Sara Brody Named Chair of Heller Ehrman's Securities Litigation Group

Appointment Comes as Law Firms See Increased Specialization and Case Volume From Credit Crisis and Other Factors Influencing the Practice

(SAN FRANCISCO) March 21, 2008 – Heller Ehrman LLP has announced that Sara Brody, a shareholder in the firm’s San Francisco office, has been named Chair of the firm’s Securities Litigation Practice Group. Brody will take over practice group leadership responsibilities from Larry Keeshan, who has been appointed to the firm’s Executive Committee, and now has overall responsibility for the firm’s practices.

Brody is a seasoned litigator with extensive experience defending issuers, officers, directors, underwriters and venture capital firms in shareholder class actions and derivative actions in state and federal courts throughout the U.S. She also represents companies and individuals in matters before the SEC and self-regulatory organizations such as the National Association of Securities Dealers.

“Sara is as good at being a leader as she is at being a lawyer, and she is a superb lawyer” said Heller Ehrman Chairman Matt Larrabee.  “Securities litigation is one of our largest and most successful practice areas, and Sara is taking over at a time when the credit crisis and other developments are pointing to an upswing in the work we’re going to be doing with clients.”

Brody won one of the Top Ten Defense Verdicts of 2002, as selected by the National Law Journal. She is listed as one of the leading California litigators in the 2005, 2006 and 2007 editions of Chambers & Partners' America’s Leading Business Lawyers and as one of The Daily Journal’s Top 30 Securities Litigators in California.

Heller Ehrman’s Securities Litigation team has more than 70 experienced attorneys. Several members of the practice have held senior positions at the U.S. Department of Justice, including a former chief of the Public Integrity Section, a former special representative to the Attorney General in Europe, and a former director of enforcement for the Commodity Futures Trading Commission. Heller Ehrman’s lawyers have been involved on behalf of a variety of defendants in some of the nation’s most significant securities litigation matters, including cases involving Enron, AOL TimeWarner, Parmalat, Qwest Communications, McKesson HBOC, HealthSouth, Cisco Systems, Cendant, Yahoo!, and Xerox. Of the few securities class actions that have gone to trial this decade, Heller Ehrman lawyers have handled three of them, obtaining defense verdicts in each.

The sophistication and specialization of Heller Ehrman’s securities litigators have put the firm at the forefront of many of the headline-grabbing developments affecting the practice nationwide. The number of securities litigation filings have risen in the last several months, largely due to the problems with mortgage-backed securities. Heller Ehrman has already captured a substantial amount of related work. The firm also has developed a stronger international presence, which has positioned Heller Ehrman to handle cross-border disputes, regulatory investigations and corporate investigations, including FCPA matters. Additionally, the firm’s involvement in energy enforcement matters now involving the CFTC and FERC has established Heller Ehrman as one of the country’s leading firms in this specialty area.

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