Lowey Dannenberg served as lead counsel in litigation arising from Bernie Madoff’s Ponzi scheme. On March 15, 2013, the Honorable Colleen McMahon of the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York granted final approval of the $219.9 million settlement. Plaintiffs in these cases asserted claims under the federal securities laws, ERISA, and state laws arising out of hundreds of millions of investment losses sustained by unions and other investors in Bernard Madoff feeder funds.

The extraordinary recovery represents approximately 70% of investors’ losses. This settlement, combined with money the victims are expected to recover from a separate liquidation of Madoff assets, is expected to restore the bulk of the pension funds for the local unions and other class members.

In granting final approval, Judge McMahon praised both the result and the legal work in the complex, coordinated actions, noting that “[i]n the history of the world there has never been such a response to a notice of a class action settlement that I am aware of, certainly, not in my experience,” and that “[t]he settlement process really was quite extraordinary.”

In her written opinion, Judge McMahon stated that “[t]he quality of representation is not questioned here, especially for those attorneys (principally from Lowey Dannenberg) who worked so hard to achieve this creative and, in my experience, unprecedented global settlement.” In re Beacon Associates Litig., 09 CIV. 777 CM, 2013 WL 2450960, at *14 (S.D.N.Y. May 9, 2013).

In re Beacon Associates Litigation, Civ. Act. No. 09-CV-0777 (S.D.N.Y.); In re J.P. Jeanneret Associates, Inc., et al., 09-cv-3907 (S.D.N.Y.)