A T T O R N E Y S A T L A W

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Direct: 415-400-3000

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P E N N S Y L V A N I A C A L I F O R N I A

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Since 1987, Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, LLP has specialized in the prosecution of securities class actions

and has grown into one of the largest and most successful shareholder litigation firms in the field. With

offices in Radnor, Pennsylvania and San Francisco, California, the Firm is comprised of 94 attorneys as well

as an experienced support staff consisting of over 80 paralegals, in-house investigators, legal clerks and

other personnel. With a large and sophisticated client base (numbering over 350 institutional investors from

around the world -- including public and Taft-Hartley pension funds, mutual fund managers, investment

advisors, insurance companies, hedge funds and other large investors), Kessler Topaz has developed an

international reputation for excellence and has extensive experience prosecuting securities fraud actions.

For the past several years, the National Law Journal has recognized Kessler Topaz as one of the top

securities class action law firms in the country. In addition, the Legal Intelligencer recently awarded Kessler

Topaz with its Class Action Litigation Firm of The Year award. Lastly, Kessler Topaz and several of its

attorneys are regularly recognized by Legal500 and Benchmark: Plaintiffs as leaders in our field.

Kessler Topaz has recovered billions of dollars in the course of representing defrauded shareholders from

around the world and takes pride in the reputation we have earned for our dedication to our clients. Kessler

Topaz devotes significant time to developing relationships with its clients in a manner that enables the Firm

to understand the types of cases they will be interested in pursuing and their expectations. Further, the Firm

is committed to pursuing meaningful corporate governance reforms in cases where we suspect that

systemic problems within a company could lead to recurring litigation and where such changes also have

the possibility to increase the value of the underlying company. The Firm is poised to continue protecting

rights worldwide.

F I R M P R O F I L E

O F F I C E S :

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Practice Areas

CONSUMER PROTECTION 

Far too often, large corporations will cut corners, overpromise, or hide problems under the mistaken assumption 

that they cannot be held accountable. At the same time, many consumers feel that they are unable to vindicate 

their rights, thinking that any recovery would pale in comparison to the costs of litigation. The Firm’s Consumer 

Protection Litigation Group closes that gap, taking on some of the world’s largest companies on behalf of classes 

of consumers and entities nationwide who would otherwise be unable to litigate alone. Kessler Topaz has the 

deep experience, commitment and resources necessary to take consumer complaints to jury verdict. At the 

outset, we carefully evaluate our clients’ cases, pursing only the strongest legal theories and avenues for recovery. 

Throughout litigation, we pursue discovery vigorously. Oftentimes, deceptive and fraudulent acts and practices 

are covered by state consumer protection statutes intended to protect consumers from corporate misconduct. 

Various federal laws may also apply, such as the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (18 U.S.C. 

§ 1962(c), (d)) (“RICO”), where corporate misconduct involves conspiracies and/or fraudulent schemes

including racketeering. The Consumer Protection Litigation Group also represents entities pursuing claims for

negligence, public nuisance, breach of contract, and constitutional violations, among others. Our work in this

field has resulted in many victories and substantial recoveries for consumers on a broad range of issues from

illegal exactions imposed by the government and prescription drug pricing to oil and gas royalties and

automotive defects. Recently, Firm partners Joseph H. Meltzer and Melissa L. Yeates were appointed to

leadership positions in the multi-district litigation, In re Social Media Adolescent Addiction/Personal Injury

Products Liability Litigation, 4:22-md- 03047-YGR (N.D. Cal.), pursuing claims on behalf of hundreds of school

districts and local governments from around the country seeking to hold social media companies responsible for

the substantial harms they have caused by creating and contributing to the ongoing youth mental health crisis.

The Firm’s Consumer Protection Litigation Group has earned its nationwide reputation for excellence and

stands ready to help vindicate the rights of consumers and entities injured by corporate misconduct.

DATA PRIVACY & CYBER SECURITY 

Living in a digital age comes with constantly evolving data privacy and cyber security challenges. New 

technologies and techniques are being developed on an almost daily basis that provide established companies 

and hackers alike with new ways to obtain information about you without your consent. Kessler Topaz is at the 

forefront of meeting these challenges. Our experience working with experts, litigating groundbreaking legal 

theories, and understanding the true harm these practices cause makes us a true leader in protecting our clients’ 

privacy rights. The Firm’s Data Privacy and Cyber Security Litigation Group represents consumers whose 

personal information has been compromised and/or shared with or intercepted by third parties as well as 

businesses that are financially harmed by data breaches and data privacy violations. Among the Firm’s successes 

is reaching a $39.3 million settlement on behalf of a class of financial institutions that had to reissue payment 

cards after a data breach at Target exposed their customers’ information. The Firm currently represents clients 

whose health care providers installed code on their websites and mobile applications that intercepted patients’ 

communications with their health care providers and sent their personal health information to third party 

companies without patients’ consent. This sensitive health information included specifics about patient status, 

medications patients were prescribed, health conditions, test results, vaccination status, among other things. 

Consumers have a right to know how information they provide to health care providers and other companies is 

being used and to control who has access to this sensitive, personal information. Be it thorough federal statutes 

like the Electronic Communications Protection Act, or state laws like biometric protection and invasion of 

privacy statutes, Kessler Topaz is here to protect your rights and seek just compensation for past wrongs. 

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N O T E W O R T H Y A C H I E V E M E N T S

During the Firm’s successful history, Kessler Topaz has recovered billions of dollars for defrauded 

stockholders and consumers. The following are among the Firm’s notable achievements:

CONSUMER PROTECTION & FIDUCIARY LITIGATION

In re J.P. Jeanneret Associates Inc., et al., No. 09-cv-3907 (S.D.N.Y.):

Kessler Topaz served as lead counsel for one of the plaintiff groups in an action against J.P. Jeanneret 

and Ivy Asset Management relating to an alleged breach of fiduciary and statutory duty in connection 

with the investment of retirement plan assets in Bernard Madoff-related entities. By breaching their 

fiduciary duties, Defendants caused significant losses to the retirement plans. Following extensive 

hard-fought litigation, the case settled for a total of $216.5 million in cash plus over $3 million in 

waived fees.

In re: National City Corp. Securities, Derivative and ERISA Litig, No. 08-nc-7000 (N.D. Ohio): Kessler 

Topaz served as a lead counsel in this complex action alleging that certain directors and officers of 

National City Corp. breached their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security 

Act of 1974. These breaches arose from an investment in National City stock during a time when 

defendants knew, or should have known, that the company stock was artificially inflated and an 

imprudent investment for the company’s 401(k) plan. The case settled for $43 million on behalf of the 

plan, plaintiffs and a settlement class of plan participants.

Alston, et al. v. Countrywide Financial Corp. et al., No. 07-cv-03508 (E.D. Pa.):

Kessler Topaz served as lead counsel in this novel and complex action which alleged that Defendants 

Countrywide Financial Corporation, Countrywide Home Loans, Inc. and Balboa Reinsurance Co. 

violated the Real Estate Settlement Procedure Act (“RESPA”) and ultimately cost borrowers millions 

of dollars. Specifically, the action alleged that Defendants engaged in a scheme related to private 

mortgage insurance involving kickbacks, which are prohibited under RESPA. After three and a half 

years of hard-fought litigation, the action settled for $34 million.

Trustees of the Local 464A United Food and Commercial Workers Union Pension Fund, et al. v. 

Wachovia Bank, N.A., et al., No. 09-cv-00668 (DNJ):

For more than 50 years, Wachovia and its predecessors acted as investment manager for the Local 

464A UFCW Union Funds, exercising investment discretion consistent with certain investment 

guidelines and fiduciary obligations. Until mid-2007, Wachovia managed the fixed income assets of 

the funds safely and conservatively, and their returns closely tracked the Lehman Aggregate Bond 

Index (now known as the Barclay’s Capital Aggregate Bond Index) to which the funds were 

benchmarked. However, beginning in mid-2007 Wachovia significantly changed the investment 

strategy, causing the funds’ portfolio value to drop drastically below the benchmark. Specifically, 

Wachovia began to dramatically decrease the funds’ holdings in short-term, high-quality, low-risk 

debt instruments and materially increase their holdings in high-risk mortgage-backed securities and 

collateralized mortgage obligations. We represented the funds’ trustees in alleging that, among other 

things, Wachovia breached its fiduciary duty by: failing to invest the assets in accordance with the 

funds’ conservative investment guidelines; failing to adequately monitor the funds’ fixed income 

investments; and failing to provide complete and accurate information to plaintiffs concerning the 

change in investment strategy. The matters was resolved privately between the parties. 

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In re Bank of New York Mellon Corp. Foreign Exchange Transactions Litig., No. 1:12-md-02335 

(S.D.N.Y.):

On behalf of the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority Pension Fund and a class of 

similarly situated domestic custodial clients of BNY Mellon, we alleged that BNY Mellon secretly 

assigned a spread to the FX rates at which it transacted FX transactions on behalf of its clients who 

participated in the BNY Mellon’s automated “Standing Instruction” FX service. BNY Mellon 

determining this spread by executing its clients’ transactions at one rate and then, typically, at the end 

of the trading day, assigned a rate to its clients which approximated the worst possible rates of the 

trading day, pocketing the difference as riskless profit. This practice was despite BNY Mellon’s 

contractual promises to its clients that its Standing Instruction service was designed to provide “best 

execution,” was “free of charge” and provided the “best rates of the day.” The case asserted claims 

for breach of contract and breach of fiduciary duty on behalf of BNY Mellon’s custodial clients and 

sought to recover the unlawful profits that BNY Mellon earned from its unfair and unlawful FX 

practices. The case was litigated in collaboration with separate cases brought by state and federal 

agencies, with Kessler Topaz serving as lead counsel and a member of the executive committee 

overseeing the private litigation. After extensive discovery, including more than 100 depositions, 

over 25 million pages of fact discovery, and the submission of multiple expert reports, Plaintiffs 

reached a settlement with BNY Mellon of $335 million. Additionally, the settlement is being 

administered by Kessler Topaz along with separate recoveries by state and federal agencies which 

bring the total recovery for BNY Mellon’s custodial customers to $504 million. The settlement was 

The settlement was finally approved on September 24, 2015. In approving the settlement, Judge Lewis 

Kaplan praised counsel for a “wonderful job,” recognizing that they were “fought tooth and nail at 

every step of the road.” In further recognition of the efforts of counsel, Judge Kaplan noted that “[t]his 

was an outrageous wrong by the Bank of New York Mellon, and plaintiffs’ counsel deserve a world of 

credit for taking it on, for running the risk, for financing it and doing a great job.”

CompSource Oklahoma v. BNY Mellon Bank, N.A., No. CIV 08-469-KEW (E.D. Okla. October 25, 

2012):

Kessler Topaz served as Interim Class Counsel in this matter alleging that BNY Mellon Bank, N.A. and 

the Bank of New York Mellon (collectively, “BNYM”) breached their statutory, common law and 

contractual duties in connection with the administration of their securities lending program. The 

Second Amended Complaint alleged, among other things, that BNYM imprudently invested cash 

collateral obtained under its securities lending program in medium term notes issued by Sigma 

Finance, Inc. -- a foreign structured investment vehicle (“SIV”) that is now in receivership -- and that 

such conduct constituted a breach of BNYM’s fiduciary obligations under the Employee Retirement 

Income Security Act of 1974, a breach of its fiduciary duties under common law, and a breach of its 

contractual obligations under the securities lending agreements. The Complaint also asserted claims 

for negligence, gross negligence and willful misconduct. The case recently settled for $280 million.

Transatlantic Holdings, Inc., et al. v. American International Group, Inc., et al., American Arbitration 

Association Case No. 50 148 T 00376 10:

Kessler Topaz served as counsel for Transatlantic Holdings, Inc., and its subsidiaries (“TRH”), alleging 

that American International Group, Inc. and its subsidiaries (“AIG”) breached their fiduciary duties, 

contractual duties, and committed fraud in connection with the administration of its securities 

lending program. Until June 2009, AIG was TRH’s majority shareholder and, at the same time, 

administered TRH’s securities lending program. TRH’s Statement of Claim alleged that, among other 

things, AIG breached its fiduciary obligations as investment advisor and majority shareholder by 

imprudently investing the majority of the cash collateral obtained under its securities lending program 

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in mortgage backed securities, including Alt-A and subprime investments. The Statement of Claim 

further alleged that AIG concealed the extent of TRH’s subprime exposure and that when the collateral 

pools began experiencing liquidity problems in 2007, AIG unilaterally carved TRH out of the pools so 

that it could provide funding to its wholly owned subsidiaries to the exclusion of TRH. The matter was 

litigated through a binding arbitration and TRH was awarded $75 million.

Board of Trustees of the AFTRA Retirement Fund v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A. – 

Consolidated Action No. 09-cv-00686 (SAS) (S.D.N.Y.):

On January 23, 2009, the firm filed a class action complaint on behalf of all entities 

that were participants in JPMorgan’s securities lending program and that incurred losses on 

investments that JPMorgan, acting in its capacity as a discretionary investment manager, made in 

medium-term notes issue by Sigma Finance, Inc. – a now defunct structured investment vehicle. 

The losses of the Class exceeded $500 million. The complaint asserted claims for breach 

of fiduciary duty under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), as well as 

common law breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract and negligence. Over the course 

of discovery, the parties produced and reviewed over 500,000 pages of documents, took 

40 depositions (domestic and foreign) and exchanged 21 expert reports. The case settled for 

$150 million. Trial was scheduled to commence on February 6, 2012.

In re Global Crossing, Ltd. ERISA Litigation, No. 02 Civ. 7453 (S.D.N.Y. 2004):

Kessler Topaz served as Co-Lead Counsel in this novel, complex and high-profile action which alleged 

that certain directors and officers of Global Crossing, a former high-flier of the late 1990’s tech stock 

boom, breached their fiduciary duties under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 

(“ERISA”) to certain company-provided 401(k) plans and their participants. These breaches arose 

from the plans’ alleged imprudent investment in Global Crossing stock during a time when 

defendants knew, or should have known, that the company was facing imminent bankruptcy. A 

settlement of plaintiffs’ claims restoring $79 million to the plans and their participants was approved 

in November 2004. At the time, this represented the largest recovery received in a company stock 

ERISA class action.

In re AOL Time Warner ERISA Litigation, No. 02-CV-8853 (S.D.N.Y. 2006):

Kessler Topaz, which served as Co-Lead Counsel in this highly-publicized ERISA fiduciary breach 

class action brought on behalf of the Company’s 401(k) plans and their participants, achieved a record 

$100 million settlement with defendants. The $100 million restorative cash payment to the plans (and, 

concomitantly, their participants) represents the largest recovery from a single defendant in a breach 

of fiduciary action relating to mismanagement of plan assets held in the form of employer securities. 

The action asserted claims for breach of fiduciary duties pursuant to the Employee Retirement 

Income Security Act of 1974 (“ERISA”) on behalf of the participants in the AOL Time Warner 

Savings Plan, the AOL Time Warner Thrift Plan, and the Time Warner Cable Savings Plan 

(collectively, the “Plans”) whose accounts purchased and/or held interests in the AOLTW Stock Fund 

at any time between January 27, 1999 and July 3, 2003. Named as defendants in the case were Time 

Warner (and its corporate predecessor, AOL Time Warner), several of the Plans’ committees, as well 

as certain current and former officers and directors of the company. In March 2005, the Court largely 

denied defendants’ motion to dismiss and the parties began the discovery phase of the case. In 

January 2006, Plaintiffs filed a motion for class certification, while at the same time defendants moved 

for partial summary judgment. These motions were pending before the Court when the settlement in 

principle was reached. Notably, an Independent Fiduciary retained by the Plans to review the 

settlement in accordance with Department of Labor regulations approved the settlement and filed a 

report with Court noting that the settlement, in addition to being “more than a reasonable recovery” 

for the Plans, is “one of the largest ERISA employer stock action settlements in history.”

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In re Honeywell International ERISA Litigation, No. 03-1214 (DRD) (D.N.J. 2004):

Kessler Topaz served as Lead Counsel in a breach of fiduciary duty case under ERISA against 

Honeywell International, Inc. and certain fiduciaries of Honeywell defined contribution pension 

plans. The suit alleged that Honeywell and the individual fiduciary defendants, allowed Honeywell’s 

401(k) plans and their participants to imprudently invest significant assets in company stock, despite 

that defendants knew, or should have known, that Honeywell’s stock was an imprudent investment 

due to undisclosed, wide-ranging problems stemming from a consummated merger with Allied Signal 

and a failed merger with General Electric. The settlement of plaintiffs’ claims included a $14 million 

payment to the plans and their affected participants, and significant structural relief affording 

participants much greater leeway in diversifying their retirement savings portfolios.

Henry v. Sears, et. al., Case No. 98 C 4110 (N.D. Ill. 1999):

The Firm served as Co-Lead Counsel for one of the largest consumer class actions in history, 

consisting of approximately 11 million Sears credit card holders whose interest rates were improperly 

increased in connection with the transfer of the credit card accounts to a national bank. Kessler Topaz 

successfully negotiated a settlement representing approximately 66% of all class members’ damages, 

thereby providing a total benefit exceeding $156 million. All $156 million was distributed automatically to the Class members, without the filing of a single proof of claim form. In approving the 

settlement, the District Court stated: “. . . I am pleased to approve the settlement. I think it does the 

best that could be done under the circumstances on behalf of the class. . . . The litigation was complex 

in both liability and damages and required both professional skill and standing which class counsel 

demonstrated in abundance.”

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ATTORNEY FOCUSED ON THIS ACTION

TYLER S. GRADEN, a Partner of the Firm, concentrates his practice in the area of

consumer protection and unlawful business practice litigation, representing individuals, 

retirement plan beneficiaries, businesses and government entities as plaintiffs in class 

actions and arbitrations. Prior to joining the Firm, Mr. Graden worked at a boutique 

defense litigation firm in Philadelphia and as an investigator with the Chicago District 

Office of the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.

Mr. Graden has represented individuals and institutional investors in obtaining substantial 

recoveries in numerous class actions, including: Buffalo Laborers Security Fund v. J.P. 

Jeanneret Associates, Inc. (S.D.N.Y.) (settlement in fiduciary breach class action involving 

Madoff investments: $219 million); AFTRA Retirement Fund v. JPMorgan Chase Bank, 

NA. (S.D.N.Y.) (settlement in fiduciary breach securities lending class action: $150 

million); Transatlantic Holdings v. AIG (American Arbitration Association) (arbitration 

award in fiduciary breach securities lending action: $75 million ); In re: Volkswagen 

Timing Chain Product Liability Litigation (D.N.J.) (settlement in automotive defect class 

action); Seelingson v. Devon Energy Production Co. (N.D. Tex.) (settlement in oil & gas 

royalty calculation class action: $28 million); Montoya v. PNC Bank, N.A. (S.D. Fla.) 

(settlement in force-placed insurance class action: $32.3 million); Burroughs v. PHH 

Mortgage Co. (D.N.J.) (settlement in force-placed insurance class action: $18 million); 

and U.S. ex rel. Simpson v. Bayer Corp. (D.N.J.) (settlement in whistleblower qui tarn 

action: $40 million).

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