Jeroen van Kwawegen is a member of BLB&G’s Executive Committee and one of the leading shareholder rights attorneys nationwide. As head of the firm’s corporate governance practice, Jeroen oversees all breach of fiduciary duty litigation against boards and senior executives on behalf of shareholders. Jeroen also leads BLB&G’s work representing 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 $55 billion compensation package—the largest such package in history.
- 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 top 17 of all time.
- In re Columbia Pipeline Group, Inc. Merger Litigation: Leading the trial team that won one of the largest shareholder verdicts in Delaware Chancery Court history: a $350 million post-trial opinion in a case challenging Columbia Pipeline’s $13 billion merger with TransCanada.
- 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.
Jeroen is actively prosecuting several securities class actions, including cases against Meta Platforms, NVIDIA, and Silicon Valley Bank, as well as breach of fiduciary duty actions involving Credit Suisse, Santander, Warner Brothers, Continental Resources, Sirius XM, 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 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 an advisory board member at both the Millstein Center at Columbia Law School and the Institute for Law & Economics at the University of Pennsylvania’s Penn Carey Law School. He frequently speaks at bar association and industry events on shareholder litigation and corporate governance and regularly publishes on topics of interest to institutional investors.
Jeroen received his J.D. from Columbia Law School, where he was a Harlan Fiske Stone Scholar. He received his LLM from University of Amsterdam School of Law.