The strength of our commitment to excellence is reflected in our unmatched record of success.
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 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 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. Darren was awarded California Lawyer of the Year by the Daily Journal for 2022, and Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers® for 2023 and 2025.
Awards
- Best Lawyer in America, Best Lawyers®, 2010-2025
- Lawyer of the Year: Litigation – Securities, San Diego, Best Lawyers®, 2023, 2025
- California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY), Daily Journal, 2022, 2024
- Ranked by Chambers USA, 2014-2024
- Hall of Fame, The Legal 500, 2023-2024
- Litigation Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2023-2024
- California - Litigation Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2024
- Recognized as one of the Top 10 Lawyers in San Diego, Super Lawyers Magazine, 2024
- Leading Lawyer, The Legal 500, 2020-2022
- Recognized as one of the Top 50 Lawyers in San Diego, Super Lawyers Magazine, 2015, 2021
- Litigator of the Week, The American Lawyer, 2021
- Southern California Best Lawyer, Best Lawyers®, 2012-2021
- Local Litigation Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2013-2018, 2020
- Recommended Lawyer, The Legal 500, 2011, 2017, 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 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, Eastern, 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 Valeant Pharms. Int’l, Inc. Sec. 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
- September 20, 2024
- August 8, 2024
- July 23, 2024
- Daily Journal’s 2024 CLAY Awards: Envision Healthcare settles for $175 million over surprise billingJuly 10, 2024
- July 1, 2024
- June 11, 2024
- April 29, 2024
- April 15, 2024
- April 11, 2024
- March 28, 2024
- March 15, 2024
- February 15, 2024
- February 14, 2024
- February 9, 2024
- January 29, 2024
- January 12, 2024
- December 12, 2023
- December 7, 2023
- November 3, 2023
- November 3, 2023
- August 25, 2023
- August 17, 2023
- July 20, 2023
- June 29, 2023
- June 2, 2023
- May 30, 2023
- April 17, 2023
- February 17, 2023
- February 14, 2023
- January 26, 2023
- January 23, 2023
- January 19, 2023
- January 19, 2023
- January 3, 2023
- October 10, 2022
- August 18, 2022
- July 19, 2022
- June 16, 2022
- June 6, 2022
- May 26, 2022
- May 19, 2022
- April 7, 2022
- March 28, 2022
- March 7, 2022
- February 25, 2022
- February 3, 2022
- January 27, 2022
- December 8, 2021
- November 4, 2021
- October 6, 2021
- September 24, 2021
- August 19, 2021
- August 4, 2021
- July 30, 2021
- May 26, 2021
- March 30, 2021
- March 24, 2021
- 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
- February 24, 2020
- January 24, 2020
- January 21, 2020
- January 17, 2020
- January 13, 2020
- December 30, 2019
- November 1, 2019
- June 24, 2019
- June 10, 2019
- February 4, 2019
- January 10, 2019
- November 1, 2018
- October 2, 2018
- July 26, 2018
- May 3, 2018
- March 20, 2018
- February 8, 2018
- January 25, 2018
- November 1, 2017
- July 28, 2017
- May 15, 2017
- April 21, 2017
- January 27, 2017
- January 19, 2017
- November 9, 2016
- November 2, 2016
- October 13, 2016
- June 16, 2016
- May 23, 2016
- May 2016
- May 3, 2016
- February 24, 2016
- January 6, 2016
- November 10, 2015
- September 28, 2015
- June 15, 2015
- May 14, 2015
- March 24, 2015
- November 17, 2014
- October 30, 2014
- October 7, 2014
- September 4, 2014
- May 1, 2014
- March 4, 2014
- November 5, 2013
- August 24, 2010
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).