Jay W. Eisenhofer

Grant & Eisenhofer gives people access to the highest-quality, tailored legal representation—and a meaningful path to justice and compensation they might not otherwise have. I find deep fulfillment in taking on cases where the odds are against us, and prevailing.

Overview

Jay Eisenhofer was among the earliest lawyers to represent public-company investors in the Delaware Chancery Court in the late 1980s. Over the decades that followed, he has served as counsel in an unmatched number of securities litigation cases involving nine-figure outcomes.

In several precedent-setting decisions, Jay created new law, establishing important investor-protection standards such as the requirement of shareholder proxy access—reversing years of SEC no-action letters—and obtaining the first Delaware Court of Chancery ruling that “dead-hand” poison pills violated Delaware law.

Jay also helped shape Grant & Eisenhofer’s pioneering work in shareholder appraisal rights litigation in Delaware M&A transactions.

Internationally, Jay and the firm have carved similarly bold new paths. Working to establish and advance “class-like” mechanisms for international securities group actions—similar to those in the US, they have organized more than a dozen investor cases that have resulted in substantial recoveries, with additional matters pending at pre-trial or pre-settlement stages.

Under Jay’s leadership, Grant & Eisenhofer was among the earliest plaintiffs firms to successfully pursue investor litigation beyond the US. That early commitment helped establish the firm as a recognized leader in achieving successful outcomes for investors in foreign jurisdictions.

Jay and his colleagues have built Grant & Eisenhofer into a national plaintiffs firm capable of managing hundreds of active matters at once—including large-scale mass torts involving thousands of individual claims—while aggressively pursuing G&E’s clients’ claims against the world’s largest defense firms.

Jay led the firm as it has expanded thoughtfully into a broad range of complex practices, including pharmaceutical and medical device litigation, catastrophic birth injury and medical malpractice cases, environmental and toxic torts, bankruptcy, antitrust and consumer class actions.

Jay has written and lectured extensively on securities fraud and insurance coverage litigation, business and employment torts, directors’ and officers’ liability coverage, and the Delaware law of shareholder rights and directorial responsibilities.

One of his books, the 2005 treatise Shareholder Activism Handbook, has informed and influenced a generation of activist investors, helping shape how shareholders assert their rights in corporate governance disputes.

“A number of Eisenhofer’s early cases are considered seminal for establishing new law favorable to investors.”
Lawdragon 500

Experience

View All Representative Cases

U.S. Securities Litigation

$3.2 billion settlement with Tyco International
$922 million settlement with UnitedHealth Group
$486 million settlement with Pfizer
$448 million settlement with Global Crossing
$400 million settlement with Marsh & McLennan
$303 million settlement with General Motors
$300 million settlement with DaimlerChrysler

International

$1.5 billion settlement with Fortis in the Netherlands
$1 billion recovery against Royal Bank of Scotland in the United Kingdom
Historic $450 million pan-European settlement in the Royal Dutch Shell case in the Netherlands

Jay was the lead attorney in the seminal cases of American Federation of State, County & Municipal Employees, Employees Pension Plan v. American International Group, Inc., where the US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit required shareholder proxy access reversing years of SEC no-action letters, and Carmody v. Toll Brothers, wherein the Delaware Court of Chancery first ruled that so-called “dead-hand” poison pills violated Delaware law.

Jay has served as litigation counsel to many public and private institutional investors, including, among others, Amalgamated Bank, APG Asset Management, California Public Employees Retirement System, California State Teachers Retirement System, Colorado Public Employees Retirement Association, the Florida State Board of Administration, John Hancock, Louisiana State Employees Retirement System, New York City Retirement Funds, Inc., and Service Employees International Union.

Credentials

Delaware
New Jersey
New York
Pennsylvania (Inactive)

Supreme Court of the State of Delaware
US Court of Appeals for the 1st Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the 2nd Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the 3rd Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit
US Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit
US District Court for the District of Delaware
US District Court for the District of New Jersey
US District Court for the Southern District of New York
US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Recognitions

Lawdragon, Top 500 Hall of Fame
Lawdragon 500: The Legends
Benchmark Litigation, Top 100 Trial Lawyers
The National Law Journal, “Plaintiffs’ Hot List”
AV rating by Martindale-Hubbell

Firm Awards:

The National Law Journal’s “Plaintiffs’ Hot List Hall Of Fame”, 2008
The National Law Journal’s “Elite Trial Lawyers: The 50 Leading Plaintiffs Firms in America”
Law360, “Most Feared Plaintiffs Firm” as “one of the most high-profile shareholder and whistleblower advocates in the country, securing record-high cash settlements”
US News & World Report, “Best Law Firms” in the fields of Securities Litigation, Commercial Litigation, and Corporate Law

Publications & Presentations

Shareholder Activism Handbook (Aspen Publishers)
“Proxy Access Takes Center Stage – The Second Circuit’s Decision in AFSCME Employees Pension Plan v. American International Group, Inc.”Bloomberg Law Reports, Vol. 1, No. 5
“Investor Litigation in the US – The System is Working” Securities Reform Act Litigation Reporter, Vol. 22, #5
“In re Walt Disney Co. Deriv. Litig.and the Duty of Good Faith Under Delaware Corporate Law” Bank & Corporate Governance Law Reporter, Vol. 37, #1
“Institutional Investors As Trend-Setters In Post-PSLRA Securities Litigation” Practising Law Institute
“In re Cox Communications, Inc.: A Suggested Step in the Wrong Direction,” Bank and Corporate Governance Law Reporter, 35, #1
“Does Corporate Governance Matter to Investment Returns?” Corporate Accountability Report, Vol. 3, No. 37
“Loss Causation in Light of Dura: Who is Getting it Wrong?” Securities Reform Act Litigation Reporter, Vol. 20, #1
“Giving Substance to the Right to Vote: An Initiative to Amend Delaware Law to Require a Majority Vote in Director Elections,” Corporate Governance Advisor, Vol. 13, #1
“An Invaluable Tool in Corporate Reform: Pension Fund Leadership Improves Securities Litigation Process,” Pensions & Investments
“Securities Fraud, Stock Price Valuation, and Loss Causation: Toward a Corporate Finance-Based Theory of Loss Causation,” Business Lawyer
“Time for Hedge Funds to Become Accountable to Fiduciary Investors,” Pensions & Investments
“Hedge Funds of the Living Dead,” New York Times Dealbook

Overview