Prevailed before Supreme Court for Omnicare in Landmark Securities Act Case

Represented Omnicare, Inc. in one of the most important Securities Act cases to go before the U.S. Supreme Court decades. The Court soundly rejected the lower court’s decision and held that a plaintiff asserting a securities fraud claim based solely on a statement of opinion contained in a registration statement need only allege that the opinion turned out to be wrong. The Supreme Court soundly rejected the Sixth Circuit’s analysis as “an invitation to Monday morning quarterback an issuer’s opinions.” The case set a new precedent that to establish that a statement of opinion is “an untrue statement of material fact,” the plaintiff must prove that the speaker did not actually hold the opinion expressed. To establish an actionable material omission, on the other hand, the plaintiff must prove that the registration statement—read as a whole—implied some fact about how the speaker formed the opinion when the true facts were otherwise.