Debra J. Wyman

For two decades, Wyman, has represented investors in securities actions against major corporations. Her most recent major win, in January 2020, was a $1.025 billion settlement with a real estate investment trust.

She said that despite the pandemic, her office is available when she needs it. “I have been coming in a few times over the last couple months because a database I need for depositions is maddeningly slow on my laptop at home. There are just a few of us making use of the space, so I see the same four or five people at work now.”

The big settlement got court approval Jan. 21, 2020, and it came with words of praise from the judge overseeing the massive class action. U.S. District Judge Alvin K. Hellerstein of New York lauded Wyman and the team for fulfilling the role of lead counsel “in an extremely fine fashion . . . At every juncture, the representations made to me were reliable, the arguments were cogent, and the representation of their client was zealous.”

He added, “I think you did outstanding work. I think you have to be rewarded for your persistence and your stubbornness and for your leadership in the case.” The judge OK’d $100 million in fees and $5 million in costs. Ciraulu v. American Realty Capital Properties Inc. Litigation, 1:2015-mc-00040 (S.D. N.Y., filed Feb. 13, 2015).

“It was definitely a terrific result,” Wyman said. She and her firm represented a Florida teachers’ retirement system as the lead plaintiff that sued after ARCP—now known as Vereit Inc.—admitted intentional wrongdoing and manipulative accounting practices related to what Wyman said was its trillion-dollar portfolio. Over five years, she and her colleagues prosecuted nine different claims for violations of the securities laws involving seven different stock or debt offerings and two mergers. The payout included $783.5 million from Vereit plus $237.5 million from the company’s former external manager and its principals.

That last figure was a key part of the settlement, Wyman said. “For individual wrongdoers to contribute almost $240 million is unusually large, but it was very important to our clients as a deterrent to future wrongdoers.”

The financial press reported that earlier, one-third of the potential class had settled their individual claims for about $233 million and projected that the remaining class members—those represented by Wyman and colleagues—would receive about $466 million. “We did a little better,” Wyman said. “It took tenacity. We had a fabulous team of lawyers and forensic accountants. We valued the case at $1 billion, and we weren’t going to take a penny less.”

— John Roemer