Schulte Roth Announces Addition of Trial Lawyer Gayle Klein as Litigation Co-Chair

Schulte Roth & Zabel (SRZ), a leading law firm serving the financial services industry, has added Gayle R. Klein as partner and co-chair of its Litigation Group. Ms. Klein is resident in the firm’s New York office. She joins the firm from McKool Smith, where she was co-chair of the financial litigation group and a member of its management committee. 

Ms. Klein represents both plaintiffs and defendants in high-stakes litigation. Over the past decade, she has both recovered in excess of $1 billion for her clients, as well as won defense decisions and achieved settlements vindicating her clients’ business decisions. Ms. Klein has extensive experience representing hedge funds, private equity firms, and public and private companies in the areas of antitrust, commercial and securities litigation. Her string of victories includes disputes over complex financial transactions, breaches of fiduciary duty, theft of trade secrets and violations of non-competition agreements. She also has significant experience defending putative consumer protection class actions. Ms. Klein is one of a handful of women in New York leading bet-the-company cases, for which her peers have called her a “zealous advocate” and “an effective trial lawyer.”

“Gayle is an outstanding litigator nationally recognized for her market-leading practice and we are thrilled to welcome her to SRZ,” said David Efron, SRZ co-managing partner and co-head of the Investment Management Group.

“Gayle’s significant experience advising on financial services litigation will add great value to our clients and further strengthen our deep litigation bench,” commented Marc Elovitz, SRZ co-managing partner and chair of the Investment Management Regulatory & Compliance Group.

“Gayle will be a tremendous addition to our team and we are delighted to have her join us as partner and co-chair,” said Michael Swartz, SRZ partner and co-chair of the Litigation Group. ”We feel extremely fortunate to partner with Gayle and look forward to working with her while adding further depth to our offerings,” said Peter White, SRZ partner and co-chair of the Litigation Group.

“SRZ’s market-leading platform in the private investment fund space is a perfect fit for my clients and practice and allows me to offer them full services and deep substantive knowledge,” said Ms. Klein, who holds a J.D., with honors, from the University of Texas School of Law and a B.S. in Advertising, with high honors and special honors, from the University of Texas, from which she graduated first in her class.

SRZ’s Litigation Group works with a wide range of local, national and international clients, including securities firms, banks, insurance companies, public and private corporations and their officers and directors; investment managers and private investment funds (hedge funds, funds of funds and private equity funds); prime, clearing, introducing and interdealer brokerage firms; accountants, auditors and fund administrators; and real estate developers, educational institutions, estate trustees, public interest organizations, partnerships and individuals. The team features both leading lawyers focused on general litigation and others in highly specialized areas, including antitrust; private securities litigation, including class actions and derivative suits; shareholder activism, proxy contest and mergers and acquisitions matters; bankruptcy, reorganization and creditors’ rights disputes; labor and employment litigation; intellectual property actions; real estate; trusts & estates and family law disputes; SEC and FINRA investigations and enforcement actions; federal and state criminal investigations and prosecutions (anti-money laundering, OFAC and FCPA matters); and white collar criminal defense. Among our litigators are numerous former Assistant U.S. Attorneys, state prosecutors and senior members of the Enforcement Division of the SEC.