Christopher J. Merken

Litigation and Investigations

• Third-chair trial counsel securing complete trial victory on contract claim for US $108 million (S.D.N.Y.).
• Representing a financial technology company and its CEO in a complex action including claims for breach of contract, breach of fiduciary duty, and theft of trade secrets arising out of former executive’s alleged misconduct (S.D.N.Y.)
• Representing foreign financial institutions in litigation arising under the Anti-Terrorism Act.
• Defending a portfolio company of private equity firm against breach of contract and earnout claims in the Delaware Court of Chancery and the Indiana Commercial Court by seller of business.
• Defended staffing company and its CEO in multiple employment-related litigations including claims by former employees and novel claim under the Fair Labor Standards Act brought by the U.S. Department of Labor (E.D.N.Y./2d Cir.).
• Part of team that defended a corporation and its principals in a criminal antitrust prosecution by the United States Department of Justice Antitrust Division (N.D. Ill.).
• Represented employees of a cryptocurrency company in investigations by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the United States Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York.
• Represented an ETF investment adviser in potential derivative litigation.
• Represented the American Action Forum as amicus curiae in a matter involving Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act before the United States Supreme Court. See Gonzalez v. Google, No. 21-1333 (2023).
  

Business Advice

• Advised a global capital market company on litigation risk as initial purchaser, in connection with a US $400 million 144A private auto loan securitization.
• Advised Energy Harbor Corp. in connection with its acquisition by Vistra Corp.
  

• Moderator, Corporate Sustainability in 2024 and Managing the Opportunities and Risks from Environmental, Social and Governance  – Corporate Governance Symposium, Dechert LLP, New York, NY (February 27, 2024)
  
• Panelist, Election Night in “Gerryland”: Charting Trends in the Supreme Court’s Voting Rights Jurisprudence – Villanova University Charles Widger School of Law J. Willard O’Brien American Inn of Court, Villanova, PA (January 16, 2024)
  
• Panelist, Leaders Learn From Associates: An Associates Perspective – Pennsylvania Bar Institute – Pennsylvania Bar Association, Zoom (December 14, 2023)
  
• Co-presenter, Admissibility of Medical Statements and Records – First Judicial District of Pennsylvania Continuing Judicial Education Program, Philadelphia, PA (March 7, 2023)

• Del. Segway Dismissal Suggests Execs Not Liable For Biz Risk – Law360 (February 2024)
  
• Caremark Claim Based on Business Risks Dismissed – Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (February 2024)
  
• Delaware Court of Chancery Bars Stockholder from Inspecting Books and Records Related to Board’s ESG-Related Decision – Insights Vol. 7, No. 9 (September 2023)
• Stockholder Barred from Inspecting Books and Records Related to Board’s ESG-Related Decision – Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (July 2023)
• 2022 Developments in U.S. Securities Fraud Class Actions Against Non-U.S. Issuers – Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance (April 2023)
• The State of Criminal Justice 2023 – Deputy Editor, ABA Criminal Justice Section (2023)
  
• Toward a Presumptive Admission of Medical Records Under Federal Rule of Evidence 803(4) – Boston College Law Review – Vol. 64, Issue 3 – (March 2023)
  
• Deprioritizing “Gold Star” Credentials – At Issue – p. 9 (November 2022) | reprinted in Pennsylvania Bar News – p. 11 (January 2023)
• Damn the Torpedoes! An Unprincipled, Incorrect, and Lonely Approach to Compassionate Release – Cardozo Law Review – Vol. 44, Issue 2 – (December 2022)
• Incentivize Law Students’ Pro Bono Service: Explain the Practice Benefits – At Issue (2020)
• Recognizing Hozanna-Tabor’s Limited Scope and Inapplicability to Clergy Sex Abuse Litigation – Arkansas Law Notes (2020)
• A Tight Labor Market: Could Reentering Citizens Fill the Gap? – Houston Law Review – Off the Record (2020)
• Protecting Aging Inmates from Discrimination: An Approach to Rehabilitative Dignity – Denver Law Review Forum (2019)
• Not Just Going Private: In re MFW Shareholder Litigation’s Evolution and Expansion Should Result in a Uniform Standard of Review in all Conflicted Controller Transactions – Western State Law Review (2019)
• A Not So Sweet Ending: Masterpiece Cakeshop and the Battle for Freedom of Expression – Columbia University Global Freedom of Expression (2018)
• Every Move You Make: SCOTUS Says Warrant Needed for Cell-Site Location Data – Business Law Today (2018)
• Warren Court in The American Middle Class: An Economic Encyclopedia of Progress and Poverty – p. 520 (Robert S. Rycroft, ed., 2017)