BORIS FELDMAN

Partner

Securities Litigation
Corporate Law & Governance
Internal & Government Investigations
Litigation
Mergers & Acquisitions

EXPERIENCE:

Boris Feldman specializes in securities litigation and counseling. He has represented companies and their officers in over 200 lawsuits throughout the United States (including a dozen financial restatement cases). He also has advised audit committees and boards of directors in internal investigations and handled SEC-enforcement proceedings around the country.

Boris has been at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto since 1986. Among other leadership roles, he has been a member of its board of directors and is a current member and past chair of the firm's Policy Committee.

Boris has served as a lawyer-representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, a member of the Ninth Circuit's Lawyer Representative Coordinating Committee, and co-chair of the lawyer representatives to the Northern District of California. Boris is active in TechNet, and has served on the board of directors of the Silicon Valley Campaign for Legal Services. In 2006, he was named to the International Advisory Board of the Israel Securities Authority, the Israeli equivalent of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. Boris also has been elected a member of The American Law Institute.

Boris also was a member of the six-person advisory committee established by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California to propose modifications of the Local Rules in light of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Boris testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act. He was appointed to a blue ribbon panel to propose changes in the California shareholder laws and was a member of the Santa Clara County Superior Court Task Force on Complex Litigation.

From 1985 to 1986, Boris served as special assistant to the legal adviser at the U.S. Department of State. Prior to that, he had spent four years as an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., and also served as a law clerk to Judge Abraham D. Sofaer in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York from 1980 to 1981.

SELECT CLIENTS:

Software Companies:

Autodesk
Business Objects
Intuit
Network Associates
Novell
Salesforce.com
Sybase
Veritas

Hardware Companies:

3Com
Hewlett-Packard
Palm Computing
Rambus
Silicon Graphics
Solectron

Life Sciences Companies:

Genentech
Guidant
Nektar
Synergen
VISX (now part of Advanced Medical Optics)

Other Technology-Related Companies:

Digital Microwave
Google
Loudcloud
Netflix
Skillsoft
Valence Technology

Non-Technology Companies:

Anchor Gaming
Aurora Foods (Dartford Partners)
Coram Healthcare
Groupon
LeapFrog
Silicon Valley Bank

Investment Banks:

Bank of America Securities
CSFB
Lazard Frères
PaineWebber Incorporated
Raymond James
Salomon Smith Barney

More clients

Please see wsgr.com for a complete list of clients.

SELECT CASES:

Boris has tried and won the case of Walter Hewlett v. Hewlett-Packard Company in the Delaware Court of Chancery, on behalf of Hewlett-Packard.
Most recently, Boris has won shareholder lawsuits on behalf of BEA Systems, Business Objects, Intrabiotics, Nektar, Pixar, Salesforce.com, Synopsys, and 51job.
Boris recently argued the proper standard for demand in a shareholder derivative suit before the Indiana Supreme Court, on behalf of Guidant Corp.

EDUCATION:

J.D., Yale Law School, 1980
Note & Topics Editor, Yale Law Journal (Volume 89); Director of Debating for Yale University
B.A., History, Yale College, 1977
Summa Cum Laude; With Distinction in History; Member, Phi Beta Kappa; National Merit Scholar; President, Yale Debate Association; Speaker, Yale Political Union

ASSOCIATIONS AND MEMBERSHIPS:

Member, The American Law Institute
Member, Board of Advisors, Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law
Member, International Advisory Board, Israel Securities Authority

HONORS:

Named the 2012 San Francisco Litigation – Securities Lawyer of the Year by Best Lawyers
Selected as one of Lawdragon's "100 Lawyers You Need to Know in Securities Litigation," 2008
Named a top securities litigator in the 2004-2013 editions of Chambers USA: America's Leading Lawyers for Business, in which he was called "'the complete analytical package,' with interviewees describing him as 'one of the best securities attorneys in the country because he interacts well across parties, will engage in a productive discussion and enable us to participate constructively on how the matter should proceed'"
Named in Northern California Super Lawyers, 2006-2012
Selected for inclusion in The Legal 500 US
Named to "Lawdragon 500 Leading Lawyers in America" list, 2006-2010
Listed for several years in The Best Lawyers in America, including recognition in the "Bet-the-Company Litigation" category in 2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2012, and 2013
Profiled in the San Francisco Chronicle as one of the Top Ten Lawyers
Named by The Recorder (the California affiliate of American Lawyer) as the "go to" securities defense litigator in Northern California
Included in the Los Angeles Daily Journal's list of the 100 most influential lawyers in California in 2002 and its list of top securities litigators in the state in 2005
Named by The American Lawyer as one of the top 45 lawyers in the country under the age of 45 in 1995
AV Preeminent Peer Review Rating, Martindale-Hubbell

SELECT PUBLICATIONS:

"The Best-Laid Plans of 10b5-1," The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, February 6, 2013
"Litigating Post-Close Merger Cases," The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, November 9, 2012
"Shareholder Litigation after the Fall of an Iron Curtain," The Review of Securities & Commodities Regulation, January 11, 2012
"The Coming Counter-Reformation in Securities Litigation," Wall Street Lawyer, January 2010
"The New World of the In-House Lawyer: Ethics, Duties, Bells, and Whistles," January 24, 2005
"Opt-Outs Are a Threat," Daily Journal Supplement, April 28, 2004
"Protecting the Quarterback: How to Prepare Your CEO for Trial," ABTL Report, Fall 2002
"CEO and CFO Certification of SEC Filings: An FAQ for the Perplexed," August 29, 2002
"Directorial Liability: Tips for Outside Directors on Minimizing Personal Exposure in Shareholder Lawsuits," August 23, 2002
"Materials on Regulation FD," August 21, 2002
More publications
Please see wsgr.com for a complete list of publications.

SELECT SPEAKING ENGAGEMENTS:

Boris has lectured on shareholder and disclosure issues before ALI-ABA, American Society of Corporate Secretaries, Glasser Legalworks, Nasdaq, National Investor Relations Institute, New York Stock Exchange, PLI, Professional Liability Underwriting Society, Risk & Insurance Management Society, SEC Institute, Stanford Directors' College, and Software Publishers Association. Specific engagements included:

"The ABCs of FD & G," NIRI San Francisco Chapter, September 2003
"Riding the Enron Wave without Falling off the Board: Strategies for Compliance and Survival," Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, October 17, 2002
"Disclosure Controls," National Investor Relations Institute, October 8, 2002

ADMISSIONS:

Bar of the District of Columbia
State Bar of California
Supreme Court of California
Delaware Court of Chancery
Various U.S. District Courts
U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia, Third, Seventh, Ninth, and Tenth Circuits
U.S. Supreme Court

650 Page Mill Road
Palo Alto, CA 94304
Phone | 650-858-4444
Fax | 650-493-6811

Email | Boris Feldmanncarvalho@wsgr.com

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