Sharan Nirmul, a partner of the Firm, concentrates his practice in the area of securities, consumer and fiduciary class action and complex commercial litigation, exclusively representing the interests of plaintiffs and particularly, institutional investors.
Sharan represents a number of the world’s largest institutional investors in cutting edge, high stakes complex litigation. In addition to his securities litigation practice, he has been at the forefront of developing the Firm’s fiduciary litigation practice and has litigated ground-breaking cases in areas of securities lending, foreign exchange, and MBS trustee litigation. Mr. Nirmul was instrumental in developed the underlying theories that propelled the successful recoveries for customers of custodial banks in Compsource Oklahoma v. BNY Mellon, a $280 million recovery for investors in BNY Mellon’s securities lending program, and AFTRA v. JP Morgan, a $150 million recovery for investors in JP Morgan’s securities lending program. In Transatlantic Re v. A.I.G., Mr. Nirmul recovered $70 million for Transatlantic Re in a binding arbitration against its former parent, American International Group, arising out of AIG’s management of a securities lending program.
Focused on issues of transparency by fiduciary banks to their custodial clients, Mr. Nirmul served as lead counsel in a multi-district litigation against BNY Mellon for the excess spreads it charged to its custodial customers for automated FX services. Litigated over four years, involving 128 depositions and millions of pages of document discovery, and with unprecedented collaboration with the U.S. Department of Justice and the New York Attorney General, the litigation resulted in a settlement for the Bank’s custodial customers of $504 million. Mr. Nirmul also spearheaded litigation against the nation’s largest ADR programs, Citibank, BNY Mellon and JP Morgan, which alleged they charged hidden FX fees for conversion of ADR dividends. The litigation resulted in $100 million in recoveries for ADR holders and significant reforms in the FX practices for ADRs.
Mr. Nirmul has served as lead counsel in several high-profile securities fraud cases, including a $2.4 billion recovery for Bank of America shareholders arising from BoA’s shotgun merger with Merrill Lynch in 2009. More recently, Mr. Nirmul was lead trial counsel in litigation arising from the IPO of social media company Snap, Inc., which has resulted in a $187.5 million settlement for Snap’s investors, claims against Endo Pharmaceuticals, arising from its disclosures concerning the efficacy of its opioid drug, Opana ER, which resulted in a recovery of $80.5 million for Endo’s shareholders, and claims against Ocwen Financial, arising from its mortgage servicing practices and disclosures to investors, which settled on the eve of trial for $56 million. Mr. Nirmul currently serves as lead trial counsel in pending securities class actions involving General Electric, Kraft-Heinz, and the stunning collapse of Luckin Coffee Inc., following disclosure of a massive accounting fraud just ten months after its IPO. He also currently serves on the Executive Committee for the multi-district litigation involving the Chicago Board Options Exchange and the manipulation of its key product, the Cboe Volatility Index.
Mr. Nirmul received his law degree from The George Washington University National Law Center and undergraduate degree from Cornell University. He was born and grew up in Durban, South Africa.
Updated Aug 2023
