Dechert LLP has a practice that operates across the country, enabling it to be active in many key fora including the Delaware Court of Chancery. The practice is led from Chicago by Joni Jacobsen and frequently acts for acquirers, sellers, bidders, corporate officers and directors, special board committees, investment banks and advisers, venture capitalists, individual investors, private equity firms, hedge funds, sovereign funds and many other stakeholders in litigation concerning corporate takeovers, material adverse change, valuation and more. In San Francisco, Joshua Hess (who is ‘a great litigator, extremely smart, trusted advisor’) and Richard Horvath are the key contacts. David Kotler in New York, and  David Kistenbroker, who works from both New York and Chicago, are also highly regarded. Kistenbroker and Jacobsen handled a class action for PureCycle Technologies concerning allegations that the company made materially false and misleading statements or omissions regarding its business in the lead up to its reverse merger with ROCH SPAC.

Legal 500 Editorial commentary

Testimonials

Collated independently by Legal 500 research team.

  • 'Joshua Hess is a great litigator, extremely smart, trusted advisor.'

Key clients

  • Turtle Beach Corporation / VTB Holdings, Inc. / Stripes Group / Kenneth Fox / Juergen Stark
  • PureCycle Technologies, Inc. and certain officers
  • Guggenheim Funds Investment Advisors, LLC
  • Diffusion Pharmaceuticals Inc.
  • Energy Harbor Corporation
  • Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Harvest Capital Credit Corporation
  • Colt Parent Company LLC
  • Atlas Merchant Capital
  • Horizon litigation
  • R&T Parent Holdings, LLC
  • Betters Medical Investment Holdings Limited
  • Nocturne Acquisition Corporation
  • CCSB Financial Corporation

Work highlights

  • Secured a directed verdict in a case dating back to 2013, where plaintiffs sought over $10 million in damages over an equity expropriation claim related to a merger between Turtle Beach and Parametric Sound Corporation.
  • Defended a consolidated class action against PureCycle and certain officers, alleging violations of the Securities Exchange Act due to purported false and misleading statements that led to a stock drop after a short-seller report.
  • Representing Guggenheim, the investment advisor to the Fiduciary/Claymore Energy Infrastructure Fund (FMO), in a class action lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court related to FMO's decline in 2020, a tax accrual error, and its merger with the Kayne Anderson Energy Infrastructure Fund in March 2021.

Practice head

The lawyer(s) leading their teams.

Joni Jacobsen

Other key lawyers

Joshua Hess, David Kotler, Richard Horvath, David Kelley, David Kistenbroker