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Overview
Darren Robbins is a founding partner of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP. Over the last two decades, Darren has served as lead counsel in more than 100 securities class actions and has recovered billions of dollars for investors.
Darren recently served as lead counsel in In re Am. Realty Cap. Props., Inc. Litig., a securities class action arising out of improper accounting practices, recovering more than $1 billion for class members. The American Realty settlement represents the largest recovery as a percentage of damages of any major class action brought pursuant to the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and resolved prior to trial. The $1+ billion settlement included the largest personal contributions ($237.5 million) ever made by individual defendants to a securities class action settlement.
Darren also led Robbins Geller’s prosecution of wrongdoing related to the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) prior to the global financial crisis, including an RMBS securities class action against Goldman Sachs that yielded a $272 million recovery for investors. Darren served as co-lead counsel in connection with a $627 million recovery for investors in In re Wachovia Preferred Securities & Bond/Notes Litig., one of the largest securities class action settlements ever involving claims brought solely under the Securities Act of 1933.
One of the hallmarks of Darren’s practice has been his focus on corporate governance reform. In UnitedHealth, a securities fraud class action arising out of an options backdating scandal, Darren represented lead plaintiff CalPERS and obtained the cancellation of more than 3.6 million stock options held by the company’s former CEO and secured a record $925 million cash recovery for shareholders. He also negotiated sweeping corporate governance reforms, including the election of a shareholder-nominated director to the company’s board of directors, a mandatory holding period for shares acquired via option exercise, and compensation reforms that tied executive pay to performance. Recently, Darren led a shareholder derivative action brought by several pension funds on behalf of Community Health Systems, Inc. that yielded a $60 million payment to Community Health as well as corporate governance reforms that included two shareholder-nominated directors, the creation and appointment of a Healthcare Law Compliance Coordinator, the implementation of an executive compensation clawback in the event of a restatement, the establishment of an insider trading controls committee, as well as the adoption of a political expenditure disclosure policy.
Darren was named California Lawyer’s Attorney of the Year and has been recognized as one of the nation’s top securities litigators by numerous organizations and publications, including The American Lawyer, which commended him for helping “set the pace for [his] peers,” and Chambers USA, which called him “a prominent figure in the field of securities litigation” and “one of the leaders of the plaintiff Bar.” Darren was also recognized as a Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer for his work in In re Valeant Pharms. Int’l, Inc. Sec. Litig.
Awards
- Litigator of the Week, The American Lawyer, 2021
- Best Lawyer in America, Best Lawyers®, 2010-2021
- Southern California Best Lawyer, Best Lawyers®, 2012-2021
- Leading Lawyer, The Legal 500, 2020
- Local Litigation Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2013-2018, 2020
- Recommended Lawyer, The Legal 500, 2011, 2017, 2019
- Leading Lawyer, Chambers USA, 2014-2019
- Benchmark California Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2019
- State Litigation Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2019
- Lawyer of the Year, Best Lawyers®, 2017
- Influential Business Leader, San Diego Business Journal, 2017
- Litigator of the Year, Our City San Diego, 2017
- Recognized as one of the Top 50 Lawyers in San Diego, Super Lawyers Magazine, 2015
- Recognized as one of the Top 100 Lawyers Shaping the Future, Daily Journal, 2008
- Recognized as a Young Litigator 45 and Under, The American Lawyer, 2007
- 2003 Attorney of the Year Award, presented by California Lawyer, March 2004
Practice Areas
- Institutional Investor Services
Education
- Vanderbilt School of Law, J.D., 1993
- University of Southern California, M.A., 1990
- University of Southern California, B.S., 1990
Admissions
- California
- United States Supreme Court
- United States Courts of Appeals for the Second and Ninth Circuits
- United States District Courts for the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of California
- United States District Court for the District of Colorado
- United States District Court for the Eastern District of Wisconsin
Notable Cases
Notable Cases
- Alaska Elec. Pension Fund v. CitiGroup, Inc. (In re WorldCom Sec. Litig.)
- Central Laborers’ Pension Fund v. Chellgren (Ashland)
- City of Pontiac General Employees’ Retirement System v. Langone (Home Depot)
- Hsu v. Puma Biotechnology
- In re American Realty Cap. Props., Inc. Litig.
- In re Community Health Systems, Inc. S’holder Derivative Litig.
- In re Enron Corp. Sec. Litig.
- In re LendingClub Securities Litigation
- In re UnitedHealth Grp. Inc. PSLRA Litig.
- In re Wachovia Preferred Securities and Bond/Notes Litig.
- Knurr v. Orbital ATK, Inc.
- Luther v. Countrywide Financial Corporation
- NECA-IBEW Health & Welfare Fund v. Goldman Sachs & Co.
- Schuh v. HCA Holdings, Inc.
- Schwartz v. TXU Corp.
News
- February 5, 2021
- January 28, 2021
- January 20, 2021
- December 30, 2020
- December 18, 2020
- December 7, 2020
- November 30, 2020
- November 16, 2020
- November 16, 2020
- November 6, 2020
- September 8, 2020
- August 25, 2020
- August 20, 2020
- June 11, 2020
- June 3, 2020
- April 23, 2020
- April 8, 2020
- April 6, 2020
- March 20, 2020
- March 6, 2020
- February 24, 2020
- January 24, 2020
- January 21, 2020
- January 17, 2020
- January 13, 2020
- December 30, 2019
- November 15, 2019
- November 1, 2019
- September 30, 2019
- September 19, 2019
- August 15, 2019
- August 15, 2019
- June 24, 2019
- June 10, 2019
- May 30, 2019
- April 25, 2019
- April 10, 2019
- March 22, 2019
- February 22, 2019
- February 4, 2019
- January 10, 2019
- November 1, 2018
- October 30, 2018
- October 2, 2018
- September 5, 2018
- August 15, 2018
- July 26, 2018
- June 13, 2018
- May 30, 2018
- May 3, 2018
- April 10, 2018
- April 2, 2018
- March 30, 2018
- March 20, 2018
- March 19, 2018
- February 8, 2018
- January 25, 2018
- January 16, 2018
- December 19, 2017
- November 1, 2017
- Robbins Geller Named a Top Ten Plaintiffs Firm and Nine Attorneys Recognized by Benchmark LitigationOctober 31, 2017
- October 23, 2017
- September 12, 2017
- August 15, 2017
- July 28, 2017
- June 7, 2017
- May 31, 2017
- May 30, 2017
- May 15, 2017
- April 27, 2017
- April 24, 2017
- April 21, 2017
- January 27, 2017
- January 24, 2017
- January 20, 2017
- January 19, 2017
- January 10, 2017
- December 19, 2016
- November 9, 2016
- November 2, 2016
- October 21, 2016
- October 13, 2016
- September 19, 2016
- August 17, 2016
- August 16, 2016
- June 16, 2016
- May 27, 2016
- May 23, 2016
- May 17, 2016
- May 2016
- May 3, 2016
- April 22, 2016
- April 1, 2016
- February 24, 2016
- February 11, 2016
- January 20, 2016
- January 12, 2016
- January 6, 2016
- December 21, 2015
- November 10, 2015
- November 9, 2015
- October 16, 2015
- October 9, 2015
- September 28, 2015
- August 5, 2015
- June 15, 2015
- May 19, 2015
- May 14, 2015
- April 21, 2015
- March 24, 2015
- March 5, 2015
- February 2, 2015
- November 17, 2014
- November 6, 2014
- October 30, 2014
- October 7, 2014
- September 22, 2014
- September 4, 2014
- July 5, 2014
- May 22, 2014
- May 1, 2014
- April 28, 2014
- April 16, 2014
- March 4, 2014
- January 17, 2014
- November 5, 2013
- October 23, 2013
- October 7, 2013
- July 12, 2013
- June 4, 2013
- May 1, 2013
- April 11, 2013
- January 30, 2013
- November 15, 2012
- July 19, 2012
- June 7, 2012
- May 16, 2012
- April 19, 2012
- October 17, 2011
- August 5, 2011
- June 1, 2011
- April 19, 2011
- August 24, 2010
- July 21, 2010
- June 11, 2010
- January 2, 2010
- September 19, 2008
Publications
Publications
- Darren J. Robbins, Reining in Unicorns: Protecting Pensioners and Entrepreneurs From Fraud, The Recorder, Apr. 9, 2018.
- Darren Robbins, James Jaconette & Michael Albert, After Cyan: Creative Lawyering Can’t Displace Clear Statute, Law360, Mar. 26, 2018.
- Travis E. Downs III, Benny C. Goodman III, Jay P. Lefkowitz, Erik W. Luedeke, Darren J. Robbins & Matthew Solum, Chapter 4: Mediation Submissions by Plaintiffs and Defendants, in Financial Services Mediation Answer Book 4-1 (Layn R. Phillips et al. ed., 2017).