Nicole Lavallee is a member of Berman Tabacco’s Executive Committee and the managing partner of the firm’s San Francisco office. She has been litigating securities fraud and other class actions for nearly 25 years, many on behalf of public pension funds. Her work has been instrumental to building the San Francisco office of Berman Tabacco—recently recognized as one of Benchmark Litigation’s Top Plaintiffs’ Firms for the firm’s work “on behalf of individuals and institutions who have suffered financial harm due to violations of securities or antitrust laws” in Benchmark’s 2018 (and 2017) editions, wherein the firm received the highest rating of “Highly Recommended 2018.” See https://www.benchmarklitigation.com/firms/berman-tabacco/f-195#/analysis and https://www.benchmarklitigation.com/firms/berman-tabacco/f-195#/rankings.
For example, Ms. Lavallee was one of the lead attorneys representing the Wyoming State Treasurer and the Wyoming Retirement System as lead plaintiffs in In re IndyMac Mortgage-Backed Securities Litigation, No. 09-cv-4583 (S.D.N.Y.), which settled for $346 million in 2015—one of the largest private MBS class recoveries and the largest where the issuer bank was in bankruptcy. The IndyMac settlement was extraordinary, not only because of its size but also because $340 million of the settlement amount was paid entirely by the underwriters who had due diligence defenses. By contrast, nearly all other MBS class action settlements included claims against the MBS issuer, which is held to a strict liability standard for which there is no due diligence. She also oversaw the prosecution of In re Zynga Securities Litigation, No. 12-cv-04007 (N.D. Cal.), which settled for $23 million in February 2016. While the case is not large, the settlement represents a significant portion of the potential damages.
In addition, Ms. Lavallee was the firm’s partner handling the day-to-day prosecution of numerous other cases including:
- In re KLA-Tencor Corp. Sec. Litig., No. 06-cv-04065 (N.D. Cal.), an options-backdating class action, representing co-lead plaintiff the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System, which settled for $65 million and earned praise from the Honorable Charles R. Breyer for “working very hard” in exchange for an “extraordinarily reasonable” fee. “I appreciate the fact that you’ve done an outstanding job, and you've been entirely reasonable in what you've done.”
- In re International Rectifier Sec. Litig., No. 07-cv-02544 (C.D. Cal.), on behalf of the co-lead plaintiff Massachusetts Laborers’ Pension Fund, alleging manipulation of the company’s financial results, which settled for $90 million in 2009 and earned praised from the Honorable John F. Walter who stated that “I think the work by the lawyers—all the lawyers in this case—was excellent. ... In this case, the papers were excellent. So it makes our job easier and, quite frankly, more interesting when I have lawyers with the skill of the lawyers that are present in the courtroom today who have worked on this case ... the motion practice in this case was, quite frankly, very intellectually challenging and well done. ... I’ve presided over this consolidated action since its commencement and have nothing but the highest respect for the professionalism of the attorneys involved in this case.”
- Oracle Cases, Coordination Proceeding, Special Title (Rule 1550(b)) No. 4180 (Cal. Super. Ct. San Mateo Cty.). A coordinated derivative action alleging Delaware breach of fiduciary duty law and violations of California insider trading laws against Lawrence J. Ellison, Oracle Corporation’s Chief Executive Officer, in which, after almost five years of litigation and near the eve of trial, plaintiffs obtained a settlement whereby Mr. Ellison personally made a charitable donation of $100 million in Oracle’s name to an institution approved by Oracle and paid plaintiffs’ attorney’s fees and expenses; the judge praised her work stating: “ ... [Ms.] Lavallee, I just want to tell you I thought your [summary judgment] brief was excellent.”
Currently, Ms. Lavallee is the lead partner at Berman Tabacco on In re Aqua Metals, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 4:17-CV-07142-HSG (N.D. Cal.), in which the firm is co-lead counsel representing court-appointed lead plaintiff Plymouth County Retirement Association (“PCRA”). The action alleges that defendants Aqua Metals, Inc. and company executives falsely misled investors about the status of its implementation of and operations of its AquaRefining technology, which the company claimed had the potential to revolutionize lead recycling and make lead-acid batteries the only truly sustainable battery technology. She also oversees San Antonio Fire & Police Pension Fund v. AmerisourceBergen Corp., C.A. No. 2018-0551 (Del. Ch.), an action pursuant to 8 Del. C. § 220 on behalf of the San Antonio Fire & Police Pension Fund against AmerisourceBergen Corp. to compel the company to provide certain of its books and records, as discussed in Publishable Matter 6. She is also a lead partner on Oklahoma Firefighters Pension & Retirement System v. Chew, et al., No. 4:18-cv-04698-KAW (N.D. Cal.), a derivative action alleging the officers and directors of PG&E Corporation abdicated their fiduciary duties to oversee the company’s safety and risk functions and thereby failed to ensure that PG&E’s electrical power and distribution lines complied with state regulations and other safety protocols designed to prevent power and distribution lines from sparking wildfires in California. This lack of oversight allegedly caused a series of catastrophic wildfires that ravaged areas of Northern California beginning in October 2017.
Ms. Lavallee has an AV® Preeminent™ rating from Martindale-Hubbell,® was ranked as a Recommended Attorney in Securities Litigation by The Legal 500 (U.S. edition 2017-2018) and was named a Super Lawyer in 2017 and 2018 by Northern California Super Lawyers Magazine, which features the top 5% of attorneys in the region. She has authored various articles and presented at various conferences on class actions and securities litigation matters. She has also been active as a co-chair on the steering committees for several Cambridge forums.