Attorneys

fter practicing securities and complex commercial litigation for seven years as an associate at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett and Wilkie Farr & Gallagher, Mr. Fredericks moved to the plaintiffs' side of the bar in 1997.  Since then, Mr. Fredericks has represented investors as a lead or co-lead counsel in over two dozen securities class actions, notably 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 Sears Roebuck & Co. Securities Litigation (N.D. Ill.) ($215 million settlement); and Irvine v. Imclone Systems, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.) ($75 million settlement). 

In addition to obtaining numerous recoveries for investors in shareholder class actions, Mr. Fredericks also recently represented the Trustee of a Creditors Trust in connection with obtaining recoveries for creditors from the former officers, auditors, attorneys and investment advisors of the former Friedman's, Inc.  See Cohen v. Morgan Schiff & Co., Inc. (In re Friedman's Inc.), 385 B.R. 381 (S.D. Ga. 2008). Mr. Fredericks has also successfully represented several private institutional clients (including Mexico’s TV Azteca and Australia’s Australis Media Group) in private commercial disputes at both the trial and appellate level.  See, e.g., National Broadcasting Co. v. Bear Stearns & Co., et al., 165 F.3d 184 (2d Cir. 1999); News Ltd. v. Australis Holdings Pty. Limited, 728 N.Y.S. 2d 667 (1st Dep’t 2001) and 742 N.Y.S. 2d 190 (1st Dep’t 2002).

Currently, Mr. Fredericks represents lead plaintiffs in securities fraud actions in In re Merck & Co. Securities Litigation (presently pending before the United States Supreme Court), In re Alstom, SA Securities Litigation, In re Wachovia Preferred Securities and Bond / Notes Litigation, and In re Mutual Funds Investment Litigation, as well as lead plaintiffs in a multi-district ERISA action captioned In re State Street Bank & Trust ERISA Litigation. Mr. Fredericks also represents lead plaintiffs in securities fraud actions currently pending against Genzyme Corporation and SafeNet, Inc.

Mr. Fredericks graduated from Columbia University School of Law in 1988, where he was awarded the Toppan Prize in Advanced Constitutional Law, the Beck Prize in Property Law, and the Greenbaum prize for Legal Writing. A panel chaired by Justice Antonin Scalia also awarded him the 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, Mr. Fredericks clerked for the Hon. Robert S. Gawthrop III of the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania.

Mr. Fredericks has been a panelist on a variety of litigation programs sponsored by various organizations, including the Practising Law Institute (PLI) and 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.