Joseph E. Levi

A Managing Partner and a central figure in shaping and managing the firm’s securities litigation practice, Mr. Levi has been lead or co-lead in dozens of cases involving the enforcement of shareholder rights in the context of mergers & acquisitions and securities fraud. In addition to his involvement in class action litigation, Mr. Levi has represented numerous patent holders in enforcing their patent rights in areas including computer hardware, software, communications and information processing, and has been instrumental in obtaining substantial awards and settlements.

Mr. Levi and the attorneys achieved success on behalf of the former shareholders of Occam Networks, Inc. in litigation challenging the Company’s merger with Calix, Inc., obtaining a preliminary injunction against the merger due to material representations and omissions in the proxy statement by which the shareholders were solicited to vote. See Chen v. Howard-Anderson, No. 5878-VCL (Del. Ch. Jan. 24, 2011). Vigorous litigation efforts continued to trial, recovering $35 million for the shareholders.

Another victory for Mr. Levi and the attorneys was in litigation challenging the acquisition of Health Grades, Inc. by affiliates of Vestar Capital Partners, L.P., where it was successfully demonstrated to the Delaware Court of Chancery that the defendants had likely breached their fiduciary duties to Health Grades’ shareholders by failing to maximize value as required by Revlon, Inc. v. MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, Inc., 506 A.2d 173 (Del. 1986). See Weigard v. Hicks, No. 5732-VCS (Del. Ch. Sept. 3, 2010). This ruling was used to reach a favorable settlement in which defendants agreed to a host of measures designed to increase the likelihood of superior bid. Vice Chancellor Strine “applaud[ed]” the litigation team for their preparation and the extraordinary high-quality of the briefing. He and the attorneys also played a prominent role in the matter of In re CNX Gas Corp. Shareholders Litigation, C.A. No. 5377-VCL (Del. Ch. 2010), in which plaintiffs recovered a common fund of over $42.7 million for stockholders.