Liza Velazquez

A partner in the Litigation Department, Liza Velazquez has extensive experience representing clients in a broad range of litigation and regulatory matters, with particular emphasis defending prominent banks, insurance companies, investment management firms and other financial institutions in complex commercial, securities, employment discrimination and bankruptcy-related matters.

Experience

Liza has represented clients before state and federal courts across the country as well as in arbitrations and before the SEC and other federal and state regulatory authorities.

Liza's diverse client list includes Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, ING, MacAndrews & Forbes and Hexion. Significant trial and major case representations include:

• JPMorgan Chase and JP Morgan Investment Management in litigations arising out of the investment of client accounts during the subprime crisis;
• ING in litigations arising out of ING's $1.5 billion sale of certain Mexican subsidiaries and the investment of a client account during the subprime crisis;
• A national insurance company in a litigation challenging the prior settlement of hundreds of employment discrimination claims;
• Citigroup's brokerage unit, Smith Barney, in a Title VII nationwide employment discrimination class action;
• Citigroup in the Lehman Brothers bankruptcy proceedings;
• A trial victory in Colorado state court for a national bank in a lawsuit concerning the conduct of an independent mortgage foreclosure review;
• BankOne/JPMorgan Chase in all mutual fund market timing regulatory investigations and civil litigation in connection with the One Group mutual funds;
• Hexion in a securities class action arising out of the unconsummated Hexion-Huntsman merger;
• A prominent private equity partner before the Delaware Chancery Court in an action arising out of the dissolution of the partnership;
• An Internet services company in an internal investigation and two securities class actions; and
• The successful trial of a landmark human rights case brought under the Alien Tort Statute.

Liza serves by appointment on the New York State Bar's Independent Judicial Election Qualification Commission for the First Judicial District. She has contributed to two reports by the Association of the Bar of the City of New York on human rights standards applicable to the treatment of detainees post-9/11. She has also successfully represented numerous asylum clients. She is currently Chair of the Firm's Women's Initiatives Committee and is a member of the Practical Law Litigation Advisory Board.

Liza was an executive editor for the Civil Rights-Civil Liberties Law Journal and a staff editor for the Human Rights Law Journal.

Practices

• Litigation
• Employment
• Financial Institutions
• Insurance
• M&A Litigation
• Securities Litigation
• White Collar Crime & Regulatory Defense
• E-Discovery
  

Education

• J.D., Harvard Law School, 1996
  cum laude
• B.A., Harvard University, 1992
  magna cum laude

Clerkships

• Hon. Irma E. Gonzalez, U.S. District Court, Southern District of California

Bar Admissions

• New York

See Library Tab for articles, publications and presentations by Liza Velazquez