More than 20 law firms from 16 countries, including Berman DeValerio, founded the International Financial Litigation Network this month, a group seeking to promote effective and consistent cross-border remedies for clients involved in global financial disputes.
The Network’s May 22 launch in New York prompted news coverage in North America, Europe and Asia, including articles in The New York Times, the Financial Times Alphaville blog and media outlets from Madrid to Mumbai.
By pooling legal talent from different countries, the Network can “help create a framework of international legal security, transparency and market confidence,” the Times quoted Berman DeValerio Partner Glen DeValerio as saying. Mr. DeValerio was elected vice chairman of the International Financial Litigation Network (IFLN). Partner Leslie Stern and Richard Lorant, the firm’s Director of Client Relations, are also active members of the group.
Berman DeValerio’s institutional investor clients have increasingly been forced to consider litigation outside the United States since the Supreme Court’s landmark 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank. Morrison effectively bars investors from using U.S. federal courts to recover money lost due to fraud on stock purchased overseas.
The International Financial Litigation Network (IFLN) is the brainchild of Spanish attorney Javier Cremades. Cremades helped form an alliance with some 60 law firms that negotiated settlements with banks worldwide whose clients had lost money in the Bernard L. Madoff scandal. The IFLN will be headquartered in New York and Madrid, with Cremades serving as its first president.
In addition to law firms from the United States and Spain, the IFLN’s 22 founding members are located in the United Kingdom, Austria, Colombia, Sweden, Israel, Ireland, Finland, Luxembourg, Morocco, Pakistan, Turkey, India, Italy and Brazil. The firms represent a broad spectrum of parties – both plaintiffs and defendants – who are involved in complex, cross-border financial disputes.
“The financial sector went global a long time ago and we cannot always count on regulators around the world to keep up with ever more complex products and their attendant risks,” Cremades said in the announcement accompanying the IFLN’s launch. “Lawyers must work together globally to identify and improve the resources available to their clients to make sure their legal means are met and their interests are adequately protected.”
Attendees at the founding meeting of the International Financial Litigation Network, including Berman DeValerio’s Leslie Stern and Richard Lorant.
*In August 2017, our firm name changed to Berman Tabacco. Case references and content published before that date may refer to the firm under our prior name, Berman DeValerio.