Nicole Ryan joined the firm in 1996 and is a member of the firm’s Securities Litigation Practice Group.  Ms. Ryan’s practice focuses on securities litigation, accountants’ liability litigation, corporate governance matters, and other complex commercial disputes.

Experience

Ms. Ryan represents corporations, national accounting firms, directors, and other clients in securities law matters, including class actions, derivative actions, and government investigations, in professional liability matters, and in other complex commercial cases.  In addition to securities and professional liability cases, she has handled unfair competition, false claims act, unclaimed property, and breach of contract litigation on behalf of companies in the financial services, telecommunications, and real estate industries. Ms. Ryan also tried several criminal cases to verdict while on assignment to the San Francisco District Attorney's Office. Prior to joining Heller Ehrman, Ms. Ryan was a law clerk to the Honorable Betty B. Fletcher of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, and for the Honorable D. Lowell Jensen of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.

Representative Engagements

• Represents auditor in securities litigation relating to restatement of financial statements by wireless telecommunications carrier.
• Represents electronics contract manufacturer in state and federal derivative actions and SEC and DOJ investigations relating to stock option grant practices.
• Represented Ernst & Young LLP in professional liability and securities litigation claims concerning financial fraud at Cendant Corporation. 
• Represented PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in federal securities class action alleging fraudulent accounting at Cisco Systems, Inc.
• Represented Ernst & Young LLP in federal and state securities litigation relating to MobileMedia, Inc., a telecommunications provider.  After several significant motions in in limine were granted in our client’s favor the day before trial, plaintiffs dropped their $100 million claims with no settlement payment of any kind.
• Represented PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in securities and professional liability actions relating to the bankruptcy of SmarTalk Teleservices, Inc., a provider of prepaid telecommunications services and products.
• Represented Bank of America in one of the largest civil litigations ever filed in California courts, involving actions brought under the California false claims act and unclaimed property law by qui tam plaintiff and hundreds of government entities alleging that the bank wrongfully withheld several billion dollars of unclaimed funds. 
• Represented board committee of data storage provider in internal investigation of derivative litigation claims concerning insider trading.
• Represented auditor in state board of accountancy proceedings related to audit of telecommunications provider.
• Represented PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP in a professional liability action relating to the audits of Yorkshire Foods, a United Kingdom company in the California fruits and nuts industry.
• Represented Bank of America Corporation in derivative litigation relating to corporate trust department practices.

Publications

• Privilege Considerations in Internal Investigations  Executive Counsel   07.2008
• Co-Author, "Managing an Internal Investigation,"  The Corporate Board  07.2008