Todd S. Collins

Biography

Todd S. Collins has led scores of securities and ERISA litigations over his 38 years at the Firm, winning recoveries in the hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of plaintiffs and the classes they represent. He chairs the Firm’s ERISA practice, and he serves on the Firm’s Executive Committee and as the Firm’s Chief Counsel. Mr. Collins, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania Law School, won the 1978 Henry C. Laughlin Prize for Legal Ethics.

Mr. Collins has served as lead counsel or co-lead counsel in numerous cases that have achieved significant benefits on behalf of the Class. These cases include: In re AMF Bowling Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.) ($20 million recovery, principally against investment banks, where defendants asserted that Class suffered no damages); In re Aero Systems, Inc. Securities Litigation (S.D. Fla.) (settlement equal to 90 percent or more of Class members’ estimated damages); Price v. Wilmington Trust Co. (Del. Ch.) (in litigation against bank trustee for breach of fiduciary duty, settlement equal to 70% of the losses of the Class of trust beneficiaries); In re Telematics International, Inc. Securities Litigation (S.D. Fla.) (settlements achieved, after extensive litigation, following 11th Circuit reversal of dismissal below); In re Ex-Cell-O Securities Litigation (E.D. Mich.); In re Sequoia Systems, Inc. (D. Mass.); In re Sapiens International, Inc. Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.); In re Datastream Securities Litigation (D.S.C.); Copland v. Tolson (Pa. Common Pleas) (on eve of trial, in case against corporate principals for breach of fiduciary duty, settlement reached that represented 65% or more of claimants’ losses, with settlement funded entirely from individual defendants’ personal funds); and In re IKON Office Solutions, Inc. Securities Litigation (E.D. Pa.).  In IKON, where Mr. Collins was co-lead counsel as well as the chief spokesman for plaintiffs and the Class before the Court, plaintiffs’ counsel created a fund of $111 million for the benefit of the Class.

In addition, Mr. Collins has served as lead or co-lead counsel in several of the leading cases asserting the ERISA rights of 401(k) plan participants. Mr. Collins has served as co-lead counsel in In re Lucent Technologies, Inc. ERISA Litigation (D.N.J.);  In re Nortel Networks Corp. ERISA Litigation (M.D. Tenn.); In re SPX Corporation ERISA Litigation (W.D. N.C.); and King v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. (D. Nev.). In Lucent, Mr. Collins and his team achieved a settlement consisting of $69 million for the benefit of plan participants, as well as substantial injunctive relief with respect to the operation of the 401(k) plans.

Mr. Collins is at the forefront of litigation designed to achieve meaningful corporate governance reform. Recently, he brought to a successful conclusion two landmark cases in which corporate therapeutics are at the core of the relief obtained. In Oorbeek v. FPL Group, Inc. (S.D. Fla.), a corporate derivative action brought on behalf of the shareholders of FPL Group, plaintiffs challenged excessive “change of control” payments made to top executives. In the settlement, plaintiffs recovered not only a substantial cash amount but also a range of improvements in FPL’s corporate governance structure intended to promote the independence of the outside directors.

Similarly, in Ashworth Securities Litigation (S.D. Cal.), a Section 10(b) fraud case, in which Mr. Collins was co-lead counsel, plaintiffs again have been successful in recovering millions of dollars and also securing important governance changes. In this case, the changes focused on strengthening the accounting function and improving revenue recognition practices.

In corporate acquisition cases, Mr. Collins has served as co-lead counsel in cases such as In re Portec Rail Products, Inc. Shareholders Litig. (C.P. Allegheny County, Pennsylvania) (tender offer enjoined), Silberman v. USANA Health Sciences, Inc. et,  al. (D. Utah) (offer enjoined on plaintiffs’ motion).