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Patrick E. McDonough

Associate

[email protected]

+1.617.348.1839

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Patrick's practice focuses on securities and shareholder litigation, representing companies and individuals in connection with federal securities litigation, derivative litigation, appraisal litigation, class action lawsuits, and fiduciary litigation in state and federal courts both in Delaware and around the country. Patrick also represents companies and individuals in investigations and securities enforcement actions by regulatory agencies such as the Securities and Exchange Commission. Patrick's practice also involves complex commercial and corporate litigation in state and federal courts around the country, as well as numerous alternative dispute resolution forums. Patrick's clients range from early-stage start-ups to publicly-traded companies representing numerous industries, including life sciences and biotechnology companies, financial services, consumer products and retail, and clean technology. Patrick counsels clients regarding trial and appellate strategy and has extensive experience before trial and appellate courts all over the country. Patrick also frequently provides advice to corporations and their boards of directors on issues of corporate governance, fiduciary duties, and the Delaware General Corporation law. He also applies his extensive experience with securities litigation to counsel SPAC clients on risks related to SPAC transactions and how companies can avoid disputes.

In addition to his robust litigation practice, Patrick also is an active member of the firm’s pro bono community. Most recently, he worked as part of a Mintz team filing an amicus brief in state appeals court interpreting the Violence Against Women Act and how the law is applied in relation to public housing agencies.

After law school, Patrick clerked for the Honorable William J. Meade of the Massachusetts Appeals Court. Patrick graduated magna cum laude from Suffolk University Law School, where he served on the editorial staff of the Suffolk University Law Review as Production Editor, where he was also published. Patrick also served as a member of the Foreign Direct Investment Moot Arbitration team, as well as a research assistant for the Honorable John E. Fenton, Jr. During law school, Patrick also interned for the Honorable Nathaniel M. Gorton and the Honorable Marianne B. Bowler of the United States District Court for the District of Massachusetts, as well for the Appellate Division of the Criminal Bureau of the Massachusetts Attorney General’s Office.

Prior to law school, Patrick worked in corporate and financial strategy roles for Capital One Financial Corporation, where he worked in large part on the company's M&A strategy and other similar areas. Patrick graduated from Georgetown University's Walsh School of Foreign Service in 2004 with a Bachelor of Science in Foreign Service, with a concentration in International Security.

Experience

  • Secured complete dismissal of a securities class action at pleading stage on behalf of a large multinational operator of membership warehouse clubs, and its former executives. The case, commenced in the Southern District of California, centered on allegations that the company misled the public about its performance and the accuracy of year-end reporting, among other things. 

  • Represented Apollo Global Management, LLC and its portfolio company, The Fresh Market, as coordinating litigation counsel in multiple merger objection suits arising from the acquisition of The Fresh Market in March of 2016 by certain Apollo affiliates. Following the acquisition, ten separate suits were filed in federal and state courts in Delaware and North Carolina. Mintz successfully negotiated the resolution of all ten complaints in the Delaware Chancery Court and federal district court in the Middle District of North Carolina.
  • Represented a hedge fund in a case where a former employee claimed an ownership stake in the fund which our client contended was obtained through a breach of fiduciary duty. The case involved novel issues of law on fiduciary duty and wiretap law.
  • Lead trial counsel in complex civil RICO case. Represented Taiwanese creditor in claims against 34 foreign and domestic defendants. Successfully defeated over 30 motions to dismiss, managed millions of pages of written discovery, including processing and analyzing hundreds of gigabytes of data, over 40 depositions on two continents and over 120 discovery disputes before two court-appointed special masters. Defeated summary judgment and in limine motions. Favorably settled case at commencement of trial.
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Case Studies

Breaking Down the SPAC Surge Report Cover Mintz Case Study
Mintz analyzed PitchBook data to produce an in-depth report on the record rise in special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) fundraising in the US since 2020 and the recent increase in SPAC merger activity. We also explore how SPACs could evolve and litigation challenges to SPAC IPOs and transactions.
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viewpoints

Securities Litigation Viewpoint Card

Supreme Court in Jarkesy Limits the SEC’s Powers to Use In-House Administrative Courts

June 28, 2024 | Blog | By Matthew Levitt, Patrick E. McDonough

Yesterday, the Supreme Court issued its decision in the closely-watched SEC v. Jarkesy, holding that the SEC could no longer seek civil monetary penalties for fraud in its in-house courts consistent with the Seventh Amendment, which grants the right to a jury trial and thus requires such cases to be heard in federal court. The Supreme Court’s decision has potentially profound implications, not only for the SEC’s regulation of the securities industry, but for dozens of federal administrative agencies that, depending on the authorizing statute, can or must impose civil penalties through administrative proceedings.

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SCOTUS Grants Certiorari to Hear NVIDIA Fraud Appeal on PSLRA Pleading Standard

June 24, 2024 | Blog | By Jason Vigna, Ellen Shapiro, Patrick E. McDonough, Michael Alario

Last week, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in NVIDIA Corp. v. E. Ohman J:Or Fonder AB., Case No. 23-970, to address two fundamental questions about how federal securities fraud cases must be pled to survive a motion to dismiss—an issue that arises in nearly every such case. 

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SEC’s Enforcement Authority Over Crypto Asset Transactions Upheld (Again) in Case Against Coinbase

April 18, 2024 | Blog | By Cory S. Flashner, Steve Ganis, David Adams, Patrick E. McDonough, Edmund P. Daley, Elizabeth M. Platonova

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Competing Precedent in the SDNY Suggests Continued Uncertainty for Crypto Assets in 2024

January 23, 2024 | Blog | By David Adams, Cory S. Flashner, Patrick E. McDonough, Elizabeth M. Platonova

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Judge Rakoff puts the Ripple Party on Ice as the Crypto Community and SEC Ponder their Next Moves

August 7, 2023 | Blog | By Cory S. Flashner, David Adams, Edmund P. Daley, Patrick E. McDonough

Just barely two weeks ago, we wrote about the half-victory for Ripple Labs in its ongoing litigation with the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”), in which Judge Analisa Torres granted partial summary judgment in favor of Ripple on the issue of whether certain sales of Ripple’s XRP cryptocurrency tokens were “securities” under the federal securities laws. Some in the crypto industry interpreted her ruling to mean that secondary transactions in crypto assets on centralized and decentralized crypto exchanges were not transactions in “securities,” even though Judge Torres expressly declined to address the secondary trading issue. Fast forward to today, and a new ruling out of the SDNY against Terraform Labs casts further doubt on this interpretation.

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Lessons from Disney: The Exercise of the Corporate Voice is Protected Business Decision

August 2, 2023 | Blog | By Patrick E. McDonough, Kaitlyn Crowe

In the ever-changing and divisive political climate facing our nation today, boards of directors and the companies they oversee face myriad pressures from numerous stakeholders to weigh in on specific political, cultural, and social issues. Helpfully, a recent decision by the Delaware Chancery Court determined that a board’s decision to utilize the company’s voice and speak out about the pertinent issue is a “business decision” by the Company. 

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Will a Half-Victory for Ripple Labs Create a Wave of Good News for Digital Asset Exchanges?

July 14, 2023 | Blog | By Cory S. Flashner, Edmund P. Daley, Patrick E. McDonough

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SEC Adopts New Incentive-Based Compensation "Clawback" Rule

November 30, 2022 | Blog | By Patrick E. McDonough, Xandy Walsh

On October 26, 2022, the Securities and Exchange Commission, in a 3-2 vote, adopted a new rule, Exchange Act Rule 10D-1. Rule 10D-1 directs national securities exchanges adopt listing standards to require all issuers establish and enforce policies requiring “clawback” of incentive-based compensation paid to corporate executives when that compensation is based upon the issuer’s meeting misreported financials that later require an accounting restatement.  

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News & Press

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Mintz is pleased to announce that 120 firm attorneys have been recognized as leaders by Best Lawyers® in the 2024 edition of The Best Lawyers in America©.

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Members Douglas P. Baumstein and John Condon, and Associates Patrick McDonough and Aaron Megar co-authored an article published in the May 2023 Issue of The Banking Law Journal. The article provides an in depth review of the case Slack Technologies, LLC v. Pirani.

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35 Mintz attorneys have been named Massachusetts Super Lawyers and 25 Mintz attorneys have been named Massachusetts Rising Stars for 2022.

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Best Lawyers® recognized 108 firm attorneys in the 2023 edition of The Best Lawyers in America©. Notably, two Mintz attorneys – Poonam Patidar and Scott M. Stanton – received 2023 “Lawyer of the Year” awards, and 28 firm attorneys were included in the inaugural edition of Best Lawyers: Ones to Watch.

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Mintz achieved a significant victory for BTA Bank (BTA) on January 18, when the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed summary judgment dismissing all claims against BTA in a nearly decade-long securities fraud lawsuit alleging violations of Sections 10(b) and 20(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934. This decisive issue of what loss causation evidence a holder of thinly-traded securities must present to prove such claims was a matter of first impression in the Second Circuit.
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Recognition & Awards

  • Best Lawyers In America- Ones to Watch: Litigation- Securities (2023-2024)

  • Massachusetts Super Lawyers: Rising Star - Securities Litigation (2022)

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Involvement

  • Co-Chair, Boston Bar Association's Securities Enforcement Committee (2019)
  • Member, Boston Bar Association
  • Member, Massachusetts Bar Association
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