David C. Katz
Principal

  • T. (212) 682-3025 x. 106

David C. Katz, has been an advocate of investors’ rights for nearly seventeen years.  Currently, Mr. Katz serves as the chair of Weiss & Lurie’s Corporate Governance Litigation Practice Group.

Mr. Katz has successfully served as the firm’s chief litigator in numerous derivative actions involving corporations and issues of national prominence.  When Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored public corporation entrusted with maintaining liquidity in the United States’ mortgage markets, announced one of the largest financial restatements in corporate history, he successfully spearheaded the effort to recover the company’s damages, recouping more than $100 million (Sadowsky Testamentary Trust v. Brendsel et al. f/b/o Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation, 05 cv 2596).  Mr. Katz also represented shareholders seeking a recovery for First Energy Corp. in the wake of the nation’s largest power-outage in history and the closure of the company’s nuclear facility resulting from mismanagement and failures in oversight, recouping $25 million for the Company (In re FirstEnergy Shareholder Derivative Litigation, 03 cv 1826).  In both actions substantial corporate governance reforms were implemented.

In the securities class action field, Mr. Katz has been the firm’s chief litigator in numerous actions as well.  Mr. Katz served on the team that won the Ninth Circuit’s reversal of the directed verdict entered at trial in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in an action concerning Everex (Howard v. Everex Systems, Inc., et al., 92 cv 03742).  Recently, he won the remand of In re Lernout & Hauspie Securities Litigation from the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit.  Mr. Katz also served as the firm’s chief litigator in Levitan v. McCoy et al. and Bank One Corp., 00 C 5096 (concerning Bank One’s acquisition of First Commerce), securing approximately $40 million. 

Currently, Mr. Katz is serving as the firm’s primary counsel in derivative litigation brought for the benefit of Marsh & McLennan seeking to recover damages caused to the company as a result of improper activities, such as bid-rigging.  He is also serving as the firm’s primary counsel in derivative litigation brought for the benefit of ITT Corp. seeking to recover damages caused to company when it was fined over $100 million for violations of export restrictions for sensitive military equipment.

Mr. Katz is active in his community and a member of the Larchmont Gardens Civic Association. 

  • Education

  • J.D., Benjamin N. Cardozo School of Law, 1988
  • B.A., Boston University, 1985

  • Professional Experience

  • Legal Intern to the Honorable Budd G. Goodman, New York State Supreme Court (1987)

  • Admissions

  • State of New York
  • U.S. District Court - Southern District of New York
  • U.S. Court of Appeals - First Circuit
  • U.S. Court of Appeals - Fourth Circuit