Sara B. Brody

Sara Brody is no stranger to federal and state courts throughout the U.S., where she regularly defends public companies, their officers and directors, and financial institutions in shareholder class actions and derivative actions.

A litigator at heart, Brody says she finds the very tangible wins in court particularly satisfying, but that she thinks about the client foremost. "I do a fair amount of confidential investigation and counseling work. I enjoy counseling in particular because I can take what I learned from litigation and assist clients deciding how to respond to issues and perhaps even avoiding litigation."

Clients turn to the co-lead of Sidley Austin LLP securities and shareholder litigation practice group for her experience in litigation. Her area of expertise revolves around a wide range of securities and shareholder cases, corporate governance issues and matters with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

"I value teamwork and collaboration. I want everyone on the team to be thinking about where their piece of the puzzle fits into the entirety of the defense of the case, Think about the end goal for the client and bring your intellectual firepower to that result."

Several tech, pharma and Fortune 500 companies chose Brody to represent them in courts, including Nektar Therapeutics, SunEdison and Bloom Energy.

Nektar Therapeutics was facing dual securities litigation for different class periods and on different disclosure issues simultaneously and in addition, related derivative litigation in three different courts. By strategic and targeted motion practice, Brody obtained dismissals and judgments in favor of the company. Damiba v. Nektar Therapeutics et al., 4:19-cv-05173 (N.D. Cal., filed Aug. 19, 2019) was dismissed by motion to dismiss. Oklahoma Firefighters Pension, et al. v. Nektar Therapeutics, et al., 4:18-cv-06607 (N.D. Cal., filed October 30, 2018) was also dismissed by motion to dismiss, was appealed and is awaiting a decision by the Ninth Circuit.

"Nektar develops cutting edge treatments for cancer. For any life science companies in the drug development stage, there risks concerning clinical trials and thus for investors. One does not know if a clinical trial is going to be successful or not. "

Brody says she's proud of the work her firm does in its an annual survey of the securities litigation that impact life science companies. "I think we write the definitive analysis of the evolution of the securities laws with respect to life sciences companies including considering how developments in the law might be considered by companies."

- Federico Lo Giudice