Julie Goldsmith Reiser, a Partner and Co-Chair of Cohen Milstein’s Securities Litigation group, has been named one of Law360’s “25 Most Influential Women in Securities Law,” one of The National Law Journal’s “Elite Women of the Plaintiffs Bar,” and, annually, one of Lawdragon’s “500 Leading Lawyers in America.” In October 2020, she was recognized as a “Litigator of the Week” by The American Lawyer for a groundbreaking $310 million settlement in In re Alphabet Shareholder Derivative Litigation.
In the wake of the #MeToo movement corporate scandals, Ms. Reiser has been pioneering the use of shareholder derivative lawsuits to hold corporate boards accountable for failing to prevent systemic discrimination, harassment, and retaliation in the workplace. Two of these lawsuits, Alphabet and Wynn Resorts, Ltd. Derivative Litigation settled in 2020, generating more than $400 million in financial relief and establishing groundbreaking corporate governance reforms to improve board oversight in addressing such issues, eliminating practices that have silenced victims, such as mandatory arbitration clauses, implementing measures to hold even the most senior executives to a higher standard of responsibility, and instituting diversity, equity, and inclusion initiatives. Ms. Reiser is now leading a third shareholder derivative lawsuit against the board of directors of Pinterest.