Levine Lee LLP is one of the premier litigation boutiques in the United States, focused on helping clients through major, enterprise-threatening problems – whether complex business litigation, securities litigation, white-collar and securities enforcement defense, or corporate governance matters. Levine Lee’s record of success is based on having assembled a team of highly skilled attorneys unified by a desire to achieve exceptional results for their clients. The firm’s extensive experience in both complex civil litigation and white-collar criminal matters means that it is frequently called upon to handle sensitive matters of substantial potential exposure involving government investigations, business disputes, and shareholder and corporate governance issues on behalf of corporations, hedge funds, Boards of Directors, Special Committees, Trustees, and individual officers and directors. The firm is ranked by The Legal 500 and Chambers and for its Securities and White-collar practices, was awarded Law360’s 2022 White-collar Practice Group of the Year, is ranked by Benchmark Litigation in its highest category for Dispute Resolution, and has been similarly recognized by numerous other publications, including SuperLawyers, Lawdragon, and the National Law Journal.
Main areas of practice
Complex commercial litigation: The firm’s experience in high-stakes business disputes encompasses a wide range of industries, jurisdictions and subject matter areas. The firm’s attorneys are generalist litigators who resolve unique legal problems that often involve the intersection of multiple doctrines and venues, and do not lend themselves to ‘off the rack’ solutions. The firm’s cases have covered antitrust, securities, partnership, mergers and acquisitions, intellectual property, fiduciary duty, contract, bankruptcy, business tort, regulatory and First Amendment law. Its attorneys have represented clients in the investment banking, energy, entertainment, financial services, manufacturing, media, publishing, professional services and health care industries. Levine Lee has achieved victories for its clients in state and federal trial and appeals courts and arbitral tribunals. The firm has been retained at all stages of litigation proceedings, including taking over from other firms in the middle of a case and supplanting original counsel to appeal from adverse verdicts.
White-collar and securities enforcement: The firm has extensive experience in handling complex white-collar and securities enforcement matters. It has represented clients in matters initiated by the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority, the Department of Education, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, Congressional Committees, the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency, State Attorneys General and local prosecuting authorities. Levine Lee’s areas of expertise include investigations relating to compliance with the securities laws and regulations, accounting fraud, insider trading, mail and wire fraud, the Foreign Corrupt Practices Act, compliance with the Bank Secrecy Act and anti-money laundering requirements, international regulatory issues and public corruption. Several of the partners served as federal prosecutors and have worked extensively with other law enforcement and regulatory agencies.
Securities litigation: The firm has received significant recognition for its handling of bet-the-company securities litigation across a range of industries and subject matters, including being the only boutique firm ranked by Chambers in 2023 for Securities Litigation in New York. The firm has significant experience representing public companies and other organizations in the defense of federal securities class actions, shareholder derivative actions, and other complex civil litigation involving securities claims or issues.The firm has recently succeeded in achieving significant dismissals of securities class action claims for its clients based on novel and developing securities theories, and it has handled securities matters ranging from hundreds of millions to hundreds of billions in alleged damages.
Investigations and special assignments: The firm has extensive experience in handling investigations and special assignments for companies, Boards of Directors, Special Committees, and Trustees that are particularly sensitive, often where independence is essential. The firm’s structure of highly experienced private practitioners and former federal prosecutors allows it to evaluate and address these critical situations rapidly and in a comprehensive and efficient manner. The firm has acted as counsel for entities and individuals in connection with internal corporate and special committee investigations. It has addressed a wide-ranging group of issues in such matters, including governmental and regulatory investigations of institutions and members of their management; shareholder derivative claims; disputes arising out of mergers and acquisitions; securities and accounting matters and compliance issues; and oversight of debtor financial institutions during bankruptcy proceedings.
