Jeroen van Kwawegen is a member of BLB&G’s Executive Committee and one of the leading shareholder attorneys in the world. As head of the firm’s Corporate Governance Department with attorneys in New York, Delaware, and California, Jeroen oversees all breach of fiduciary duty litigation against boards of directors and senior executives on behalf of shareholders. Jeroen also leads BLB&G’s team that represents European institutional investors in shareholder litigation, including securities class actions.
Over the course of his career, Jeroen has recovered more than four billion dollars for investors, improved corporate governance practices at numerous companies, and defended fundamental shareholder voting and franchise rights. Recent highlights of Jeroen’s success prosecuting shareholder actions include:
- Richard Tornetta v. Elon Musk et. al and Tesla, Inc.: Co-leading the headline-grabbing case against Tesla, which resulted in a groundbreaking decision nullifying Elon Musk’s $56 billion compensation package.
- In re Wells Fargo & Company Securities Litigation: Securing a $1 billion recovery in the securities class action against Wells Fargo—the top U.S. securities class action recovery in 2023 and among the largest of all time.
- Employees Retirement System of the City of St. Louis, et al., v. Jones, et al.: Prosecuting the stockholder derivative action against the board of directors of FirstEnergy Corp., resulting in a $180 million settlement and unprecedented corporate governance improvements.
- Employees Retirement System for the City of Providence v. Rohner, et al.: Securing a $115 million settlement in a stockholder derivative action in New York state court applying Swiss law against directors and senior executive officers of Credit Suisse in connection with their failure to implement adequate risk management processes. This is the largest settlement of derivative oversight claims in New York history.
Jeroen is actively prosecuting several securities class actions, including cases against Meta and NVIDIA, as well as breach of fiduciary duty actions involving Continental Resources, Sirius XM, World Wrestling Entertainment, Squarespace, Avangrid, and others.
Jeroen is regularly named one of the top attorneys in the field by major industry publications and directories. In 2024, Law360 named Jeroen a “Securities MVP” and a “Titan of the Plaintiffs Bar,” Lawdragon added Jeroen to its prestigious “Legends” list, and Forbes named Jeroen one of America’s “Top 200 Lawyers.” He has also been named a top lawyer in the field by The Legal 500 and Benchmark Litigation. In 2025, Jeroen was listed among the top plaintiff-side securities attorneys in New York by Chambers USA. Jeroen is also the co-author of several academic articles, including most recently “A Critical Analysis of ‘Fair Price’ in Entire Fairness Law in Delaware,” published in the Delaware Journal for Corporate Law in Spring 2025.
In recognition of his trial work and ethical reputation, in 2024, Jeroen was named a Fellow of the Litigation Counsel of America. For his achievements in corporate governance, he was also named a Fellow of The American College of Governance Counsel, an honorary association dedicated to advancing professional excellence in governance.
Jeroen serves as a board member of Legal Services NYC, a leading U.S. legal aid organization, and as an advisory board member at the Millstein Center for Global Markets and Corporate Ownership at Columbia Law School and the Institute for Law & Economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Carey Law School. Jeroen frequently speaks at university, bar association, and industry events on corporate governance and shareholder litigation, including the annual Berkeley Forum on Corporate Governance.
Jeroen received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He received his LLM from the University of Amsterdam School of Law.