J. Ryan Lopatka, a partner in KSF’s New York and Chicago offices, focuses primarily on federal securities class action litigation.

Mr. Lopatka was a member of the team that litigated against Halliburton Company in one of the most closely followed securities cases of all time. The litigation, which spanned more than a decade, included two landmark decisions from the Supreme Court. The first, Erica P. John Fund, Inc. v. Halliburton, 1331 S.Ct. 2179 (2011), a 9-0 unanimous opinion, reversed the rulings of the district court and Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals denying the investors’ motion for class certification on loss causation grounds. The second, Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2389 (2014), preserved the fraud-on-the-market doctrine, and helped pave the way towards a $100 million recovery for the class.

More recent successes include Pearlstein v. BlackBerry Limited, et al., No. 13-cv-7060 (S.D.N.Y.) and In re Chicago Bridge & Iron N.V. Securities Litigation, No. 1:17-cv-1580 (S.D.N.Y.), which resulted in settlement agreements on the eve of trial for $165 million and $44 million, respectively. 

Mr. Lopatka successfully argued before the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to vacate an order from the Southern District of New York granting motion to dismiss in a securities class action against NewLink Genetics Corp. The 26-page ruling from the three-judge panel in Abramson v. NewLink Genetics Corp., 2020 U.S. App. LEXIS 21545 (2d Cir. July 13, 2020) revitalized investors’ claims against the bio-pharmaceutical company, and further developed the law of the Second Circuit with regard to loss causation and the actionability of opinion statements under the Supreme Court’s 2015 decision in Omnicare, Inc. v. Laborers Dist. Council Const. Industry Pension Fund, 575 U.S. 175 (2015). After remand, KSF secured a $13.5 million settlement for the class, an achievement the late Hon. William H. Pauley commended: “you turned a case that was a loser in the district court into a victory for plaintiffs….”

Before a three-judge panel of the Tenth Circuit in Hogan v. Pilgrim’s Pride Corp., 73 F. 4th 1150 (10th Cir. 2023), Mr. Lopatka successfully appealed the dismissal of a putative securities class action on repose grounds.  The case, currently pending in the District of Colorado, involves allegations that Defendants misled investors regarding Pilgrim Pride’s operations and finances amid a years-long collusive scheme to fix chicken prices, and is the only one of three securities class actions involving similar claims against poultry producers to still survive.

Mr. Lopatka also dedicates his time to promote best practices in complex litigation. For example, Mr. Lopatka served alongside attorneys representing both plaintiffs and defendants as a project member with the Electronic Discovery Reference Model (EDRM) to identify common problems and solutions (including potential amendments to the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure) related to the process of recording documents withheld from production on a claim that they contain attorney-client communication or work product.

Mr. Lopatka received his J.D. from Tulane University Law School in 2010. During the summer of 2009, he studied international capital markets and securities law at Cambridge University and Queen Mary School of Law in London, England. He received his B.A. with honors in history from Loyola University New Orleans in 2004.