Perrie M. Weiner, International Co-Chair of DLA Piper's securities litigation practice, is a managing partner of the Century City office and a member of the Executive and Policy Committees. Mr. Weiner represents private equity funds including hedge funds, broker-dealers and issuers (including their officers and directors) in SEC and FINRA (formerly NASD) enforcement proceedings, white collar criminal proceedings and individual and class action securities fraud and related claims. He has a national practice, with scores of litigation victories, pending cases and publications widely reported in Time, Business Week, Forbes, The Wall Street Journal, New York Law Journal, Los Angeles Daily Journal, Los Angeles Times, Los Angeles, Money Management Executive, PIPEs Report, HedgeWorld and The Economist, among others. Mr. Weiner also represents private and public companies in a variety of industries, in both national and international business disputes.

Mr. Weiner is listed in Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, Who's Who in America and Legal 500 as one of the leading litigation lawyers in the United States. In addition, Mr. Weiner was named a Southern California Super Lawyer in 2004 (one of only 16 securities litigators who made that list), and has again been named every year since then, ranking him among the top 5 percent of all attorneys in Southern California, in peer surveys conducted by Law and Politics and Los Angeles magazines. Mr. Weiner was named in the Who's Who in American Law, 2005-2006. From 2004 to 2007, the Los Angeles Daily Journal cited him as one of California's Top Mega-Rainmakers, in the $10 Million Club. In 2006, Securities Law360 ranked Mr. Weiner among the top 10 securities litigators in the United States (see "Securities Law360 Names Weiner Among Top 10 Legal Superstars"). In 2007, he was named to Lawdragon's 500 Leading Lawyers in America. In 2008, Lawdragon named him to its list of 100 Lawyers You Need to Know in Securities Litigation. In 2010, Law360 named him among its 10 Most Admired Securities Attorneys, describing him as "a brilliant litigator who has established himself as a go-to advocate for hedge funds facing complex suits and CEOs squaring off against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission." He is listed in Marquis Who's Who. The website Avvo.com rates Mr. Weiner "superb."

In 2006, Mr. Weiner received the prestigious 2006 Burton Award for Legal Achievement for the article "Litigation Strategies: Managing Litigation Risk and Addressing Investor Concerns." The Burton Award, regarded as the "Pulitzer prize of the legal profession," is dedicated to the enrichment and refinement of writing in the legal profession. The awards are presented by the Burton Foundation, a nonprofit cultural and academic organization devoted to promoting the legal profession, in association with the Library of Congress. "Litigation Strategies" originally appeared in PIPES: A Guide to Private Investments in Public Equity, published in December 2005. In 2007, Mr. Weiner received a Highly Commended Award from the Emerald Literati Network for the article "Recent developments in hedge fund enforcing and regulation by the SEC under the leadership of Chairman Cox suggest that he may not be the free market advocate everyone once thought he was." The article originally appeared in the Journal of Investment Compliance in 2006. In 2010, an article he co-authored, "The SEC's Two Pronged Attack on Naked Short Selling," which originally appeared in the November 18, 2009 issue of Bloomberg Law, was nominated by the editors of Securities Law Report as one of the best contributed articles of the fourth quarter.

Mr. Weiner is an author, speaker and commentator on cutting-edge securities litigation issues. He was a keynote speaker at the PIPEs Conferences in 2004 and 2005 held in New York, as well as at the PIPEs Europe Conference held in London, England, in June 2006. Mr. Weiner was a featured interviewee on CNBC's December 12, 2006 broadcast of its On The Money segment, “Hedge Fund Limits.” He was recently quoted in Extreme Value Hedging: How Activist Hedge Fund Managers Are Taking on the World by Ronald D. Orol, released in October 2007.

Representative Cases

Securities: "Death Spiral"/"PIPEs" (private investment in public equities) Litigation

• First in Texas, and then in New York, federal court, defense of an investment advisor and its principals in a purported "death spiral" securities fraud action against claims of unlawful market manipulation and fraudulent misrepresentations arising out of a securities purchase agreement for future priced securities. Based upon the strength of the motion for judgment on the pleadings, and in order to avoid Rule 11 sanctions, plaintiffs voluntarily agreed to dismiss their complaint with prejudice and without any payment or consideration.
• In Nevada federal court, defense of an investment advisor based in the United States, its principals and certain offshore investment funds, in a purported death spiral securities fraud action against claims of unlawful market manipulation and fraudulent misrepresentation arising out of a securities purchase agreement for future priced securities. Plaintiff voluntarily dismissed its action, and we obtained a judgment of $1 million dollars for our client on its own claims against plaintiff.
• In Colorado state court, defense of broker-dealers in a purported death spiral securities fraud action against claims of unlawful market manipulation and fraudulent misrepresentations arising out of a securities purchase agreement for future priced securities. Our clients' motion to dismiss the complaint was granted in its entirety and with prejudice.
• In Los Angeles and in San Diego, California, federal courts, defense of an investment advisor based in the United States, its principals, and an offshore investment fund in a purported death spiral securities fraud action against claims of unlawful market manipulation and fraudulent misrepresentations arising out of a securities purchase agreement for future priced securities. After obtaining a temporary restraining order and then exposing serious weaknesses in the plaintiff's claims, our clients were able to settle the action without any payment or consideration to plaintiffs. Our clients received both substantial monetary consideration and stock as part of the settlement.
• In Los Angeles, California, federal court, prosecution of an action on behalf of a Canadian broker-dealer for breach of a securities subscription agreement. Obtained judgment in favor of our client for over $4 million.
• First in Texas and then in New York federal court, defense of an investment advisor based in the United States, its principals and an offshore investment fund in a purported death spiral securities fraud action against claims of unlawful market manipulation and fraudulent misrepresentations arising out of a securities purchase agreement for future priced securities. Based on a motion to dismiss for misuse of the discovery process, widely publicized on the front page of the New York Law Journal and in the Los Angeles Daily Journal, the court dismissed the plaintiffs' $300 million securities fraud complaint with prejudice.

Securities: "Naked Shorting" Litigation

• In Texas, defense of a number of national broker-dealers including market makers in a purported naked shorting state securities fraud action against such alleged claims as unlawful market manipulation, RICO, and common law fraud. After removing the action from Texas state to Texas federal court based upon a federal preemption argument, we successfully moved to dismiss the case.
• In Nevada federal court, representation of multiple national broker-dealers including a market maker in a naked shorting securities fraud action against such claims as unlawful market manipulation, RICO, and common law fraud. The court granted our motion to dismiss the case.
• Represented multiple nationally recognized securities broker-dealers in a stock manipulation lawsuit that sought over a billion dollars in damages. The case was filed in the United States District Court for the Central District of California by a public company and one of its shareholders against several individuals, dozens of broker-dealers, and the Depository Trust Company and related entities. DLA Piper acted as lead counsel in the case and filed two successful motions to dismiss, in which all of the other broker-defendants in the action joined. When faced with a third motion to dismiss as well as a motion for Rule 11 sanctions, the plaintiffs agreed to dismiss the action with prejudice in exchange for a waiver of costs.

Securities: Other

• Representation of the CEO of a major fortune 500 public company in five shareholder derivative lawsuits, an SEC investigation in California, and a U.S. Attorney investigation in the Eastern District of New York regarding options granting issues.
• Representation of a public company merger target in a highly publicized class action lawsuit attempting to prevent a $2 billion merger. The plaintiff contended that the target company had not made necessary disclosures to its shareholders in connection with its recommendation to accept the acquiring company's tender offer and attempted to stop the merger. As a result of our representation, the merger was completed in a timely manner.
• Representation of a publicly-held medical device company, who was a co-defendant of a stock brokerage firm, in a claim of securities fraud based upon alleged misrepresentations and/or omissions concerning the performance of the company. We persuaded the plaintiff to dismiss our client from the case in exchange for a waiver of costs.
• In New York, representation of individual defendants in criminal securities fraud cases investigated by the US Attorney alleging insider trading and market manipulation.
• In New York, representation of a public company and its director and officer in an SEC enforcement action alleging accounting fraud.
• In Philadelphia and New York, representation of investment advisors in SEC informal and formal investigations into allegations of improper trading including insider trading and violations of Section 5 of the Securities Act.
• In New York, representation of investment advisors in civil lawsuits alleging violations of Section 16 for short swing trades. We successfully obtained a voluntarily dismissal with prejudice for our clients.
• In New York federal court, representation of a broker-dealer in an action against a hedge fund to recover over $2 million in dividends. The court granted a preliminary injunction in favor of our client requiring that the dividends be placed in a blocked account. Shortly thereafter, the parties entered into a confidential settlement agreement.

Complex Commercial and Business Tort Litigation

• In Los Angeles, California, Superior Court, prosecution of an action for breach of a loan and option to purchase stock agreement against a privately held technology company. When the court indicated at oral argument that it would grant our motion for summary judgment, we entered into a settlement with the defendant whereby our client received a payment of approximately $1 million and five percent of the authorized stock of the defendant.
• In Los Angeles, California, Superior Court, prosecution of an action for breach of fiduciary duty and other tort claims on behalf of the largest US privately held computer software company. It was discovered that the then-vice chairman had usurped and diverted a $3 million stock investment opportunity (turning out to be worth more than $70 million), belonging to a client, to a single purpose venture that he had formed. The case settled on terms very favorable to our client, but which were made confidential by the terms of the settlement agreement.
• Representation of a major international bank, based in The Netherlands, over a complex international trade finance dispute. We obtained a multi-million dollar settlement for our client.

Representative Clients

• Charles Schwab & Co, Inc.
• E*TRADE FINANCIAL Corp.
• Fidelity Brokerage Services, LLC
• Fiserv, Inc.
• Investec Ernst & Co., Inc.
• Ladenburg Thalmann & Co., Inc.