Lee D. Rudy, a partner of Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check, practices in the area of corporate governance litigation, with a focus on transactional and derivative cases. Representing both institutional and individual shareholders in these actions, he has helped cause significant monetary and corporate governance improvements for those companies and their shareholders.
Lee regularly practices in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where he served as co-lead trial counsel in the landmark case of In re S. Peru Copper Corp. S’holder Derivative Litig. (2011), a $2 billion trial verdict against Southern Peru’s majority shareholder, and In re Facebook, Inc. Class C Reclassification Litigation (2017), which forced Facebook and its founder Mark Zuckerberg to abandon plans to issue a new class of nonvoting stock to entrench Zuckerberg as the company’s majority stockholder. Lee also recently served as lead counsel in In re Allergan, Inc. Proxy Violation Securities Litigation (C.D. Cal. 2017), which was brought by a class of Allergan stockholders who sold shares while Pershing Square and its founder Bill Ackman were buying Allergan stock in advance of a secret takeover attempt by Valeant Pharmaceuticals, and which settled for $250 million just weeks before trial. Lee previously served as lead counsel in dozens of high profile derivative actions relating to the “backdating” of stock options.
Prior to civil practice, Mr. Rudy served for several years as an Assistant District Attorney in the Manhattan (NY) District Attorney’s Office, and as an Assistant United States Attorney in the US Attorney’s Office (DNJ), where he tried dozens of jury cases to verdict. Mr. Rudy received his law degree from Fordham University, and his undergraduate degree, cum laude, from the University of Pennsylvania. Mr. Rudy is licensed to practice in Pennsylvania and New York.
Updated Aug 2023
