Lecturer Bios
Gregory A. Markel, Esq.
Greg Markel is a partner in the Litigation Department of Seyfarth Shaw LLP’s New York office. Mr. Markel is a nationally known trial lawyer who concentrates his practice on corporate governance litigation, mergers and acquisition litigation, directors and officers defense, securities litigation and antitrust litigation particularly in bet your company cases.
He has been recognized for years as a leader in the profession. LawDragon magazine recently recognized Mr. Markel as a “legend” and one of only 50 lawyers and judges in the legal profession in the United States who have been named to the Law Dragon 500 in each of the last ten years. He has also received recognition from many other publications including Acquisition International’s 2015’s Most Highly Regarded Litigators, 2013 Lawyers of the Year for Mergers and Acquisition by Best Lawyers, LawDragon’s 500 Leading Lawyers in America, and one of the 100 Securities Litigators You Need to Know, one of the Top 100 Lawyers in New York by Super Lawyers, highly ranked by Chambers for Securities Litigation, Benchmark as a national Litigation Star, for outstanding performance by Best Lawyer’s in America, Legal 500 Leading Commercial Litigators, “Best in Class” in the legal profession by BestofUS.com, The International Who’s Who of Commercial Litigators and many others.
He is a member of the Boards of the Legal Aid Society, the New York County Lawyers Association (NYCLA), Junior Achievement of New York and the Historical Society of New York Courts.
Mr. Markel is Chairman of the Center for Corporate Governance of the New York County Lawyers Association. He and Gillian Burns recently received the Burton Award for Distinguished Legal Writing.
Mr. Markel is a graduate of Yale Law School, the University of Michigan with an MBA in Finance and Columbia College.
He is a member of the Business Law, Litigation and Antitrust sections of the American Bar Association; the Federal Bar Council; the City Bar Committee on Securities Litigation; the Securities Industry Association – Compliance & Legal Division; the New York State Bar Association, Commercial Litigation Section, is a Fellow of the New York Bar Foundation. He is frequently called on to comment on legal issues for the Wall Street Journal, The Financial Times, CNBC, Bloomberg TV, Bloomberg Radio, The New York Times, Time, Newsweek, The Daily and the Associated Press. Mr. Markel frequently speaks to the press and others on a range of topics, such as director’s and officer’s liability, securities law, commercial litigation, accountants’ defense, law firm management and Internet litigation.
Jeroen van Kwawegen
Jeroen van Kwawegen is a partner in the New York office of BLB&G. A senior member of the firm’s Corporate Governance Litigation team, his practice focuses on the fiduciary duties of boards of directors and senior executives, shareholder appraisal actions, shareholder activism, and regulatory compliance. For his professional achievements, he has been recognized as a New York Super Lawyer and a New York "Rising Star" by Thomson Reuters, and a leading practitioner in his field by Legal 500 US.
Mr. van Kwawegen has extensive experience in litigation on behalf of shareholders involving the oversight of board and management misconduct. He has represented institutional investors in numerous high profile derivative actions, including actions involving Board entrenchment and shareholder voting rights violations, as well as merger and acquisitions disputes and shareholder appraisals. Mr. van Kwawegen has also prosecuted a variety of securities class actions on behalf of large institutional investors, including numerous matters relating to the credit crisis and disputes regarding the sale of residential mortgage-backed securities.
Mark Lebovitch, Esq.
Mr. Lebovitch heads the firm's corporate governance litigation practice, focusing on derivative suits and transactional litigation. Working with his institutional investor clients, he fights to hold management accountable, pursuing meaningful and novel challenges to alleged corporate governance-related misconduct and anti-shareholder practices. His cases have created key legal precedents while helping recoup billions of dollars for investors and improving corporate governance practices in numerous industries.
Most recently, Mr. Lebovitch led the Allergan Proxy Violation Litigation, alleging an unprecedented insider trading scheme by billionaire hedge fund manager Bill Ackman, Ackman’s Pershing Square Capital Management fund and Valeant Pharmaceuticals International, Inc. After a ferocious three-year legal battle over this attempt to circumvent the spirit of the U.S. securities laws, defendants accepted a $290 million settlement for Allergan investors. Last year, before the birth of the #metoo movement, he led the prosecution of an unprecedented shareholder derivative litigation against Fox News parent 21st Century Fox, Inc. arising from the systemic sexual and workplace harassment at the embattled network. The case resulted in one of the largest financial recoveries – $90 million – ever obtained in a pure corporate board oversight dispute; and the creation of an independent council of experts - named the "Fox News Workplace Professionalism and Inclusion Council" — which is expected to serve as a model for public companies in all industries.
Adam Hakki, Esq.
Adam Hakki is the Firm’s Global Managing Partner. He is also Global Head of the Firm’s Litigation Practice and Disputes Unit, maintaining a full time litigation and government investigation practice, with particular focus on securities, antitrust, and corporate governance matters, both civil and criminal. Adam regularly appears in the courtroom, boardroom and before the Department of Justice, Securities and Exchange Commission, CFTC, FINRA, and other regulators. With decades of experience, Adam is seasoned in crisis management and a first-choice counsel to the financial industry for major cases and investigations. Adam also frequently represents companies, directors and senior executives in other industries, especially healthcare, energy/oil and gas, technology and media. For two of the last three years, Benchmark Litigation named Adam the sole “Securities Lawyer of the Year” for the entire United States.
Adam is recognized in Chambers USA (Band 1), Legal 500 (Leading Lawyer) and Benchmark Litigation (National Star). These publications have described Adam as “the complete package,” “the most impressive securities litigator I have ever used anywhere,” “among the most polished and professional litigators in America,” “a force to be reckoned with,” “amazingly bright, with excellent strategic judgment,” having “the rare balance of being incredibly smart and effectively confident,” “a great lawyer with a practical bent that is somewhat rare,” “on top of all of the cutting edge issues,” “incredibly responsive,” “incredibly knowledgeable,” “an extremely smart lawyer who is very well versed in the financial industry,” “very strong with senior management,” “quick, well prepared and responsive,” a “superb writer,” “always the most calm and composed person in the room,” “great at making oral presentations,” able to “persuade on his feet,” “having a vast and loyal cadre of investment banks, hedge funds and mutual funds” as clients, “an absolute pleasure to work with,” and a litigator to whom “big banks turn frequently for important matters.”
Alexander “Sasha” Aganin
Sasha Aganin specializes in addressing complex financial issues arising in litigation. He has worked extensively to lead the firm’s efforts in securities matters and bankruptcy disputes. In addition, he has contributed significantly in other areas involving financial institutions, such as antitrust matters related to financial markets and institutions. Many of his cases involve risk analysis and modeling. Dr. Aganin has assessed economic losses, loss causation, and valuation for companies and investors in a wide range of industries, including private equity and asset management and across all classes of financial instruments. He has experience in all aspects of litigation, including deposition and trial, and has managed large teams working with multiple experts. He has also provided economic and statistical analyses in a variety of internal investigations, many of them requiring statistical and economic analyses of big data. He has appeared before the enforcement staffs of the SEC, FINRA and state attorneys general (AGs) on behalf of clients. Dr. Aganin has coauthored publications related to securities class action filings, damages in bankruptcy matters, corporate ownership, valuation, and equity financing. He has also spoken at legal and academic conferences on these topics.