Robert Stern
Partner
Rob Stern is a partner in O’Melveny’s Washington, DC office. Rob has extensive experience litigating major state and federal actions on behalf of financial services institutions, Fortune 100 companies and officers and directors of public companies. Rob also has represented numerous companies and individuals before the Securities and Exchange Commission and in FINRA arbitrations.
Rob has been nationally recognized as a leader in securities litigation by
Legal 500 with particular expertise litigating accounting fraud claims as well as claims involving structured products and derivative instruments. He routinely represents financial institutions in matters involving various collateralized debt obligations, interest rate swaps and other options.
Illustrative Professional Experience
- Representing major financial institutions in securities class action and shareholder derivative suits arising out of illiquidity in the auction-rate securities markets
- Representing government-sponsored enterprise in securities class action, ERISA litigation and shareholder derivative suits alleging failure to adequately disclose subprime and Alt-A mortgage exposure
- Representing government-sponsored enterprise in securities class action, ERISA litigation and shareholder derivative suits filed after company announced US$9 billion restatement of earnings
- National coordinating counsel for a financial services company in matters arising out of its subsidiary's origination and securitization of subprime and Alt-A mortgages
- Representing former Audit Committee Chairman in shareholder derivative litigation arising out of the Company’s payments to the AUC and criminal plea
- Represented former CFO of a major automotive supplier in securities class action and shareholder derivative litigation based on allegations of accounting fraud
- Represented former Chairman and CEO of a Fortune 100 media conglomerate in securities class action, shareholder derivative, and shareholder opt-out litigation around the country
- Represented former Enron CEO in securities class action, shareholder derivative, and shareholder opt-out litigation around the country filed in the wake of the Enron’s bankruptcy
- Represented former director of WorldCom in securities class action and shareholder opt-out litigation around the country
- Represented major financial institution in the IPO securities and antitrust class actions
- Participated in the jury trial of antitrust case against Microsoft where our client ultimately received the largest damages award ever obtained under Connecticut’s Unfair Trade Practices Act
Professional Activities
Admitted to Practice, US Court of Appeals, Fifth Circuit; US District Courts, Districts of Columbia, Southern, Eastern and Western Districts of New York
Advisory Board, Strafford Securities Litigation and Finance Teleconferences Advisory Board
Author, “Digimarc: The Final Nail In The SOX 304 Coffin,”
Law360 (January 2009); “US Courts Back Directors In Fight Over Liability,”
Int’l Fin. L. Rev. (March 2006); “Bondholders’ State Securities Suits Pose New Threat To Wall Street,”
Washington Legal Foundation Backgrounder (May 23, 2003)
Speaker, “Auction-Rate Securities Under Attack,” Strafford Legal Teleconferences (July 9, 2008); “Insurance and the Subprime Credit Crisis,” Strafford Legal Teleconferences (April 29, 2008), NERA Economic Consulting’s “10th Annual Finance Law & Economics Securities Litigation Conference” (Sun Valley, Idaho, June 29, 2007)
Member, American Bar Association, Business Law and Litigation Sections