He counsels clients in their most vexing matters, often involving regulatory and public relations elements or novel jurisdictional, substantive and procedural issues.
Shawn handles complex business disputes, securities litigation, government and regulatory investigations, cross-border litigation and putative class/mass actions, involving contracts, torts, fraud and other common law and statutory claims including some intellectual property matters. He leads our New York office’s Securities Litigation group.
In addition to his work as lead trial counsel in arbitral forums and state and federal courts, Shawn has argued and been lead counsel of record in numerous successful appeals, including in several United States Circuit Courts of Appeals, the New York State Court of Appeals and the Supreme Court of the United States. He enjoys collaborating with clients and other outside counsel to utilize strategically each team member's skills, attributes and experience to bring about the most effective and efficient result for clients.
Shawn has been appointed to a number of leadership positions in the federal courts of the Second Circuit and the bar. He is a regular invited attendee of the Second Circuit Judicial Conference. He has been appointed by present and past Chief Judges of the SDNY to several positions, including to argue on behalf of the Judges of the Southern District Grievance Committee on matters before the Second Circuit Court of Appeals. He has held numerous senior leadership positions in the Federal Bar Council, including chairing each of its signature events, and presently serves as President-elect.
Energy: Shawn has extensive experience representing clients in the electric power generation, oil, coal and renewables industries. Over the last decade-plus he has been at the forefront of litigation related to climate change in the federal trial courts, appellate courts and Supreme Court, including the landmark AEP decision. He has represented both electric generation and oil industry clients in climate tort litigation and is the only lawyer to have represented one or more parties in every major climate tort lawsuit filed to-date including the new generation of such suits. Separately, he has defended and advised clients in the coal mining and electric generation industries under investigation by the NY Attorney General with respect to potential securities fraud under New York’s Martin Act. In the project development space, Shawn has represented power producers, grid operators and other parties in litigation and AAA/ICDR arbitrations. His other matters have included a multi-week bench trial for a grid operator concerning allocation of project development costs, and obtaining pre-hearing dismissal on the merits in an arbitration alleging transactions constituted a change-of-control triggering the off-taker’s right to purchase the facility prior to a tax equity transaction and COD. He also prevailed on a matter of first impression regarding application of the federal filed-rate doctrine to the deregulated wholesale energy market.
Financial Services: Shawn represents public and private companies, banks, REITs, mortgage companies and executives in complex civil litigation, government investigations and securities fraud suits. He also counsels institutions on litigation avoidance. Shawn has handled several multi-party lawsuits arising from early redemption of corporate bonds. He advises on and oversees numerous regulatory, litigation and licensing matters for a mortgage servicing company. He was counsel in SEC/CFTC investigations and litigation for a pension fund victimized in a $1.3b ponzi scheme. He is part of a team serving as counsel to a former SEC Commissioner appointed as monitor arising from the SEC/NYAG dark-pools investigations. Highlights of his past experience include defense of a large bank in litigation and FINRA arbitrations related to CDS transactions (obtaining complete victory and recovery of fees), defense and dismissal of 10(b)(5) and other fraud claims brought by foreign investors, obtaining dismissal of a large bank in a putative RICO class action arising from an international ponzi scheme, and winning dismissal of an underwriter bank under the act-of-state doctrine in a suit challenging terms of a foreign-bank issuer’s bond offering. Shawn’s experience defending REITs includes prevailing on a motion to dismiss an 11-count complaint alleging fraud, contract and business tort claims, and second-chairing a trial arising out of a novel tax-advantaged 1031-exchange program involving hedging tools resulting in dismissal of adversary’s claims and pre-verdict settlement payment.