Attorneys

fter practicing securities and complex commercial litigation for seven years at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Mr. Fredericks moved to the plaintiffs' side of the bar in 1997.  Since then, Mr. Fredericks has represented investors as lead or co-lead counsel in dozens of securities class actions, notably In re Wachovia Preferred Securities and Bond/Notes Litigation (S.D.N.Y. 2011) (total settlements of $627 million, representing the largest recovery ever obtained in a securities class action in the absence of a parallel SEC investigation or accounting restatement); In re Rite Aid Securities Litigation (E.D. Pa.) (total settlements of $323 million, including the then-second largest securities fraud settlement ever against a Big Four accounting firm); In re Vivendi S.A. Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.); In re Sears Roebuck & Co. Securities Litigation (N.D. Ill. 2006) ($215 million settlement); In re Mutual Funds Investment Litigation (D. Md. 2009) ($126 million recovered in MFS, Invesco and Pilgrim Baxter subtracks); and Irvine v. Imclone Systems, Inc. (S.D.N.Y. 2006) ($75 million settlement). 

In addition to obtaining numerous recoveries for investors in shareholder class actions, Mr. Fredericks recently served as co-lead counsel in In re State Bank & Trust Co. ERISA Litigation (S.D.N.Y. 2010), which resulted in one of the largest ERISA recoveries ever ($89 million settlement).  He has also obtained substantial recoveries for the Trustee of the Friedman's, Inc. Creditors Trust from the company's former officers, auditors, attorneys and investment advisors of Friedman's, Inc., and recovered substantial amounts for the Receiver of Australia's Australis Media Group on tortious interference and breach of contract claims brought against News Corporation. 

Mr. Fredericks led the BLB&G team representing lead plaintiffs before the United States Supreme Court in In re Merck & Co. Securities Litigation, which resulted in a unanimous, 9-0 decision in favor of the plaintiff investors. (see Merck & Co., Inc. v. Reynolds, 130 S.Ct. 2869 (2010)), and has served as counsel for amici curiae on multiple briefs in other proceedings before the Supreme Court.  He has also argued various matters before intermediate state and federal appellate courts, including the cause of plaintiff shareholders in the Supreme Court of New Jersey.  See Kaufman v. I-Stat, 754 A.2d 1188 (N.J. 2000). Currently, Mr. Fredericks serves as co-lead counsel in In re Genzyme Corp Securities Litigation (D. Mass.), In re Amedisys Consolidated Securities Litigation (M.D. La.), McKenna v. SMART Technologies, Inc., et al. (S.D.N.Y.) and In re SafeNet, Inc. Securities Litigation (S.D.N.Y.), as well as Merck v. Reynolds (on remand from the Supreme Court in the U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey). 

Mr. Fredericks graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1988, where he was a Columbia University International Fellow and was awarded faculty prizes in Advanced Constitutional Law, Property Law and Legal Writing.  In addition, a panel chaired by Justice Antonin Scalia awarded him the law school's Gov. Thomas E. Dewey Prize for best oral argument in the final round of Columbia's 1988 Harlan Fiske Stone Moot Court Competition. After law school, he clerked for the Hon. Robert S. Gawthrop III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Fredericks is a regular speaker at the Practising Law Institute's annual "Bet the Company Litigation" and "Securities Offerings" programs, and has been a panelist on litigation programs sponsored by a variety of other organizations, including the American Law Institute/American Bar Association (ALI/ABA).  He is a member of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (former chairman, Committee on Military Affairs and Justice), the American Bar Association, and the Federal Bar Council.