DLA Piper represents Finisar in denial of class certification and dismissal of class action lawsuit

DLA Piper represented optical communications company Finisar Corporation and its officers in a securities class action lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California, in which plaintiff claimed investors were misled by a statement made by a Finisar officer in December 2010 and purchased Finisar stock at an allegedly inflated market price.

On May 24, 2019, US District Judge Edward J. Davila denied plaintiff's renewed motion for class certification and granted Finisar judgment on the pleadings, dismissing the case. The court previously had denied class certification in a December 2017 ruling. The court found that plaintiff's motion was a disguised motion for reconsideration but nonetheless considered the parties' arguments and once again rejected the motion on its merits. The court found that a new expert report submitted by plaintiff did not take into consideration analyst reports showing that the allegedly fraudulent statements had no impact on Finisar's stock price, and that plaintiff's complaint ruled out the prospect of the alleged misrepresentation maintaining a stock price that already had been inflated. As a result, Finisar had rebutted the presumption of reliance for securities actively traded on public markets.

The DLA Piper team representing Finisar was led by partners Shirli Fabbri Weiss and David Priebe and included of counsel Jennifer Feldman and associates Mandy Chan and Ray Sulentic.