James Warnot
Litigation, Arbitration & Investigations Partner, New York
Overview
Professional experience
Education
Overview
James’ practice involves a variety of complex, commercial litigation, arbitration and regulatory investigations with an emphasis on financial services issues, including banking and securities litigation, fraud cases, mergers and acquisitions litigation and major contracts.
He has also utilised his prior training and 12 years of experience as an engineer in numerous cases involving complex technical issues. In recent years he has also been active in various major antitrust class actions.
His extensive trial experience includes bench and jury trials, arbitrations and evidentiary hearings, and he was lead counsel in a trial in Delaware Chancery Court and two arbitrations in the 4th quarter of 2018. On the arbitration side, he has worked on both international and domestic disputes under the rules of the ICC, LCIA, AAA (ICDR), NYSE, NASD and JAMS.
Work highlights
- Société Générale as lead trial counsel in MDL antitrust and CEA class actions and opt-out litigation arising from allegations of manipulation of foreign exchange markets, and in related regulatory investigations;
- Sibanye-Stillwater as lead trial counsel in a proceeding in Delaware Chancery Court that went to trial in December 2018 that was brought by certain former shareholders of Stillwater seeking a judicially determined value for their shares;
- Air France and KLM in as lead counsel in various antitrust and other civil class actions and governmental investigations concerning the air cargo and passenger industries;
- a major financial institution as lead counsel in the liquidation proceeding of the institution broker-dealer under the Securities Investor Protection Act in a matter that resulted in a $9 billion recovery;
- Sibanye-Stillwater as lead counsel in a securities class action brought by a class of US shareholders arising from an anomalous increase in fatalities in Sibanye’s gold mines in 2018;
- Deutsche Bank AG and several of its affiliates as lead counsel in proceedings brought in the Refco MDL by the liquidators of the SPhinX family of hedge funds, which were established to replicate the S&P Hedge Fund Index;
- Norske Skog as lead counsel in expedited litigations by certain senior noteholders seeking to enjoin an exchange offer;
- Deutsche Börse as lead counsel in litigation commenced by shareholders of NYSE-Euronext seeking to enjoin the business combination between the two exchanges;
- KPMG International as lead counsel in consolidated cases brought by Madoff investors asserting claims of vicarious liability based on audits conducted by KPMG member firms and in a number of other cases asserting similar claims, including the Shell reserves litigation;
- a major international bank as lead counsel in an ICDR arbitration arising from the bank’s private equity investment in a Chinese startup;
- a joint venture of two major Korean companies as lead trial counsel in an ICC arbitration with the EPC contractor of a Chilean power plant that went to hearing in November 2018
- a major international power company as lead trial counsel in an LCIA arbitration concerning a long term LNG supply contract that went to hearing in October 2018.
James is recognized in Legal 500 U.S. 2017 and ranked as a leading individual in Chambers USA 2015 and a Litigation Star in Benchmark Litigation 2015.