ATTORNEYS

Jared Kopel is a litigation attorney who specializes in securities litigation and Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) defense work.  Mr. Kopel was formerly a litigation partner for twenty-one years with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati.  He primarily focuses on defending shareholder class action lawsuits; litigating acquisitions; internal investigations; and counseling companies on securities litigation matters.  His practice also includes drafting briefs; managing discovery; taking and defending depositions; representing clients in SEC testimony, preparing Wells Submissions on behalf of clients for submission to the SEC; oral argument before trial and appellate courts; appearing at fact-finding conferences and mediations; and sponsoring public seminars on SEC-related development for Silicon Valley executives.  

Mr. Kopel has been involved in the defense of approximately 50 shareholder lawsuits and he has represented clients in more than 100 SEC and National Association of Securities Dealers (NASD) investigations.

Jared began his legal career in the enforcement division of the SEC in Washington, D.C., where he worked for six years as a staff attorney and branch chief.  During his time at the SEC, Mr. Kopel’s cases included complex financial and accounting fraud, broker-dealer supervision, stock manipulation, and insider trading.  His involvement in one particular case was described in the book Serpent on the Rock, which focused on the problems at Prudential-Bache Securities in the 1980s.

Jared has written chapters on insider trading and responsibilities for registered offerings for Securities Law Techniques, a major treatise on securities regulation, and a monograph on Regulation FD (Fair Disclosure).  He has also written articles for Practising Law Institute and Insights Magazine, and he has been asked by the Bureau of National Affairs to author a major booklet on corporate governance.  He has appeared on panels sponsored by Practising Law Institute, Glasser Legalworks, and Executive Enterprise Institute, as well as been retained as an expert witness on securities law matters.

Select Cases:

Lead defense counsel in Mercury Interactive Corporation v. Kenneth Klein, et al., The Recorder, et al., in which the California Court of Appeals held that court-filed sealed discovery was not presumptively public under California law unless it was used at trial or submitted in connection with a substantive matter

Lead attorney for In re Worlds of Wonder Securities Litigation, which resulted in a 1994 landmark opinion by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit adopting the “bespeaks caution” doctrine

Lead attorney for underwriters in In re International Rectifier Securities Litigation, which is considered one of the leading decisions regarding due diligence responsibilities of underwriters in a public offering

Lead defense counsel in SEC v. Truong, an insider trading action brought by the SEC that resulted in a highly publicized decision limiting the SEC’s ability to bring such actions based on circumstantial evidence

Plaintiff’s attorney in Vannini v. Perelman, a well-publicized litigation against financier Ronald Perelman, that resulted in substantial recovery for client Vannini

Defense attorney for Omnivision Technologies, where the SEC decided against enforcement action after investigation

Defense attorney for TASER International, where the SEC decided against enforcement action after investigation

Honors:

Selected for inclusion in Northern California Super Lawyers in 2004-2007 and 2009-2011