Berman Tabacco is pleased to announce that Nathaniel Orenstein has been promoted to the position of partner. The promotion recognizes the important contributions Nathaniel has made to the firm’s success in prosecuting complex securities and antitrust cases.
“Nathaniel has been a strong, committed advocate for our clients,” said Boston Partner Norman Berman. “He brings a strong skill set and tenacity that has earned him the much-deserved respect of co-counsel and adversaries alike. Nathaniel’s keen insights and tireless work ethic show through in every matter he handles.”
“We are very proud of Nathaniel’s successes and look forward to his accomplishments in the future,” added Boston Managing Partner Kathleen Donovan-Maher.
Nathaniel, based in the Boston office, focuses his practice on securities and antitrust litigation and trial work. He has successfully litigated numerous cases that have resulted in substantial recoveries for impacted investors and consumers, including the Energy Solutions, TPC Group, Bluegreen, Apollo Education, American Home, Venoco, and Force Protection securities litigations and the LCD Flat Panel antitrust matter.
Earlier this year, Nathaniel was a key member of a trial team that resulted in $3 million disgorgement award against the former CEO and controlling shareholder of PHC, Inc., Bruce A. Shear. After a nine-day trial, the jury returned a special verdict finding that Shear was a controlling shareholder of PHC and that he had breached his fiduciary duty. The judge ordered Shear to disgorge more than $3 million of “ill-gotten gains” so that he would not benefit from “the fruits of his wrongdoing,” entering judgment as a matter of law after the jury found that Shear’s secret profits did not cause a direct injury to the class.
Not one to rest for too long, Nathaniel will be heading back to trial in January in In re Asacol Antitrust Litigation. As liaison counsel, Nathaniel represents a class of ulcerative colitis patients and other end-payers who are suing Warner Chilcott and other defendants for taking Asacol off the market shortly before the drug’s patent expired and forcing them on to other medications, in order to prevent those patients from using the generic alternative.
In addition to Asacol, Mr. Orenstein is actively involved in the firm’s fiduciary duty and corporate governance practice in which he represents clients in direct and derivative actions in Delaware and courts across the country. Some of these matters include Wells Fargo & Co., UnitedHealth Group, and other actions as well as a number of antitrust investigations in price fixing and anticompetitive conduct in the pharmaceutical and energy sectors.
Prior to joining the firm, Nathaniel was the lead attorney on several high-profile securities fraud regulatory actions for the Securities Division of the Office of the Secretary of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. While there, he served as the lead attorney on many investigations and actions against broker-dealers, investment advisors and others, including the Division’s case against Bear Stearns Asset Management in connection with its two failed hedge funds.
Earlier in his career, Mr. Orenstein was the Associate Director of the Center for Insurance Research, a consumer advocacy organization in Cambridge, Massachusetts. In these roles he supported several complex litigation matters as well as advanced several public policy initiatives involving mutual insurance company and savings bank demutualizations and mutual holding company conversions. He also testified in regulatory and legislative proceedings on behalf of policyholders concerning market conduct and insurance rate setting.