Bruce D. Angiolillo is a partner in the litigation department and co-heads the Securities Litigation Practice Group at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP. His practice focuses on securities litigation, including class actions, derivative actions and contests for corporate control, internal investigations, and complex commercial litigation. Mr. Angiolillo has been ranked by Chambers USA (2005-2008) as a Leading Individual in Securities Litigation in New York and Nationally. The Best Lawyers in America (2005-2008) has recognized him by awarding him its highest “Bet-the-Company Litigation” and “Commercial Litigation” rankings. Lawdragon 500 selected him as one of the 500 “Leading Lawyers” and “Leading Litigators” in America (2005-2008). Legal 500 U.S. (2008) has also ranked him as a leading litigator. Mr. Angiolillo is a frequent contributor to legal publications on securities and other litigation topics. For the last several years, he has co-chaired the Practising Law Institute’s annual Securities Litigation & Enforcement Institute. Mr. Angiolillo is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York, where he has served on the Committee on Professional and Judicial Ethics and on the Committee on Professional Discipline. He is a court-appointed member of the Mediation Panel of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Mr. Angiolillo was a member of the Presidential Search Committee for Amherst College in 1994 and received the college’s Medal for Eminent Service in 1996. He also served as president of the College’s Society of Alumni in 2004. From 1995 to 2001, he served as a Trustee of the Convent of the Sacred Heart School in Greenwich, Connecticut. He is currently a member of the Board of Directors and secretary of Common Ground Community, which provides innovative solutions to homelessness in New York City. Mr. Angiolillo joined Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP in 1980 and became a partner in 1985. He received his B.A. magna cum laude from Amherst in 1974 and his J.D. from Columbia Law School in 1977. He is admitted to practice before the U.S. Supreme Court, the United States Courts of Appeals for the First, Second, Third, Fifth, Sixth, Seventh, Ninth, and Eleventh Circuits, the U.S. Tax Court and District Courts in various jurisdictions, and the Courts of the State of New York.
Gary Bendinger is co-chair of the global litigation practice at Howrey LLP and a member of the management committee in the New York office. He has devoted more than 30 years to complex commercial litigation in courts across the nation. Mr. Bendinger is a Fellow in the American College of Trial Lawyers, has been recognized for 10 years in Best Lawyers in America (in Business Litigation), and is recognized by Chambers USA in the area of business litigation. Mr. Bendinger has substantial trial experience and has been brought in as lead trial counsel in matters in many jurisdictions, including California, New York, and Washington, D.C. He has tried antitrust, securities, and other complex commercial litigation matters in numerous courts. Among his successes, he was hired to act as lead trial counsel in a significant securities case after it had been litigated by another firm for a number of years. Following completion of a five-week trial, judgment was entered in favor of Mr. Bendinger's client on all claims. Mr. Bendinger also recently successfully defeated claims brought by the SEC following a two-week trial before an Administrative Law Judge. In addition to his extensive trial experience, Mr. Bendinger has served as lead counsel in numerous antitrust, securities, fraud, breach of contract, and intellectual property cases involving billions of dollars in damage claims in federal and state courts. Mr. Bendinger also represents clients in regulatory matters and investigations by the SEC, the Department of Justice, the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board, and various state boards. Mr. Bendinger attended the University of San Francisco School of Law (J.D., cum laude, 1975), where he was the assistant editor of the University of San Francisco Law Review, and Hastings College (B.S., cum laude, 1972).
Since 1977, W. Perry Brandt, a partner with Bryan Cave LLP, has acted as lead trial counsel in all types of business and commercial litigation in numerous state and federal courts across the nation, as well as before various governmental agencies and arbitration panels. Mr. Brandt has tried more than forty cases before juries, judges, and arbitration panels during that time. Mr. Brandt has particular experience in securities litigation, having represented issuers, underwriters, accountants, and broker-dealers in connection with alleged securities law and related claims, including a number of class actions. He also has appeared on behalf of clients in numerous FINRA, NASD, NYSE, and AAA arbitrations in which allegations of fraud, unsuitability, failure to supervise, and the like have been raised. Mr. Brandt also has represented clients in connection with disciplinary actions and enforcement proceedings commenced by self-regulatory agencies and state securities commissioners, as well as before the Securities and Exchange Commission. Mr. Brandt has represented clients in connection with white-collar criminal proceedings and internal investigations, and has led corporate internal investigations. Mr. Brandt has been recognized in Best Lawyers in America (Bet-the-Company Litigation and Commercial Litigation categories, 1995-present) and Best of the Bar by the Kansas City Business Journal (2002-present), and has been named a Missouri/Kansas Super Lawyer (2005-present). He was also recognized as a Missouri “Local Litigation Star” by the Benchmark Guide to America’s Leading Litigation Firms and Attorneys. Among his numerous professional affiliations, Mr. Brandt is a past president and board member of the Lawyers Association of Kansas City. He is also a member of the Kansas City Metropolitan Bar Association Board of Directors (2006-present) where he has served as chair of the Securities Law Committee (2000) and is currently chair of the Strategic Vision Committee. Mr. Brandt has served on the board of directors of The Children’s Place (2006-2008) and DeLaSalle Education Center (2008-present), and on the Alumni Board of Vanderbilt Law School (1998-2001). While in law school, Mr. Brandt was executive editor of the Vanderbilt Law Review and recipient of The Morgan Prize (1977).
James C. Dugan is a partner in the litigation department of Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP in New York. Mr. Dugan specializes in complex commercial litigation, federal securities litigation, government compliance and enforcement, and corporate internal investigations. Mr. Dugan is the author of numerous publications and presentations. He is a contributing author of “Civil Liability under the Securities Act of 1933” in Sommer, Federal Securities Act of 1933 (Matthew Bender, 2008), the author of “Scheme Liability under Rule 10b-5: An Emerging Cause of Action,” published in the December 2006 and January and February 2007 issues of The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel, “Whither Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta? The Early Results,” New York Law Journal (July 8, 2008), and “The Future of Secondary Actor Liability under Rule 10b-5 After Stoneridge Investment Partners LLC v. Scientific-Atlanta Inc.,” NYU Journal of Law & Business (forthcoming Spring 2009). An interview with Mr. Dugan was published in the July 2007 issue of The Metropolitan Corporate Counsel entitled “Our Forbidding Litigation Environment Can Be Changed.” Mr. Dugan is a member of the American Bar Association, the Federal Bar Council, and the City Bar Association. He also serves on the executive board of the Cornell Law Association. In 1993, Mr. Dugan received a J.D., cum laude, from Cornell University Law School, where he served as articles editor of the Cornell Law Review. He received a B.A. in 1990 with high distinction and honors in English from Pennsylvania State University, where he was elected to Phi Beta Kappa. After law school, Mr. Dugan served as a law clerk to the Honorable Charles H. Tenney, United States District Judge, Southern District of New York (1993-94).
Gareth T. Evans is a partner in Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP’s Los Angeles office. He is a member of the Litigation Department, where he practices in the areas of complex business litigation, securities litigation, appellate litigation, directors’ and officers’ liability, insurance bad faith and coverage litigation, probate and trusts and estates litigation, and general commercial litigation. He is a member of the Steering Committee of the firm’s Securities Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Evans received his law degree in 1988 from the New York University School of Law, where he was chairman of the Moot Court Board and received an American Jurisprudence award in Securities Litigation. He received his bachelor of arts in economics and political science with high distinction in general scholarship from the University of California at Berkeley in 1983. Mr. Evans joined the firm in 1990, following a judicial clerkship with the Hon. Gordon Thompson Jr. of the United States District Court for the Southern District of California.
Wayne W. Smith joined Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher LLP in 1972 and is a partner in the firm. He holds a degree in business administration from California State University at Long Beach and graduated from UCLA School of Law with Order of the Coif honors. Mr. Smith specializes in commercial and business litigation. He has tried major cases (including class actions) in federal courts and in state courts throughout the country. Several of his cases have included appearances before federal and state appellate courts, the California Supreme Court, and the Supreme Court of the United States. The cases tried by Mr. Smith have covered a broad range of issues, including securities fraud, common law fraud, contracts, federal tax laws, RICO, and constitutional law. He is the co-chair of the firm’s Securities Litigation Practice Group. Mr. Smith has represented clients in a number of different industries in securities fraud cases. The industries involved have included computer hardware, software, and service, health care, electronics, insurance, equipment rentals, defense contracting, and entertainment. Additionally, Mr. Smith has represented accounting firms alleged to have participated with their clients in securities frauds in the savings and loan, insurance, music club, auto parts, and real estate industries.
