Leslie R. Stern

Leslie R. Stern is a partner in the firm’s Boston office and a member of the firm’s Executive Committee. Leslie is a lead partner in the Securities Practice Group and focuses her practice on representing institutional investors on matters involving federal and state securities and securities-related laws.

Leslie also co-chairs the firm’s New Case Investigations Team. The team investigates possible securities law violations, gauging clients’ damages and evaluating the merits of cases to determine the best course of legal action. She has been evaluating and/or litigating securities fraud and derivative claims at Berman Tabacco for more than 25 years. Leslie has significant expertise in evaluating matters involving federal and state securities law violations, as well as potential breaches of fiduciary duties by corporate directors. Her case development duties include preparing detailed case analyses and recommendations, and advising clients on their legal options.

Leslie also oversees the firm’s portfolio monitoring program and supervises the firm’s team of portfolio analysts as they refine calculations of investment losses suffered by the firm’s public pension and other institutional clients. Leslie serves as the main point of contact for many of the firm’s institutional clients, advising them about a host of issues from litigation, to potential losses/recoveries, to helping them with other unique issues relating to the clients’ investment portfolio.

Leslie is a seasoned litigator with almost two decades of experience. Prior to joining the firm in 1998 and being named partner in 2003, Ms. Stern practiced general civil litigation. In law school, Leslie served on the Suffolk University Law Review’s editorial board and authored three publications.

Leslie has been recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a Local Litigation Star (2013-2015, 2021-2024) and Massachusetts State Litigation Star (2021-2024) in Securities and was also recognized among the Benchmark Plaintiff Top 150 Women in Litigation.  She was also recognized as a Recommended Attorney in Securities Litigation by The Legal 500 (U.S. edition 2017-2023) and as a Super Lawyer by Massachusetts Super Lawyers (2023).  She was selected by Lawdragon in its 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers guide (2019-2023), as featured in Lawdragon’s The Plaintiff Issue magazine (2020-2023).

Education

• Suffolk University (J.D., cum laude, 1995)
• American University (B.S., Finance, 1991)

Experience

• Member of the litigation team representing Louisiana State Employees’ Retirement System as co-lead counsel in Carlson v. Xerox Corp., No. 99-cv-02374 (D. Conn.), which settled for $750 million. The fraud implicated operating units around the world and spanned five annual reporting periods.
• Member of the litigation team on In re Bristol-Myers Squibb Sec. Litig., No. 02 Civ. 2251 (S.D.N.Y.), on behalf of Fresno County Employees’ Retirement Association, which settled for $300 million. The action stemmed from Bristol-Myers improperly booking billions of dollars of revenue from inventory and artificially inflating the company’s earnings through a host of accounting gimmicks carried out at the end of quarters to meet sales targets.
• As part of the litigation team in Giarraputo v. UNUMProvident Corp., No. 2:99cv00301 (D. Me.), Leslie helped secure a $45 million settlement in a lawsuit stemming from the merger that created UNUMProvident.
• Leslie was an integral member of the litigation team in a derivative suit brought against the directors of Oxford Health Plans Inc. As co-lead counsel in the case, Leslie and the firm represented individual investors seeking to recover damages sustained by the company because of its directors’ breaches of their fiduciary duties, gross mismanagement, corporate waste of assets and breach of duty of loyalty with respect to self-dealing stock transactions.
• Leslie has also served on several trial teams, including In re Biogen Sec. Litig., No. 94-cv-12177 (D. Mass.), and In re Zila Inc. Sec. Litig., No. 99-cv-00115 (D. Ariz.), which settled during trial preparation.
• Represents several public pension and Taft Hartley clients in a number of books and records demands under Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law.

Honors & Distinctions

• Recognized by Benchmark Litigation as a Local Litigation Star (2013-2015, 2021-2024) and a Massachusetts State Litigation Star (2021-2024) in Securities
• Recognized among the Benchmark Plaintiff Top 150 Women in Litigation
• Recognized as a Recommended Attorney in Securities Litigation by The Legal 500 (U.S. edition 2017-2023)
• Recognized as a Super Lawyer by Massachusetts Super Lawyers (2023)
• Selected by Lawdragon in its 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers guide (2019-2023), as featured in Lawdragon’s The Plaintiff Issue magazine (2020-2023)

Admissions

• Commonwealth of Massachusetts
• U.S. District Court for the District of Massachusetts
• First Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals
• Fourth Circuit, U.S. Court of Appeals

Affiliations

• Boston Bar Association
• National Association of Women Lawyers
• Women’s Bar Association
• National Association of Public Pension Attorneys

Education

• Organizes firm’s participation in the Massachusetts Legal Food Frenzy
• Coordinates firm’s support of the Greater Boston Food Bank

Publications, Presentations & Appearances

• Shareholders Demanding that PAC Contributions Align with Corporate Values, by Leslie R. Stern and Michael Stocker Dark, and Alexander Vahdat, Daily Journal, Mar. 15, 2023
• What You Don’t Know Can Hurt You, Florida Public Pension Trustees Association Winter Trustees School, presenter (Feb. 2015)
• SEC Regulatory Update Florida Public Pension Trustees Association Fall Trustees School, presenter (Sep. 2013)