around it.  These efforts achieved broad class-wide relief, including a $55 million cash/securities settlement fund, a $100 million tax benefit from restructured terms, remedial disclosures, and deal protections.

Matt regularly counsels institutional investors, both foreign and domestic, regarding pending or contemplated complex litigation in the U.S.  He is skilled at identifying potential securities frauds early, regularly providing clients with the first opportunity to evaluate and pursue their claims, and he has worked extensively with outside investment management firms retained by clients to identify a winning set of supporting evidence.  When litigation is filed, he fully oversees its conduct and resolution, counseling clients throughout every step of the process.  These skills have enabled him to sign numerous institutional clients for litigation and portfolio monitoring services, including public and private pension plans, investment management firms and sponsored investment vehicles, from both the U.S. and abroad.  Matt’s clients have successfully litigated claims in the BP, McDermott, and Fluor litigations discussed above.

Matt’s signed clients include public and private pension funds and money management firms from the U.S. and abroad.  He takes great pride in representing union clients.  He got his own union card as a teenager (United Food & Commercial Workers International Union, Local 371), following in the footsteps of his grandfather (International Brotherhood of Teamsters, Local 560).

Before joining Pomerantz, Matt worked at a large full-service firm and plaintiff-side boutique firms in Boston and Connecticut, litigating complex business disputes and securities, consumer, and employment class actions.  His pro bono work included securing Social Security benefits for a veteran with non-service-related disabilities.

Mr. Tuccillo is a member of the American Bar Association and the American Association for Justice. He is admitted to practice in New York and Connecticut; the United States District Courts for the Districts of Massachusetts, Connecticut, the Southern District of New York, the Eastern District of New York the Northern District of Illinois, and the Southern District of Texas; the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits; and the Supreme Court of the United States.

Mr. Tuccillo is a 1995 graduate of Wesleyan University. As an alumnus, he has devoted considerable time to Wesleyan’s pre-law programs, co-authoring and periodically updating its pre-law student guidebook and serving on numerous panels. He currently serves as Secretary and Executive Board member of the Wesleyan Lawyers Association. In 1999 Mr. Tuccillo graduated from the Georgetown University Law Center in 1999, where he made the Dean’s List. He competed on and later coached Georgetown’s award-winning team in the Philip C. Jessup International Law Moot Court Competition, was Foreign Publications Editor of the Georgetown International Environmental Law Review, and participated in Georgetown’s top-ranked clinical program, representing the Mattaponi Tribe in its fight to block a Virginia dam project on ancestral burial grounds.

Mr. Tuccillo volunteers his time running his children’s award-winning elementary school chess club, whose 100+ members frequently compete in external tournaments, participate in goodwill exchanges to spread the game to other children, and won a 2018 State Championship.