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Scott M. Berman represents large institutional investors, funds of funds, investment advisors, and wealthy individuals in securities and fraud litigations involving hedge funds and their auditors, prime brokers, and other professionals (e.g., Beacon Hill, Lipper, Lancer, Livingston, Granite, and Manhattan). He also represents hedge fund receivers and liquidators (e.g., Beacon Hill) as well as hedge fund investors in bankruptcy and receivership proceedings (e.g., Bayou, Wood River) and other matters (e.g., Amaranth). Mr. Berman has litigated numerous bankruptcy matters on behalf of unsecured creditors, equity holders, and debtors, most recently in the Comdisco and Exide bankruptcies. He also represents companies in complex securities litigation, commercial litigation, and litigation in high-profile bankruptcy matters in federal and state courts, and in arbitrations in jurisdictions across the country. In addition to his litigation practice, Mr. Berman counsels hedge funds, funds of funds, and investment managers.
Mr. Berman currently is representing investors who lost more than $580 million in the Lancer hedge funds in litigation against the offshore funds' auditor, administrators, and prime broker/custodian, as well as investors who lost many millions of dollars in the Beacon Hill hedge funds in litigation against the manager, its parent, and the funds' administrator and auditor. He has obtained favorable settlements on behalf of investors who lost $230 million in the Granite hedge funds in litigation against the manager and various broker-dealers, and on behalf of investors who lost $100 million in the Manhattan hedge fund against the manager and the fund's accountants and administrator. He also obtained a favorable settlement on behalf of a hedge fund against its clearing broker for the return of millions of dollars of the fund's investment.
Mr. Berman has also defended a public company and its president in a class action and SEC investigation; counseled a prominent apparel company and commenced and defended litigations on its behalf; advised preferred shareholders regarding potential litigation against a closely-held corporation and negotiated a favorable resolution of the dispute; commenced a fraud and fraudulent conveyance action against the debtors' pre-petition bank group in the Exide bankruptcy, and convinced the court to accept the cutting-edge claim of "deepening insolvency"; commenced arbitrations against broker-dealers on behalf of terminated high-level employees and defrauded investors; and represented a group of partners in connection with a law firm merger and breakup.
Mr. Berman is frequently quoted in the financial press on hedge fund-related issues. His most recent speaking engagements have included "Case Study of a Hedge Fund Blowup" at the MARHedge Cayman conference on Hedge Fund Best Practices, December 4, 2006; "Amaranth-Repercussions and Implications for the Hedge Fund Investor and Industry" at the Infovest21 Seminar on November 10, 2006; "Hedge Fund Symposium" at the Securities Forum hosted by the Connecticut Department of Banking, Securities and Business Investments, October 26, 2006; "Hedge Fund Receiverships" at the 13th Annual Northeast Bankruptcy Conference, July 14, 2006; and "Enforcement/Fraud Concerns" at the SEC Hedge Fund Roundtable, Washington, D.C., May 14-15, 2003. He is a frequent lecturer on federal practice at programs sponsored by the New York County Lawyers' Association and the New York State Bar Association.
Mr. Berman is the author of "Non-Party Discovery," Litigation (Summer 1997), co-author of the New York County Lawyers' Association Report on the Federal Study Committee's Recommendation to Abolish Diversity Jurisdiction, 158 F.R.D. 185 (1994), and principal author of the New York County Lawyers' Association Report on Pretrial Orders (1989). He is a member of the Committee on Securities Litigation of the Litigation Section of the American Bar Association and Past Chair of the Committee on Federal Courts of the New York County Lawyers' Association.
Mr. Berman graduated from Emory University in 1979 and received his law degree from New York University School of Law in 1982. Prior to joining Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman LLP, he was a partner at Brown Rudnick Berlack Israel's LLP in New York.
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