Berman Tabacco

Securities, Shareholder Rights and Corporate Governance

Partner

Nathaniel L. Orenstein is a partner in Berman Tabacco’s Boston office. He has dedicated his career to working on behalf of investors and consumers who have been harmed by improper actions by companies, their executives, and/or directors. Skilled in all phases of litigation, Nathaniel works tirelessly on behalf of his clients and the classes they represent, relishing opportunities to demonstrate corporate wrongdoing to juries at trial.

Prior to joining the firm, Nathaniel was the lead attorney on several high-profile securities fraud regulatory actions for the Securities Division of the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. Before that, while studying law at New York University, Nathaniel was a legal intern in the Investor Protection Bureau of the New York State Office of the Attorney General. Also, while in law school, Nathaniel was president of the Public Interest Law Foundation, raising and awarding thousands of dollars to deserving public interest projects.

Before studying law, Nathaniel was the Associate Director of the Center for Insurance Research, a consumer advocacy organization. In this role he supported complex litigation matters and advanced public policy initiatives involving insurance and banking industries and mutual holding company conversions.

Nathaniel has been ranked by Benchmark Litigation as a Massachusetts Future Star (2021-2024).  In 2020-2023, Nathaniel was named a Super Lawyer by New England/Massachusetts Super Lawyers .  He had previously been named a Rising Star by New England Super Lawyers in 2014 and 2015.

EXPERIENCE

Serves as one of the firm’s lead attorneys representing co-lead plaintiff in a derivative action captioned Teamsters Local 443 Health Services & Ins. Plan, et al. v. Chou (AmerisourceBergen Corp.), No. 2019-0816 (Del. Ch.) alleging that certain of AmerisourceBergen’s officers and directors breached their fiduciary duties to the company in connection with a scheme to produce and market unapproved prefilled syringes, which resulted in more than $875 million in penalties and fines to the company. The Court denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss the derivative case on August 24, 2020 after full briefing and hearing. Served as one of the firm’s lead attorneys representing co-lead plaintiff in a derivative action captioned Norfolk County Retirement System v. Smith (Sinclair Broadcast Group Derivative Action), No. 18-cv-03952 (D. Md.). Plaintiffs alleged that Sinclair’s controlling shareholders and Board breached their fiduciary duties by knowingly and intentionally misleading the U.S. Department of Justice and U.S. Federal Communications Commission in their review of a proposed merger between Sinclair and Tribune Media Company. In 2020, the case settled for substantial corporate governance reforms, comprised of, among other things, the creation of two new board committees, along with nearly $25 million in financial recovery, $4.76 million of which is to be paid directly by individual defendants. In approving the settlement, the Court noted that “[i]n this case, plaintiffs’ counsel secured an excellent settlement that includes significant corporate governance reforms that would not have resulted from a trial on the merits.” Served as one of the firm’s lead attorneys representing institutional and individual clients in a number of cases involving mergers in which shareholders of the acquired companies received inadequate consideration. These cases include, for example: In re Bluegreen Corporation Shareholder Litigation, Case No. 502011CA018111 (Fla.) (first, increased merger consideration by $75 million, then settled for additional $36.5 million); In re TPC Group Inc. Shareholders Litigation, C.A. No. 7865 (Del. Ch.) (increased merger consideration by $79 million); In re El Paso Corporation Shareholder Litigation, C.A. No. 6949-CS (Del. Ch.) ($110 million monetary recovery for El Paso shareholders). Served as one of the firm’s lead attorneys and trial counsel in MAZ Partners LP v. Bruce A. Shear, et al., No. 1:11-cv-11049 (D. Mass., 2011), a case that was tried for nine days and resulted in a post-trial verdict requiring defendants to pay $3 million in disgorgement. Served as one of the firm’s lead attorneys in In re: Columbia Gas Cases, C.A. No. 1877CV01343G (Mass. Super. Ct. Essex County), in which the firm served as a member of Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee and Plaintiffs’ Steering Committee representing three residents of Andover, Massachusetts. The litigation was filed in the wake of the September 13, 2018, catastrophe in which the over-pressurization of natural gas lines caused widespread explosions and fires in the Merrimack Valley of Massachusetts. Thousands of residents were displaced and suffered significant physical and emotional injury. Plaintiffs’ counsel negotiated an extraordinary $143 million, non-reversionary settlement fund for the benefit of the proposed class of residents, property owners and businesses in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover. Served as one of the firm’s lead attorneys representing a class of foreign investors who sought to obtain green cards by investing in the Jay Peak ski resort through the Federal EB-5 Immigrant Investor Program, in Daccache v. Raymond James Financial, Inc., et al., No. 1:16-cv-21575 (S.D. Fla.), which resulted in a $150 million monetary recovery for defrauded limited partnerships. Served as a member of the litigation team In re TFT-LCD (Flat Panel) Antitrust Litigation, No. M:07-cv-01827 (N.D. Cal.), which resulted in total settlements of $437 million. Member of the firm’s litigation team in In re American Home Mortgage Securities Litigation, No. 07-MD-1898 (E.D.N.Y.), which settled for $37.25 million.

Boston Bar Association Boston Bar Association, Steering Committee on Multi-District Litigation and Class Actions

New York University School of Law (J.D., 2005) Bates College (B.A., Economics, 1997)

Member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Insurance Research