June 2019
BLB&G’s senior founding partner, Max W. Berger, has been named to Columbia Law School's prestigious new Public Interest/Public Service Council.
Mr. Berger joins approximately 70 Columbia Law School alumni from around the world who are experts and leaders in the public interest and government sectors. According to Columbia Law School, “members are representative of the large array of Columbia alumni who have served in meaningful ways to foster social change or protect the public good.”
In a career spanning more than 40 years, Mr. Berger has personally negotiated over $33 billion in recoveries on behalf of defrauded investors, and prosecuted seminal cases establishing precedents which have increased market transparency, held wrongdoers accountable, and improved corporate business practices in groundbreaking ways.
Mr. Berger’s work has led to sweeping corporate governance overhauls credited with helping to restore the integrity of the nation’s capital markets by holding corporate officers, auditors, underwriters and boards of directors accountable to investors, employees and other victims of corporate wrongdoing. From the creation of an independent task force to oversee and monitor diversity practices (the Texaco discrimination litigation), to establishing an industry-accepted definition of director independence and increasing a board’s power and responsibility to oversee internal controls and financial reporting (Columbia/HCA), to setting an improved standard for regulatory compliance oversight by a public company board of directors (the Pfizer off-label marketing litigation), to the creation of the first-ever board-level watchdog to address and prevent sexual harassment and workplace misconduct (the Fox News/21st Century Fox shareholder derivative litigation), his cases have protected the public interest and yielded results which have served as models for public companies in preventing malfeasance.
Widely considered the “Dean” of the Plaintiffs’ Securities Bar, Mr. Berger is consistently recognized for his professional excellence and achievements and has been named one of the “100 Most Influential Lawyers in America” by The National Law Journal.
