Orrick Secures Dismissal of Putative Securities Class Action for SelectQuote IPO Underwriters

1 minute read | April.04.2025

An Orrick team successfully represented Credit Suisse, Morgan Stanley, RBC Capital Markets, Evercore, Barclays, Piper Sandler, Citigroup, KBW, Jefferies, Drexel Hamilton and Cantor Fitzgerald, the underwriters of SelectQuote’s May 2020 IPO, in obtaining dismissal of a putative securities class action litigation in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
Our team persuaded the court to dismiss the complaint, which alleged securities claims based on inactionable forward-looking revenue projections and inactionable descriptions of SelectQuote’s salesforce in SelectQuote’s IPO offering materials. On April 3, 2025, U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein dismissed the lawsuit with prejudice.

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

Learn more about the decision in Bloomberg’s coverage

Related Lawyers

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:

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.

Richard Jacobsen Partner, Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution, White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance

New York

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D:+1 212 506 3743
E: Rjacobsen@orrick.com

Practice:

Finance Sector
Complex Litigation & Dispute Resolution
White Collar, Investigations, Securities Litigation & Compliance
Internal Investigations
Mass Torts & Product Liability
Class Action Defense
Trials
Fintech

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Richard Jacobsen Partner

New York

Rich serves as lead counsel for Credit Suisse’s entire residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) docket in federal and state courts throughout the country. He is lead counsel for Goldman Sachs in two RMBS cases in the SDNY. For nearly a decade, he has been lead counsel for Ocwen Financial Services in all matters concerning its market-leading business servicing loans in residential mortgage-backed securitizations. He is currently lead counsel for Nationstar Mortgage LLC d/b/a Mr. Cooper in a breach of contract action pending in the Delaware Court of Chancery. Rich has also frequently represented companies with respect to disputes involving the distressed debt trading market, including Jefferies and Citibank, and frequently tries nine figure disputes in the most important bankruptcy jurisdictions in the United States for clients such as UBS and Blackstone.

He and his Orrick team bring to each representation a combination of deep financial markets knowledge, holistic litigation strategy and a problem-solving mentality. In an industry where many cases are settled, he has established a formidable record at trial and on appeal, while achieving regulatory settlements at a small fraction of the industry benchmarks.

Named Litigators of the Week by The American Lawyer for his representation of Credit Suisse that yielded a precedent-setting decision from the New York Court of Appeals that will change the future of RMBS litigation, clients laud Rich telling Chambers (2022), “He makes my job easier by deploying a combination of impeccable legal skill, excellent judgment and a knowledge of the financial services industry.” “I would recommend Rich to anyone.” (2024) "He makes my job easier by deploying a combination of strengths - impeccable legal skills, excellent judgment, knowledge of the finance sector and a formidable reputation." Echoing that praise, clients say (2021) “I would recommend Richard Jacobsen in the highest terms,” he is (2020) “an exceptional litigator” and “a master of navigating commercial disputes.” Chambers also reports that clients regard him as “a commercial disputes wizard.” Clients hold Rich in high regard, telling Legal 500 our commercial disputes team is (2021) “brilliant,” while the publication calls out his “business critical disputes” work for Credit Suisse and Goldman Sachs. Clients further endorse Rich when speaking to Legal 500, noting he (2020) “is always available and willing to do what is necessary in any situation. His knowledge of the industry and more importantly where we fit in the industry has paid tremendous dividends from a legal representation perspective. I have not dealt with an attorney from any other firm that had the combination of knowledge, ability, reputation and judgment that Rich has.” Another client called out Rich’s “razor sharp intellect” which sets him apart from other disputes and trial lawyers.

A first-chair trial lawyer recognized as one of Lawdragon’s 500 Leading Litigators in America, Rich has litigated commercial, securities and product liability disputes for clients in many other industries in venues across the country. His clients have included: Amazon, Caesars Entertainment, Inc., The Dow Chemical Company, Microsoft, DISH Network, Acer and Wyeth. He has argued numerous appeals at the state and federal levels and frequently represents clients before state and federal regulators. He has argued multiple times before seven of the eight current justices in the Commercial Division of New York’s Supreme Court, New York County, and has arbitrated before the American Arbitration Association and London Court of International Arbitration.