Scott M. Berman
Scott M. Berman represents large institutional investors, funds of funds, investment advisors, and wealthy individuals in securities and fraud litigations involving hedge funds and their auditors, administrators, prime brokers, and other professionals (e.g., Madoff feeder funds, Beacon Hill, Lipper, Lancer, Livingston, Granite, Manhattan). He also represents hedge fund receivers and liquidators (e.g., Beacon Hill) as well as hedge fund investors in bankruptcy and receivership proceedings (e.g., Bayou, Wood River) and other matters (e.g., Amaranth). Mr. Berman has litigated numerous bankruptcy matters on behalf of unsecured creditors, equity holders, and debtors. He also represents companies in complex securities litigation, commercial litigation, and litigation in high-profile bankruptcy matters in federal and state courts, and in arbitrations in jurisdictions across the country. In addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Berman counsels hedge funds, funds of funds, and investment managers.
Mr. Berman currently is representing investors who lost more than $580 million in the Lancer hedge funds in litigation against the offshore funds' auditor, administrators, and prime broker/custodian, as well as investors who lost many millions of dollars in Madoff feeder funds in litigation against the funds' manager, parent, and auditor. He has obtained favorable settlements on behalf of investors who lost many millions of of dollars in the Beacon Hill hedge funds from the funds' managers, parent, and service providers as well as a broker-dealer, and on behalf of investors who lost $230 million in the Granite hedge funds from the funds' manager and various broker-dealers, and on behalf of investors who lost $100 million in the Manhattan hedge fund against the fund's manager, auditor, and administrator.
Mr. Berman has also defended a public company and its president in a class action and SEC investigation; counseled a prominent apparel company and commenced and defended litigations on its behalf; advised preferred shareholders regarding potential litigation against a closely-held corporation and negotiated a favorable resolution of the dispute; commenced a fraud and fraudulent conveyance action against the debtors' pre-petition bank group in the Exide bankruptcy, and convinced the court to accept the cutting-edge claim of "deepening insolvency"; commenced arbitrations against broker-dealers on behalf of terminated high-level employees and defrauded investors; and represented a group of partners in connection with a law firm merger and breakup.
Mr. Berman is frequently quoted in the financial press on hedge fund-related issues. His many speaking engagements have included two appearances at 2009 Madoff & Ponzi Scheme Litigation Conferences presented by HB Litigation Conferences (formerly Mealey's Conferences); "Meeting Investor Demands While Protecting Strategies" at the 2008 Hedge Fund Risk Management Conference; "Hedge Fund Due Diligence for Private Investors" at the 2008 Annual Wealth Management Forum sponsored by Institutional Investor Events; "Avoiding the Perils of Operational Oversight: What Can Be Learned From the Latest Fund Failures and Lawsuits" at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Hedge Fund Business Operations Association; "Case Study of a Hedge Fund Blowup" at the 2006 MARHedge Cayman conference on Hedge Fund Best Practices; "Hedge Fund Symposium" at the 2006 Securities Forum hosted by the Connecticut Department of Banking, Securities and Business Investments; and "Enforcement/Fraud Concerns" at the 2003 SEC Hedge Fund Roundtable. He also is a frequent lecturer on federal practice at programs sponsored by the New York County Lawyers' Association and the New York State Bar Association.
Mr. Berman is the author of "Non-Party Discovery," Litigation (Summer 1997), co-author of the New York County Lawyers' Association Report on the Federal Study Committee's Recommendation to Abolish Diversity Jurisdiction, 158 F.R.D. 185 (1994), and principal author of the New York County Lawyers' Association Report on Pretrial Orders (1989). He is a member of the Committee on Securities Litigation of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association and Past Chair of the Committee on Federal Courts of the New York County Lawyers' Association.
Mr. Berman has been selected for inclusion by Law & Politics in Super Lawyers® 2009 New York Edition for having attained the highest degree of peer recognition and professional achievement in the multiphase Super Lawyers selection process which includes, among other factors, peer evaluation. Mr. Berman also received this designation in 2007 and 2008.
Mr. Berman graduated from Emory University in 1979 and received his law degree from New York University School of Law in 1982. Prior to joining Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP, he was a partner at Brown Rudnick Berlack Israels LLP in New York.
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