Freshworks IPO Underwriters Secure Dismissal in Securities Class Action

1 minute read | April.15.2025

A U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California judge last week granted summary judgment for Freshworks Inc., effectively dismissing proposed securities class action claims.
Orrick represented Morgan Stanley & Co. LLC, J.P. Morgan Securities LLC, BofA Securities, Inc., Jefferies LLC, Barclays Capital Inc., Robert W. Baird & Co. Incorporated, Canaccord Genuity LLC, JMP Securities LLC, Needham & Company, LLC, Nomura Securities International, Inc., Oppenheimer & Co. Inc., Piper Sandler & Co., Raymond James & Associates, Inc., Amerivet Securities, Inc., CastleOak Securities, L.P., Samuel A. Ramirez & Company, Inc., and R. Seelaus & Co., LLC, the underwriters of Freshworks Inc.’s September 2021 IPO.
The lawsuit alleged that Freshworks misled investors by omitting key financial information before its IPO, leading to a stock decline. The judge agreed with arguments that the omission of Freshworks’ third-quarter numbers did not violate SEC regulations.
The court concluded that the lead plaintiff failed to demonstrate that the alleged omissions caused any recoverable losses, as the stock remained above the IPO price following the disclosure of the third-quarter results.

The Orrick team was led by Darrell Cafasso, Jennifer Keighley and Alex Talarides.

Learn more about the decision in Bloomberg’s coverage

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Darrell Cafasso Partner, Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Financial Services Litigation

New York

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D:+1 212 506 3618
E: dcafasso@orrick.com

Practice:

Finance Sector
Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Financial Services Litigation
Securities Litigation, Class Actions and Shareholder Derivative Lawsuits
White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance
Internal Investigations
Trials
Bankruptcy Litigation

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Darrell Cafasso Partner

New York

Prior to joining Orrick, Darrell served as the Global Head of Litigation and Regulatory Proceedings at Goldman Sachs, where he served as a key advisor to the firm and oversaw litigation, arbitration, and other disputes, as well as regulatory, criminal, and investigative proceedings, affecting Goldman Sachs, its world-wide affiliates, or their employees. In this role, Darrell managed a large international team of lawyers that determined legal strategy for threatened or actual litigations, regulatory and criminal matters and other contentious proceedings, oversaw internal investigations, and advised legal and business constituencies on legal, reputational and regulatory risks and issues involving all businesses of Goldman Sachs including investment banking, global markets, merchant banking, research, trading, lending, M&A, asset and wealth management, and consumer lending. Darrell was responsible for the firm’s most critical litigation and regulatory matters and successfully resolved a number of important matters on behalf of the firm.

Before joining Goldman Sachs in 2018, Darrell was a litigation partner at Sullivan & Cromwell LLP. Over the years, Darrell has litigated a broad range of commercial cases, including in the areas of securities, banking, financial services, antitrust, consumer financial products, products liability, business torts, bankruptcy litigation, ERISA and other complex corporate litigation. For example, Darrell has represented several financial institutions and public companies, including Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, Moody’s, Banco Popular, and Fiat Chrysler, in numerous securities class actions, shareholder litigations and other disputes.

Darrell also has guided corporate and individual clients across the globe through multi-billion-dollar investigations, enforcement proceedings, and significant compliance matters including a wide range of matters before the DOJ, the SEC, the CFTC, FINRA, the Federal Reserve Bank, the New York Department of Financial Services and various state attorneys general, and foreign bank regulators. For example, Darrell advised Goldman Sachs in reaching coordinated resolutions in multiple criminal and regulatory investigations in jurisdictions around the world relating to an alleged multi-billion-dollar money laundering and corruption scheme involving the Malaysian sovereign development company, 1MDB, and senior public officials in Malaysia and the United Arab Emirates. Darrell also served as lead counsel to one of the preeminent automobile manufacturers in multiyear criminal and regulatory investigations relating to diesel emissions, sales reporting and bribery issues.

Jennifer Keighley Partner, Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution, Supreme Court & Appellate

New York

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D:+1 212 506 3584
E: jkeighley@orrick.com

Practice:

Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution
Supreme Court & Appellate
Finance
Securities Litigation

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Jennifer Keighley Partner

New York

Jennifer has co-authored numerous briefs and dispositive motions in federal and state courts of appeals and trial courts, and at both the certiorari and merits stage in the U.S. Supreme Court. Her experience covers a wide range of substantive areas, including constitutional law and statutory interpretation, labor and employment, intellectual property, healthcare law, privacy law, class action defense, securities litigation, and complex commercial litigation. She has deep expertise in appeals and critical motions in financial services litigation, including representing financial institutions in major RMBS cases and in putative and certified class actions, and she is currently representing Goldman Sachs, JPMorgan, and other underwriters of initial and secondary offerings in multiple securities class actions. Jennifer also maintains an active pro bono practice focusing on the areas of immigrant and women’s rights.

While at Orrick, Jennifer has argued and won two appeals. She argued and won an appeal on behalf of OpenTV raising issues of contract interpretation in the California Court of Appeal. She also argued and won an appeal on behalf of an immigration client seeking relief under the Convention Against Torture in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Prior to joining Orrick, Jennifer was a Staff Attorney at a national nonprofit and an associate at a boutique firm. In her prior roles, she participated in all aspects of litigation, arguing and briefing dispositive motions, examining multiple witnesses at trial, and taking depositions of both fact and expert witnesses. Jennifer graduated from Yale Law School, where she was an Editor on the Yale Law Journal. Immediately following law school, she served as a law clerk to Judge Kim McLane Wardlaw of the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.

Alex Talarides Partner, Securities Litigation, Class Actions and Shareholder Derivative Lawsuits, Corporate Governance

San Francisco

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D:+1 415 773 4254
E: atalarides@orrick.com

Practice:

Securities Litigation, Class Actions and Shareholder Derivative Lawsuits
Corporate Governance
Class Action Defense
Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution

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Alex Talarides Partner

San Francisco

Alex is recognized by Chambers and Legal 500 as an "Up and Coming" and "Rising Star" in securities litigation. He has extensive experience representing public and private companies and their D&Os, as well as investment banks and underwriters, in securities and corporate governance-related litigation and other complex commercial litigation. He also regularly advises companies and their boards on corporate governance best practices and fiduciary and disclosure duties, frequently presents and publishes on these topics, and teaches a full-semester course on transactional and shareholder litigation at the University of California Berkeley School of Law.

Alex earned his Juris Doctor degree, with Honors, Order of the Coif, from the University of Chicago Law School, and graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Davis.