Fiduciaries are legally obligated to serve the best interests of their corporate or individual beneficiaries and exercise the highest degree of good faith, care and loyalty while fulfilling their duties. When fiduciaries fail to honor those obligations, litigation often arises, and Diamond McCarthy is one of the most sought-after law firms to guide clients through those complex breach of fiduciary litigation claims. Our team of seasoned trial lawyers has represented both fiduciaries and beneficiaries in such litigation arising around the United States and beyond, and we have the demonstrated expertise to get results.
Our fiduciary litigation practice is often focused on answering a seemingly simple question that arises when a business or fails: “who killed the company?” Diamond McCarthy built its reputation on being fearless and conflict-free to aggressively get answers to that question, and to hold the responsible persons accountable. In many cases, misconduct by company fiduciaries and professionals takes center stage, typically in connection with failed corporate transactions and/or various types of financial fraud. Working with our forensic accounting partners, Diamond McCarthy has recovered hundreds of millions if not billions of dollars for investors and others who have fallen victim to fiduciary misconduct.
Fiduciary Litigation in Bankruptcy and Insolvency Scenarios
Trustees, liquidators, creditors’ committees, corporations, CRO’s, financial entities, shareholders and other clients rely on Diamond McCarthy to determine why the business failed, and to pursue complex litigation arising from large-scale corporate insolvencies and other financially-distressed situations. Our team has been hired in some of the most high-profile frauds in U.S. history to dissect the sequence of events that resulted in a company’s failure, and to bring claims to hold the culpable parties responsible by pursuing all available damages through asset recovery, negotiations and tenacious advocacy in the courtroom. Our lawyers have significant experience handling cases involving director and officer misconduct that contributes to corporate insolvencies, from negligence, breach of fiduciary duties, self-dealing and conflicts of interest to intentional wrongdoing such as Ponzi schemes, fraudulent transfers and misappropriation of assets.
Investigating what led to a company’s demise is an extremely challenging and time-intensive process: key witnesses have left the company and relocated, thousands of important records are stored in warehouses and electronically, and the trail often extends across the U.S. and abroad. The process is even more difficult when fraudulent schemes, gross negligence and other unlawful activities triggered the company’s collapse, and the responsible parties went to great lengths to cover their tracks of ill-gotten gains.
Diamond McCarthy is methodical and highly effective at turning over every rock, examining every transaction, and pursuing every possible legal avenue to ensure that the responsible parties are held accountable. Many times, our investigation reveals that fiduciary professionals such as auditors, accountants, lawyers, bankers, and appraisers facilitated the frauds that led to the company’s demise. Our team has resolved litigation concerning every type of professional misconduct, including when professionals are complicit in fraudulent transactions, look the other way, are careless in failing to detect wrongdoing, or provide negligent advice, opinions or services. Unlike many larger law firms who also handle this type of work, Diamond McCarthy’s size and plaintiff-orientated practice allow us to bring such claims without concerns about conflicts of interest that may prevent our competitors from being able to sue the major accounting firms, law firms, banks, and other such professionals.
Fiduciary Litigation Arising from Corporate Transactions
Not every corporate fraud results in the company’s demise, but every corporate officer and director is obligated to exercise the highest degree of care while engaging in corporate transactions and to hold the best interests of the company and shareholders above their own. When those duties are not honored, Diamond McCarthy is able to apply its extensive experience representing shareholders in derivative, class and mass actions to recover damages from corporate insiders who breach their fiduciary duties, self-deal, have conflicts of interest or commit negligence in connection with all types of high-value financial transactions, including mergers, acquisitions, asset dispositions and business or asset spin-offs.
Probate and Trust Litigation
Trustees and estate executors also owe fiduciary duties to their beneficiaries, and when those duties are not honored Diamond McCarthy has the expertise to hold those fiduciaries accountable. We have represented trust and estate beneficiaries in complicated probate and trust litigation with substantial assets at stake concerning alleged misconduct by estate and trust fiduciaries, such as breach of fiduciary duties, fraud, self-dealing, conflicts of interest and mismanagement or misappropriation of assets.
We also handle a variety of other probate and trustee fiduciary matters, including suits to remove executors and trustees, modification and accounting proceedings, disputes over the ownership and control of family-owned and closely held businesses, and litigation involving guardianships, conservatorships and agents acting under powers of attorney.