Attorneys

He has taken more than 15 cases to trial, including obtaining a jury verdict for more than $11 million in a derivative action against the general partner of a hedge fund, and a multi-million dollar class action settlement with an accounting firm reached during trial.

Mr. Wales has extensive experience litigating residential mortgage backed ("RMBS") securities cases, securities fraud class actions and securities lending cases. He is currently lead or co-lead counsel in the following cases:

• Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi v. Merrill Lynch & Co. Inc., a class action on behalf of investors in RMBS ($315 million settlement granted preliminary approval);
• In Re Agnico-Eagle Mines Ltd. Securities Litigation, a securities fraud class action on behalf of investors in Agnico-Eagle common stock;  
• Public Employees' Retirement System of Mississippi v. Goldman Sachs Group Inc., a class action on behalf of investors in RMBS;
• Dexia Holdings and TIAA-Cref v. Deutsche Bank, A.G., two consolidated private actions on behalf of institutional investors in RMBS;
• Cambridge Place Investment Management Inc. v. Morgan Stanley & Co., Inc., a private action on behalf of institutional investors in RMBS;
• Dexia Holdings, Inc. v. Countrywide Financial Corporation, a private action on behalf of institutional investors in Countrywide RMBS;
• Thrivent Financial for Lutherans v. Countrywide Financial Corporation, a private action on behalf of institutional investors in RMBS; and
• In re Northern Trust Investments, NA., a securities lending case, a class action on behalf of government funds that suffered losses in Northern Trust's securities lending program.

As lead trial counsel in numerous securities class actions and derivative actions, he has recovered hundreds of millions of dollars on behalf of institutional investor clients. Some of his significant recoveries include:

• in re Pfizer Inc. Shareholder Derivative Action, a $75 million settlement and substantial corporate governance changes in a derivative action;
• In re Cablevision Systems Corp. Derivative Litigation, a $34.4 million settlement in a back dated stock option action;
• In re Sepracor Corp. Securities Litigation, a $52.5 million recovery in a securities fraud class action;
• In re Luxottica Group SpA Securities Litigation, an $18.25 million recovery in a Williams Act case;
• In re Marque Partners LP Derivative Action, an $11 million jury verdict in a derivative action;
• In re Jennifer Convertibles Securities Litigation, a $9.55 million recovery, part of the recovery obtained in the middle of trial; and 
• In re Curative Health Services Securities Litigation, a $10.5 million recovery in a securities fraud action.

His representative clients have included a variety of public pension funds, Taft-Hartley pension funds, insurance companies, banks, hedge funds and private investment funds.

As a former Assistant United States Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Mr. Wales specialized in investigating and prosecuting fraud and white collar criminal cases.

A member of the Federal Bar Council and the Federal Courts Committee of the New York County Lawyers Association, he is rated AV, the highest rating possible from Martindale-Hubbell®, the country’s foremost legal directory.