Samira Shah

Counsel

Samira Shah is a counsel in O’Melveny’s New York office and a member of the Securities Litigation Practice. Her practice focuses on representing financial services clients, insurance companies, pharmaceutical companies, and professional services and accounting firms in a wide range of complex commercial litigation in federal and state trial courts and on appeal. Samira also guides clients through investigations by the Securities and Exchange Commission, the Department of Justice, the New York Attorney General’s office, and the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Prior to joining O’Melveny, Samira was a senior attorney at Cravath, Swaine & Moore LLP.

Illustrative Professional Experience

• Represented UnitedHealth on motions to dismiss in an ERISA action relating to its denials of claims for chiropractic manipulations under anesthesia. Sanctuary Surgical Centre, Inc. v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc., No. 10-81589, 2011 WL 6935289 (S.D. Fla., December 30, 2011); Sanctuary Surgical Centre, Inc. v. UnitedHealth Group, Inc., No. 10-81589, 2012 WL 5199611 (S.D. Fla., Oct. 22, 2012).
• Represented a financial institution in a FINRA arbitration arising out of the 2008 collapse of the auction rate securities market.
• Represented PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in a variety of actions relating to its audits of AIG’s financial statements, including obtaining the dismissal of shareholder derivative litigation in Delaware Chancery Court and on appeal to the Delaware Supreme Court, In re American International Group, Inc. Consolidated Derivative Litigation, 965 A.2d 763 (Del. Ch., 2009), aff’d sub nom. Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana v. PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, 11 A. 3d 228 (Del. Supr. Jan. 3, 2011), and obtaining the dismissal of an action under California’s Unfair Competition Law. Harris v. American International Group, No. BC414205 (Cal. Super. Ct.), aff’d, 2011 WL 5429486, No. B224025 (Cal. App., 2nd Dist., Nov. 9, 2011).
• Represented PricewaterhouseCoopers Ireland in obtaining the dismissal of securities class actions brought by investors in funds that invested with Bernard L. Madoff Securities. In re Banco Santander Securities - Optimal Litig., 732 F. Supp. 2d 1305 (S.D. Fla. 2010), aff’d sub nom Inversiones Mar Octava Limitada v. Banco Santander S.A., No. 10-14102, 2011 WL 3823284 (11th Cir. Aug. 30, 2011); In re Herald, Primeo and Thema Securities Litigation, No. 09-289, 2011 WL 5928952 (S.D.N.Y. Nov. 29, 2011).
• Represented Bristol-Myers Squibb in a class action securities litigation relating to the company’s development of Vanlev. In re Bristol-Myers Squibb Securities Litigation, No. 00-1900 (D.N.J.).
• Represented Lucent Technologies in a class action securities litigation relating to alleged accounting improprieties. In re Lucent Technologies, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 00-621 (D.N.J.).
• Represented Johnson & Higgins in an ERISA, securities and breach of fiduciary duty litigation in the Southern District of New York. Aiena v. Olsen, No. 97-8713 (S.D.N.Y.)
• Represented an insurance company in an arbitration against its reinsurers.
• Represented a defense contractor in a breach of contract arbitration.
• Samira also maintains an active pro bono practice. Her work includes obtaining the reversal of a criminal conviction on behalf of an individual client. People v. Brown, 299 A.D.2d 292, 749 N.Y.S.2d 722 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. App. Div. 1st Dept., 2002).

Professional Activities

Law Clerk, Honorable William H. Walls, U.S. District Court, District of New Jersey
Admitted to Practice, New York and U.S. District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
Author, “On the Road to Apartheid: The Bypass Road Network in the West Bank,” 29 Colum., Hum. Rts. L. Rev. 221 (Fall 1997)