Wolf Popper LLP

Education:

  • Brooklyn Law School (J.D., 1973)
  • New York University (B.A., 1970)

Bar Admissions:

  • New York State
  • United States Supreme Court
  • U.S. Circuit Courts of Appeals including the Second, Third, Eight and Ninth Circuits
Practice Areas

Marian P. Rosner

Partner

mrosner@wolfpopper.com
(212) 451-9608

Marian P. Rosner is a senior partner in Wolf Popper LLP, ("Wolf Popper" or "the Firm"). She is the chairperson of the Firm’s securities litigation department and also serves as a member of the three-person Executive Committee. Ms. Rosner is a graduate of New York University (B.A., 1970) and from Brooklyn Law School (J.D., 1973). She served as an Assistant Corporation Counsel for the City of New York Law Department, General Litigation Division, before joining Wolf Popper in 1976.  She became a partner in 1981.

Ms. Rosner has litigated securities class actions for over thirty (30) years and is one of the few women lawyers at the top of her field.  Ms. Rosner also has extensive experience under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), and has been involved as co-lead counsel in several ERISA cases. Ms. Rosner's cases, both prior to and subsequent to the enactment of the Private Securities Law Reform Act ("PSLRA"), have involved  complex securities litigation involving accountants, underwriters, law firms, venture capital defendants, as well as complicated factors related to bankruptcies, insurance policies and other related issues. Many of Ms. Rosner's cases have been litigated intensely until the eve of the trial with the classes recovering a substantial percentage of damages compared to the national average.  She has recovered over a billion dollars for her clients. 

Ms. Rosner is the chief attorney at the Firm in charge of the Firm’s representation of its institutional clients which include the States of Mississippi, Georgia, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Washington, Vermont, Connecticut, City of San Francisco, the Amalgamated Bank and others. Because of her experience, Ms. Rosner is regularly asked to lecture before panels on continuing legal education as more fully described below.

Ms. Rosner has also served as co-lead counsel in cases brought under the Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA), to recover losses to retirement plans and their participants and beneficiaries arising out of plan fiduciaries’ breaches of duty. For example, Ms. Rosner was appointed as plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel in In re AIG ERISA Litigation, No. 04 Civ. 9387 (JES) (S.D.N.Y.), resulting in a $24.2 million settlement, and currently serves as plaintiffs’ co-lead counsel in In re Citigroup ERISA Litigation, No. 07-Civ. 9790 (SHS) (S.D.N.Y.), and In re AIG ERISA Litigation II, No. 08 Civ. 5722 (LTS) (S.D.N.Y.).

Following is a sample of the major class actions Ms. Rosner has successfully litigated. 

  • Middlesex Retirement System v. Quest Software, Inc., 527 F. Supp. 2d 1164 (C.D. Cal. 2007); and Middlesex Retirement System v. Quest Software, Inc., CV 06-6863 DOC (RNBx), Amended Order (C.D. Cal. July 10, 2008) (decisions primarily denying defendants’ motions to dismiss in options backdating case). The Court has preliminarily approved a $29.4 million (plus the cost of notice) settlement in the action.

  • In Thurber v. Mattel, Master File No. CV-99-10368-MRP(CWx) (C.D. Cal.) (§10(b) claims) and Dusek v. Mattel, Master File No. CV-99-10864-MRP(CWx) (C.D. Cal.) (§14(a) claims), which were consolidated, Ms. Rosner was a member of the Executive Committee for both cases and led the prosecution of the Dusek v. Mattel §14(a) claims.   After more than three years of extremely hard-fought litigation, including the production of millions of documents and the taking or defending of more than 40 depositions, both cases settled for the aggregate sum of $122 million, with Ms. Rosner achieving a $61 million allocation for the Dusek v. Mattel §14(a) class, believed to be the largest settlement of a §14(a) case.  The Judge specifically found that "Wolf Popper LLP vigorously prosecuted the Dusek action and zealously represented the interests of the Dusek class members." The settlement was affirmed on appeal by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals.

  • Ms. Rosner had primary responsibility for Wolf Popper's representation as Special Advisory Counsel to the State of Wisconsin Investment Board in the Anicom litigation (In re Anicom Inc. Sec. Litig. 00-C-4391 (N.D. Ill.)). Wolf Popper conducted the investigation of plaintiffs’ claims, including extensive interviews of Anicom’s former employees and customers, and prepared the initial Amended Complaint.  That complaint was sustained by the District Court, leading to a global settlement, including a substantial contribution from individual defendants. 

  • In connection with the approval of a settlement over the merger of the American Stock Exchange and the NASD in Philipson v. American Stock Exchange, 98 Civ. 4219 (DC) (S.D.N.Y., Transcript of Proceedings, February 18, 1999, at 8-11), the Court complimented the Firm for its "terrific job" in negotiating a "substantial [recovery]."

  • On the eve of trial, Ms. Rosner settled Danis v. USN Communications, Inc., 98 C 7412 (N.D. Ill.). The settlement returned to class members 36% of maximum provable damages in a case where USN was bankrupt and the recovery was obtained against venture capital defendants, insurance covering its members who sat on USN's Board and Merrill Lynch.  The court’s decision denying defendants' motion to dismiss is reported at 73 F. Supp. 2d 923 (N.D. Ill. 1999).

Ms. Rosner is a former member of the Federal Courts, Corporation Law, and Securities Regulation Committees of the Bar Association of the City of New York.  She is currently a member of the litigation section of the American Bar Association.  She has written and lectured widely on issues involving securities litigation and accountants' liability and has served on the following panels:

  1. CityBar Center for Continuing Legal Education, The Association of the Bar of the City of New York (New York City Bar Association) "Securities Litigation Current Developments and Strategies", February 2, 2006;
  2. CityBar Center for Continuing Legal Education, The Association of the Bar of the City of New York, (New York City Bar Association) "Prosecuting Securities Class Actions & Derivative Suits", May 13, 2004;
  3. Practicing Law Institute ("PLI") on "Accountants' Liability After Enron", May 20-21, 2002;
  4. Practicing Law Institute ("PLI") Securities Seminar 1998, 1999, 2000;
  5. May 8, 2001 and April 25, 2002 New York City Bar Association Seminar on Securities Litigation;
  6. Professional Liability Underwriting Society, "D&O Liability & Insurance Issues Symposium" (January 22-23, 1998);
  7. ALI-ABA Post Graduate Course in Federal Securities Law: "The Aftermath of Securities Litigation Reform" (July 22-24, 1997);
  8. PLI seminar on Sweeping Reform: Litigating & Bespeaking Caution Under the New Securities Law (1996);
  9. PLI 28th Annual Institute on Securities Regulation (1996);
  10. Federal Bar Council Roundtable: "Private Securities Litigation, A New Life Form Emerges" (October 23, 1996);
  11. PLI seminar on Accountants’ Liability (1988, 1993 and 1994);
  12. Federal Bar Council Roundtable: Ethics and Professionalism in Witness Preparation and Depositions (March 22, 1994);
  13. American Bar Association 1993 summer meeting on the subject of RICO claims against accountants after the Supreme Court decision in Reeves v. Ernst & Young (1993);
  14. April 11, 2002 City Bar Center for Continuing Legal Education, Women in Negotiation: Practical Tips to Strengthen Your Negotiation Skills (For You & Your Clients).

Ms. Rosner is a member of the Board of Editors of the Securities Reform Act Litigation Reporter and the Arbitration Panel of the Eastern District of New York.  For the past eight years, she has served as a trustee for the Jewish Association of Services for the Aged ("JASA"), a division of UJA Federation of New York.