U. Seth Ottensoser

U. Seth Ottensoser graduated with high honors in 1992 from Queens College of the City University of New York, where he was elected to and became a member of Phi Beta Kappa.  Mr. Ottensoser received his J.D. degree in 1995 from the University of Southern California School of Law.  Mr. Ottensoser concentrates his practice in the areas of merger and acquisition litigation, securities class actions and corporate litigation.  Mr. Ottensoser has served as a member of the Special Committee on Mergers, Acquisitions and Corporate Control Contests of the Association of the Bar of the City of New York (now known as the New York City Bar Association).  Before joining the Firm, he was a partner at a prominent Manhattan plaintiffs’ class action firm.

Mr. Ottensoser has been involved in many successful class actions, including:  In re Marsh & McLennan Cos., Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 04-CV-8144 (CM) (S.D.N.Y.) ($400 million recovery); In re Plains Resources, Inc. Shareholders Litigation, No. 071-N (Del. Ch.) ($67 million in additional merger consideration for the public shareholders of Plains Resources); In re MONY Group, Inc. Shareholder Litigation, No. 20554 (Del. Ch.) (Delaware Chancery Court issued a preliminary injunction order enjoining the shareholder vote on a merger of MONY with AXA Financial, pending the issuance of curative disclosures by the MONY defendants.  As part of the settlement, certain of MONY’s executives forfeited approximately $7.4 million in change-of-control payments, funding an increase in the consideration received by MONY’s shareholders in the merger); In re Cablevision Systems Corp. Shareholders Litigation, No. 05-9752 (N.Y. Sup. Ct.) (successfully blocked a going-private transaction by a controlling shareholder leading to payment of a dividend to shareholders worth approximately $2.5 billion); In re Aetna, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 01-CV-97 (S.D.N.Y.) ($82.5 million recovery); In re Triton Energy Ltd. Securities Litigation, No. 98-cv-0256 (E.D. Tex.) ($49.5 million recovery); In re Ascent Entertainment Derivative Litigation, No. 17201-NC (Del. Ch.) ($40 million derivative settlement relating to the sale of the Denver Nuggets and the Colorado Avalanche); In re Waste Management Derivative Litigation, No. H-99-2483 (S.D. Tex.) ($25 million recovery); In re UnitedGlobalCom Shareholders Litigation, No. 1012-N (Del. Ch.) ($25 million recovery in a going-private transaction); and In re Kinko’s Shareholder Litigation, No. 98-cv-0362 (E.D. Tex.) ($8.5 million recovery for class consisting of approximately 160 shareholders).

Mr. Ottensoser is a frequent lecturer on the issues of civil procedure, federal practice, class actions, and corporate governance and has written extensively and been published on those matters.  Most recently, Mr. Ottensoser guest lectured at Harvard Law School on the topic of merger multiples in the context of Delaware litigation.  In addition, Mr. Ottensoser is the co-author of, among others:  "Current Issues Concerning the Directors’ Duty of Loyalty:  Cases Involving (A) Shareholder Ratification or (B) Allegations of Entrenchment," 1995 ALI-ABA Course Study on Current Issues in Corporate Governance, Nov. 30-Dec. 1, 1995, reprinted in Bank and Corporate Governance Law Reporter, Volume 16, Number 3, May 1996, at 396; "Emerging Duties and Liabilities of Outside Directors to Ensure That Adequate Information and Control Systems Are in Place:  Caremark and Good Faith Attempts," PLI 29TH Annual Institute on Securities Regulation, Nov. 5-8, 1997, at 493-517; "Leveraged Buyouts – Issues From the Shareholder Plaintiffs’ Perspective," Association of the Bar of the City of New York, Leveraged Buyouts and Other Private Equity Investments, Structuring and Negotiating Investments in Today's Market, Sept. 24, 2001; "Developments in Private Securities Litigation Pleading Standards and Other Significant Case Law Developments," Practising Law Institute 33rd Annual Institute on Securities Regulation, Nov. 8-10, 2001.

Mr. Ottensoser is admitted to the Bar of the State of New York and to practice before the United States Courts of Appeals for the Second, Third and Eighth Circuits, and the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York, the Eastern District of Wisconsin, and the District of Colorado.