Meghan Summers is a partner based in our New York office focusing on securities, structured finance, and antitrust litigation.
Ms. Summers began working at the firm in 2008 as a paralegal and law clerk before becoming an associate in 2012 and then a partner in 2017.
- Cornell University, ranked first in her major (B.S. summa cum laude, 2008)
- Pace University School of Law, Salutatorian (J.D. summa cum laude, 2012)
Articles Editor, Pace Law Review - King’s College, London (Postgraduate Diploma with Merit, EU Competition Law, 2019)
- New York State Bar
- United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York
- United States District Court for the District of Colorado
- United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Third Circuits
Super Lawyers, Top Rated Attorney - Securities & Corporate Finance, 2023
Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2019-2024
Super Lawyers Rising Star, 2019-2024
Experience
Some of Ms. Summers’ securities and structured finance experience includes:
- Lead counsel representing Wespath, the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits of the United Methodist Church, in Doyle v. Reata Pharmaceuticals, a securities class action alleging that Reata made false and/or misleading statements — including in connection with its secondary public stock offerings — concerning, inter alia, the FDA guidance regarding the design of the clinical trial (CARDINAL) for Reata’s drug candidate, bardoxolone methyl. When the FDA revealed serious concerns it had previously raised to Reata, the share price declined materially. The case has resulted in a settlement of $45 million.
- Counsel in Maverick Neutral Levered Fund, Ltd. v. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc., alleging that Valeant materially misrepresented its business model, touting artificial and unsustainable growth that was enabled by the company’s deceptive and illegal conduct.
- Lead counsel in Dandong v. Pinnacle Performance Limited, a class action lawsuit against Morgan Stanley pertaining to $154.7 million of notes issued by Pinnacle Performance Ltd. Plaintiffs alleged that Morgan Stanley engineered the Pinnacle notes, which it marketed as a safe investment, to fail, investing money into collateralized debt obligations linked to risky companies, while actively shorting the same assets and betting against their clients. This litigation resulted in a $20 million settlement.
- Representation of foreign financial institutions in individual lawsuits against Morgan Stanley, Credit Agricole Corporate and Investment Bank, UBS, Deutsche Bank, Credit Suisse, Goldman Sachs, J.P. Morgan, and Barclays pertaining to a number of fraudulent structured investment vehicles and asset-backed collateralized debt obligations.
- Lead counsel in In re MOL Global, Inc. Securities Litigation, a class action lawsuit alleging that e-payment enabler MOL Global misled shareholders prior to its initial public offering. This litigation resulted in a $8.5 million settlement.
- Lead counsel in Rudman v. CHC Group, Ltd., a securities class action alleging that CHC Group had misled investors by failing to disclose that one of its two largest customers had stopped making payments on its contracts prior to the company’s initial public offering. This litigation resulted in a $3.85 million settlement.
- Representation in individual securities fraud actions against Merck and Schering-Plough related to the commercial viability of the companies’ anti-cholesterol medication, Vytorin, and the subsequent drop in Merck’s and Schering-Plough’s share price.
- Representation in individual securities fraud actions against Merck related to the safety and commercial viability of its medication, Vioxx, and the subsequent drop in Merck’s share price.
- Representation in an individual securities fraud action against BP plc related to the Deepwater Horizon explosion on April 20, 2010, and the subsequent drop in BP’s share price.
- Representation in an individual securities fraud action alleging that, in marketing their auto-loan ABS securitizations to investors, TCF Bank and Gateway One materially misrepresented the key metric used by investors to evaluate and price the securitizations’ certificates.
- Representation in a shareholder derivative lawsuit against officers and directors of HSBC Holdings and its subsidiaries, alleging that HSBC ran money laundering operations out of New York City. The litigation settled for $72.5 million, the then-largest foreign derivatives settlement ever reached and one of the largest insurer-funded cash payments achieved in a U.S. derivatives lawsuit.
- Representation of the exchange-based class in In re LIBOR-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation, an antitrust case alleging that defendant banks colluded to misreport and manipulate LIBOR. The case resulted in settlements totaling $190.45 million, which combined represent the largest recovery in a “futures-only” commodities class action litigation.
- Special fiduciary representation for the exchange-based class in In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation for a putative class of participants who traded futures and options in the foreign exchange market. This litigation has already resulted in partial settlements of more than $2.3 billion.
- Representation in individual lawsuits against Citibank, J.P. Morgan, Goldman Sachs, and Barclays, alleging that the banks colluded to prevent a patented method for structuring airline special facility revenue bonds from entering the airline municipal bond market in violation of New York’s Donnelly Act.
- Consulting and advisory counsel to Canadian lead counsel in an antitrust case against Microsoft. This litigation resulted in a settlement of $395 million.
News
Cases & Investigations
- <em><b>Maverick Neutral Levered Fund, Ltd. v. Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc.</b></em><strong>,</strong><br /> No. 20-cv-02190 (D.N.J.).
- <strong>Out of Court Settlement</strong>
- <b><em>In re LIBOR-Based Financial Instruments Antitrust Litigation</em>, </b><br /> No. 11-md-02262 (S.D.N.Y.).
- <b><em>Dandong v. Pinnacle Performance Ltd</em>.,</b><br /> No. 10-cv-08086 (S.D.N.Y.).
- <em><b>In re MOL Global, Inc. Securities Litigation</b></em><strong>,</strong><br /> No. 14-cv-09357 (S.D.N.Y.).
- <em><b>In re Foreign Exchange Benchmark Rates Antitrust Litigation</b></em><strong>,</strong> <br /> No. 13-cv-07789 (S.D.N.Y.).
- <b><em>Mason-Mahon v. Flint</em>,<i> </i></b><br /> No. 602052/2014 (N.Y. Sup. Ct., Nassau Cty.).
- <b><em>Doyle v. Reata Pharmaceuticals, Inc</em>.,</b><br /> No. 21-cv-00987 (E.D. Tex.).

