Enforcing the Rights of Investors

Burns & Levinson creates a level playing field for investor clients. In cases of securities fraud, misrepresentation, stock manipulation and other deceptive investment practices, we represent individuals and institutions in courts of law, in arbitration and in alternative dispute resolution proceedings.

When corporate and securities fraud emerged as a real threat to individual investors, our attorneys were there to help them. We have achieved national recognition as a result of the speedy and very substantial recoveries that we have obtained on behalf of individual investors and classes.

Drawing on the expertise in both our litigation and business areas, we have an active Securities Group specializing in securities litigation and arbitration, broker-customer disputes, securities fraud, and regulatory investigations and enforcement actions. Whether cases are before arbitrators, mediators, state or federal judges or government regulators, we help our clients negotiate the complex specialized legal and factual standards applicable to securities cases and diligently work to obtain the discovery and information necessary to effectively present or defend securities claims. We have experience in cases involving stocks, bonds, options, limited partnerships, and commodities, with claims of misrepresentations, unfair and deceptive trade practices, violations of federal and state securities laws, and violations of the rules of the self-regulatory organizations and the various stock, option and commodities exchanges.

Securities Litigation And Arbitration

We represent a wide variety of individual and institutional clients in litigation with brokerage companies and their brokers and employees. On behalf of our clients, who have suffered both small losses and damages amounting to millions of dollars, we pursue claims in arbitration proceedings and before courts of law. Where the strength of a claim often depends upon successfully gathering information, we focus on pre-hearing investigation, procedural discovery mechanisms and an ongoing review of public records to effectively present our case. Through carefully focused and determined discovery tactics and analytical methods we have successfully uncovered internal compliance problems, insider trading and complex concealed schemes such as stock manipulation. We are very mindful of cost-effective litigation strategies and are experienced in alternative methods of dispute resolution, including mediation.

Investor Protection

An unfortunate reality of fraud and deceptive practices involving securities is that injured investors often do not immediately realize that they are the victims of securities fraud or improper securities business practices. Although investor funds are lost every day in legitimate investments, we regularly consult with investors who suspect that they may have been unfairly treated to determine whether their losses are the result of some wrongful conduct rather than the result of benign market forces. We work with clients to resolve disputes with brokerage firms involving misrepresentations, excessive trading (churning), unauthorized transactions, improper trading practices, account irregularities and order and execution failures.

Regulatory Actions

Our attorneys represent securities investors and brokers in dealings with various state and federal regulators and the securities industry's self-regulatory organizations, such as the National Association of Securities Dealers and the New York Stock Exchange. Whether we represent a customer who has fallen victim to a fraud, or a broker whose business practices have come under review, we counsel our clients through the regulatory process to a favorable resolution, always mindful of the personal, professional and legal ramifications of participating in the regulatory process.

Class Actions

We represent investors and class members in connection with securities class actions in various state and federal courts. We are able to use our years of experience and relationships in the field of securities law to ensure that our clients are properly represented in a class action and that they receive the best result for their claims. We also counsel on the issue of whether an individual investor should remain part of a potentially certifiable class or choose to opt out of a large class action to independently pursue his or her claims.

Examples of Representation

• Before an arbitration panel of the NASD in Colorado, we represented an institutional investor whose account had been churned, excessively margined, and then frozen without warning by the brokerage firm carrying the account. Our successful prosecution of the claims resulted in an award of all losses plus attorneys' fees to our client.

• We successfully litigated and ultimately mediated a favorable settlement for the claims of a couple who had purchased a number of limited partnership investments some years earlier and only recently came to suspect that they had been defrauded in being encouraged to purchase these investments. We advanced a novel interpretation of the statute of limitations to overcome the time limit rule which otherwise would have barred recovery in this case.

• In the Massachusetts Superior Court, we successfully represented more than a dozen individual investors who had been defrauded of their life savings and retirement funds by a rogue broker. We litigated their claims against the brokerage firms that had employed the broker and allowed him to execute his scheme. In the same case we coordinated our clients' participation in the simultaneous fraud investigation conducted by the Securities Division of the Secretary of the Commonwealth and represented our clients' interests in the restitution program established by that agency.

• We successfully represented an individual investor in Wisconsin in his case against his brokers and brokerage firm on claims of mishandling and churning his account, excessively margining his investments and fraudulently manipulating the markets for certain stocks.

The Enforcing the Rights of Investors Group at Burns & Levinson

Name	Title	Phone	Email
Joshua N. Cook	Associate	617.345.3249	jcook@burnslev.com
Harry S. Miller	Partner	617.345.3236	hmiller@burnslev.com
Matthew J. Tuttle	Partner	617.345.3231	mtuttle@burnslev.com