Attorneys

r. van Kwawegen has litigated a wide array of securities class actions, derivative actions, and breach of fiduciary duty actions. Most recently, Mr. van Kwawegen was a member of the teams that successfully prosecuted:

(i) a securities class action in the Southern District of New York against Merrill Lynch and others in connection with misleading statements concerning mortgage-backed securities (class recovery of $325 million);

(ii) a securities class action in the Southern District of New York against Wachovia and others in connection with misleading statements in Wachovia's financial statements (class recovery of $627 million);

(iii) a derivative action in the Southern District of New York against senior management and the board of directors of Pfizer, Inc., alleging that defendants consciously disregarded numerous "red flags" of systemic unlawful marketing practices (extensive corporate governance changes, including new Board committee, and payment of $75 million);

(vi) a securities class action in the Northern District of Illinois against Huron Consulting Group, Inc. and its former senior management, alleging that defendants committed accounting fraud by recording employment expenses as goodwill (class recovery of $38 million); and

(v) a breach of fiduciary duty class action in Delaware Chancery Court against the largest shareholder and Chairman/CEO and a Special Committee of Directors of Landry's Restaurants, Inc. in connection with a proposed going-private transaction (increasing price from $14.75 to $24 per share in addition to recovery of $14.5 million for a sellers class).  

Mr. van Kwawegen is currently prosecuting: (i) common law fraud actions against various investment banks that knowingly and recklessly securitized toxic mortgages before selling securities backed by those mortgages as prudent investments; (ii) a securities class action in the Southern District of New York against SMART Technologies and others in connection with misleading statements in SMART Technologies' financial statements; and (iii) a derivative action in the District of New Jersey against senior management and the board of directors of Johnson & Johnson alleging conscious disregard of systemic unlawful drug manufacturing and drug marketing practices.

Prior to joining BLB&G, Mr. van Kwawegen was a senior associate in the litigation department of Latham and Watkins LLP in New York. Before pursuing his Juris Doctor degree at Columbia Law School, Mr. van Kwawegen worked as a Dutch litigation attorney at Schut & Grosheide in the Netherlands where his practice focused on resolving complex commercial and business disputes.