Stephen P. Blake

Stephen P. Blake has a diverse practice focused on corporate and securities litigation. He litigates in California, Delaware and New York, of course, and he also handles international matters. In fact, he spent most of 2018 in Hong Kong representing Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba in litigation following its $25 billion IPO.

In 2015, the Chinese government published a white paper criticizing the company's handling of counterfeit goods, which led to a $30 billion stock drop, an SEC investigation and a "fouryear multi-jurisdictional and multi-continental representation" of the company and its executives by Blake and a partner, which resolved more than a dozen securities class actions.

Now Alibaba has brought his team in for a pair of securities class actions stemming from a Chinese government antitrust investigation and from the company's cancellation of the proposed $34 billion IPO of its microfinance subsidiary Ant Financial. "That was supposed to be the largest IPO ever," Blake said. "It was a pretty big shock to the international financial community when it was suspended on the eve of listing."

Blake argued motions to dismiss the case earlier this month. In Re: Alibaba Group Holding Ltd. Securities Litigation, 1:20-cv-09568 (S.D.N.Y., filed Nov. 13, 2020).

Another regular client is much closer to his Palo Alto office. He represents venture capital firm Silver Lake Partners. Most recently, he defended the company in a major securities class action against Dell Technologies, which settled in November, and in a derivative suit over its investment in AMC Theatres.

Blake won an unusual victory a couple of years ago regarding securities litigation and the pandemic. His client was a mortgage lender for mixed retail-residential buildings that had its IPO in January 2020. With lockdowns and closures, the business collapsed, but some investors claimed they should have been warned about systematic risks. He got the case dismissed within six months. Berg v. Velocity Financial Inc., 2:20-cv-06780 (C.D. Cal, filed July 29, 2020).

The court's ruling has been cited often for the proposition that corporations are not omniscient. "The court recognized ... that none of us were able to predict in January 2020 what the remainder of 2020 was going to look like," he said. "It was a decision that I was very proud of."

Blake will be traveling for clients again soon, but not to China. He is heading to the southern border to represent immigrant rights advocacy groups and the ABA on behalf of unaccompanied migrant children who have been denied services required by the Trafficking Victims Prevention Act. Trial is set for May 8. Immigrant Defenders Law Center v. DHS, 2:21-cv-00395 (C.D. Cal., filed Jan. 14, 2021).

"This particular issue is one that is very personal to me," he said. "We'll be putting significant resources toward this in the coming months."