Joel Haims is a partner in the New York office of Morrison & Foerster LLP, where he specializes in securities and complex commercial litigation, primarily representing public companies and their officers and directors in securities class actions, SEC investigations, shareholder derivative suits, and internal investigations. Mr. Haims also has litigated cases involving swaps and other derivatives, accountant liability claims, commercial real estate transactions, employment agreements, and consumer class actions, as well as general commercial contract and tort disputes. He also has experience with SEC filings and corporate and securities transactions, including public offerings and private placements of equity securities. Mr. Haims joined Morrison & Foerster in 1998 from the law firm of Heller, Horowitz & Feit, P.C.

Mr. Haims is admitted to practice in the States of New York and New Jersey. He is a member of the American Bar Association, the New York State Bar Association, and the Association of the Bar of the City of New York.

Representative Matters:

• Leading defense, with Jack Auspitz, on behalf of 300 issuers and over 1,000 individual defendants in the IPO Allocation securities class actions – perhaps the largest collection of securities class actions ever brought – pending in the Southern District of New York. Involved in all aspects of the case since 2002, including liaising with the court and counsel for issuers, individual defendants, D&O insurers, underwriters, and plaintiffs’ executive committee.
• Representing Pharmos Corp., an Israeli pharmaceutical company, and certain of its officers and directors in two shareholder derivative cases and a securities class action. Final settlement of the derivative cases has been approved, and settlement of the class action is pending.
• Representing Qiao Xing Universal Telephone, Inc. and LJ International, Inc., two China-based companies, and certain of their officers and directors in separate securities class actions in the U.S.
• Represented the Hong Kong affiliate of a Big Four accounting firm in litigation in the Supreme Court, New York County, against claims arising out of a bond offering by a Canadian public company. The matter was settled favorably. Won dismissal of securities fraud claims of market manipulation arising from a complex PIPE [Private Investment in Public Entity] transaction involving equity and interest rate swap components, on behalf of an investor, and recovered on the client’s affirmative claims.
• Lead trial counsel on behalf of Westchester Day School in pro bono litigation in federal court in New York against the Village of Mamaroneck and its Zoning Board, arising from the Village’s efforts to deny the school permission to renovate and expand its facilities. The school prevailed after a seven-day bench trial.  The trial court also upheld the constitutionality of the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act. The trial court decision was affirmed on appeal by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.
• Successfully settled consumer class action on individual basis in advance of class certification, on behalf of a major financial institution in a Truth in Lending matter.
• Representing multinational commercial real estate firm in a leasing dispute in the Supreme Court, New York County.
• Defeated injunction proceeding against options traders accused by their former employer of breach of employment agreements and misappropriation of trade secrets and confidential information, and represented traders in an NASD arbitration which was resolved satisfactorily.

Mr. Haims has been active in pro bono legal services to the community, including his work for the Westchester Day School in zoning litigation and the Fair Housing Justice Center on issues of reasonable accommodation.

He was a featured speaker on Securities Litigation Issues of Concern to Israeli Issuers in 2007 at the Annual Morrison & Foerster Global Capital Markets Seminar in Tel Aviv, Israel. He also was a guest lecturer at the Cornell Law School in March 2007 and January 2008.

• Mr. Haims is active in sports, including cycling, running, and ice hockey, and coaches little league in his community.