Jeremy L. Wallison

Jeremy Wallison is a litigator and appellate lawyer focused exclusively on high-stakes business disputes. Notable recent victories for clients include:

• Co-led trial team that secured $52 million defamation damage award in FINRA arbitration, among the highest FINRA awards to an individual ever and the highest defamation awards to an individual in any forum;

• Obtained $43 million judgment, the full amount owed, plus attorney's fees, in the first bondholder suit brought against the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela following the 2018 default on its sovereign debt;

• Obtained rare vacatur and remand from Second Circuit Court of Appeals on appeal of summary judgment dismissal of tortious interference claim brought by Paris art dealer against prominent New York art gallery;

• Obtained substantial recovery for unsecured creditors of a group of failed hedge funds (after favorable rulings at the trial court and on appeal) in litigation seeking to rescind a strict foreclosure transaction between the hedge funds and a secured lender on the ground that the secured lender improperly exploited its bargaining leverage to obtain a windfall of $200 million in the transaction;

• Secured total dismissal at pleading stage of fraud and breach of contract case arising out of acrimonious business divorce;

• Secured total dismissal at pleading stage of breach of contract, promissory estoppel, unjust enrichment, quantum meruit and fraud claims arising out of alleged oral finders' fee agreements;

• Recovered $3.9 million of a $4 million judgment obtained against an empty shell corporation by using veil-piercing and fraudulent conveyance claims to recover that amount from the judgment debtor’s owner and affiliates;

• Used Delaware's information rights statute to secure from private corporation the financial information needed to allow former CEO to sell her shares in company;

• Helped lead trial team to a substantial recovery on behalf of bondholders in attack on restructuring transactions involving billions of dollars in publicly-traded debt;

• Obtained judgment against defaulted borrower for full amount of outstanding debt, then obtained dismissal of borrower's countersuit for fraud and breach of contract, then won judgment against borrower for the full amount of legal fees incurred in defending the countersuit (as an indemnified cost of "enforcement" of the contract), and then successfully defended dismissal and legal fees award on appeal;

• Won dismissal of securities fraud class action suit on the basis of an argument the court termed a "novel theory" – that the likely failure of the fraudulent scheme alleged precludes an inference of fraudulent intent;

• Obtained appellate court reversal holding that oral acceptance of a competitive bid gives rise to contractual liability even when the parties contemplated subsequent negotiation and preparation of definitive deal documents;

• Won arbitration of complex commercial lease dispute by establishing that GAAP, for purposes of calculating an amount due under a private contract, permits accounting methodologies inconsistent with those used in the client's general purpose GAAP financial statements; and

• Obtained appellate court reversal establishing a corporation's right to assert attorney-client privilege protection against a corporate director suing solely in a shareholder capacity.

In addition to the above, Mr. Wallison has litigated a diverse range of claims involving contract formation and breach, appraisal rights for dissenting shareholders, business divorce (both corporate and partnership), director and officer liability for breach of fiduciary duty, illegal dividends and illegal stock repurchases, creditors' rights (including debt collection, Foreign Sovereign Immunity Act issues specific to sovereign debt, fraudulent conveyance and breach of indenture), securities and common law fraud, clearing agent liability, antitrust violations, art law, false advertising, defamation, tortious interference with contract, trademark and copyright, employment-related issues (including wage claims, violations of non-competition agreements, and retaliation), product liability, sales and secured transactions under the Uniform Commercial Code, judgment enforcement and professional malpractice.

Mr. Wallison also has substantial experience litigating international disputes and the issues that frequently arise therein, including choice of law, choice of forum and cross border discovery. In the past seven years he has represented clients located in France, Canada, Argentina, Italy and the United Kingdom, and has co-counseled with law firms located in France, the United Kingdom, and Switzerland.

Prior to forming Wallison & Wallison, Mr. Wallison was a partner at Foley & Lardner.