Richard M. Heimann

Litigation

Richard M. Heimann began his legal career decades ago as a deputy public defender and later became an acting deputy district attorney. The experience taught him how to handle himself in court and, most importantly, how to handle a cross-examination.

“That experience has stood by me well over the years. It’s probably the thing that I’m best at in court, cross-examination,” Heimann said.

The skill serves him well as supervisor of Lieff Cabraser’s securities and financial fraud practice. He has tried more than 30 civil jury cases over the last four decades, handling complex securities and investor fraud, antitrust, intellectual property, consumer protection, personal injury and mass tort cases. He has secured major victories against Big Tobacco, Bank of America and Wells Fargo.

Heimann and Lieff Cabraser also represent the New York State Common Retirement Fund and the Fire and Police Pension Association of Colorado, shareholders of The Boeing Co., in a shareholder derivative action related to Boeing’s oversight of the 737 MAX’s design and development. The Boeing Company Shareholder Derivative Litigation, Consol. C.A. 2019-0907-MTZ (Delaware Chancery Court, filed June 12, 2020). The derivative claims targeted the company’s board for safety failures that led to the crashes of two 737 MAX jetliners in 2018 and 2019.

“We brought that action against the officers and directors of Boeing for their conduct in connection with the infamous plane that crashed twice because of a failure of the design that the company certainly should’ve known about, and at some level definitely knew about,” Heimann said. “We were able through discovery to prove, essentially, that the board of directors were derelict in their responsibilities, in failing to take action to correct the design—to allow the plane to be designed in such a way that it became a danger to the people who flew on it.”

The settlement agreement includes a $237.5 million cash payment and corporate governance reforms. It is among the largest insurer-funded derivative settlements in history and the Delaware Chancery Court. The court granted final approval of the settlement in February.

The investors filed the lawsuit on behalf of Boeing, and insurers for several current and former Boeing directors will pay the settlement to the company, Heimann said. Individual shareholders benefit indirectly in the form of increased company value, he added.

– Jennifer Chung Klam