Jeffrey Block

Jeffrey Block said he’s been interested in the corporate side of the legal world from his days at Brooklyn Law School, where he graduated cum laude in 1986.

He’s turned that interest into a reputation as a top financial lawyer who specializes in representing investors in stock drop suits and other challenges to corporations that allegedly wrong their shareholders. In October 2011, he co-founded the national securities firm Block & Leviton LLP to pursue such claims.

Block recalled that a key event in his growing interest was a scandal. “I was working in New York for a firm that was involved on the investor side in the Michael Milken case,” he said, referring to the financier indicted in 1989 for financial fraud in connection with his junk bond dealings at the investment bank Drexel Burnham Lambert. Milken pleaded guilty to securities violations, served prison time and was pardoned by President Donald Trump in 2020.

“It was fascinating to me to learn about the trading of information behind the scenes, the maneuvering, the underhanded activities that go on in corporate America,” Block said. “I saw an opportunity.”

One of Block & Leviton LLP’s latest successes involves a $40 million settlement over securities fraud claims against Immunomedics Inc., the cancer drug company acquired by Gilead Sciences in 2020. Block’s firm was co-lead counsel. The plaintiffs alleged the company made false and misleading statements about problems at a drug manufacturing facility that caused a new drug application to fail. Odeh et al. v. Immunomedics Inc., 2:18-cv-17645 (D. N.J., filed Dec. 27, 2018).

“Settlement often happens when litigation passes certain milestones,” Block said. In the Immunomedics suit, the court denied the defense motion to dismiss and Block’s motion to certify the class was pending when the deal was struck.

In August 2023, Block and colleagues attained a $25 million settlement with Lyft Inc. on behalf of investors who lost money when the ride-hail company went public in 2019. In re Lyft, Inc. Securities Litigation, 3:19-cv-02690 (N.D. Cal., filed May 17, 2019).

“In that case, the settlement came after the court certified our class,” Block said.

To enforce his firm’s right to represent the lead plaintiffs in a case against Nikola Corp., Block successfully appealed to the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals when a trial judge appointed others to the position. A circuit panel sent the case back to the judge to appoint Block’s clients to lead the plaintiff group. Wojichowski et al. v. Nikola Corp., 20-cv-01819 (D. Ariz., filed Sept. 17, 2020).

—John Roemer