Boris Feldman specializes in securities
litigation and counseling. He has represented companies and their
officers in 110 shareholder class actions and derivative suits
throughout the United States (including a dozen financial restatement
cases). (See list of companies.) He has
also advised audit committees and boards of directors in internal
investigations and handled SEC enforcement proceedings around
the country.
Boris tried and won the case of Walter Hewlett v. Hewlett-Packard Company in the Delaware Court of Chancery, on behalf of HP. In the last two years, Boris has won shareholder lawsuits on behalf of 3Com (Cal. Court of Appeal), Atmel (N.D. Cal.), Autodesk (9th Cir.), Business Objects (N.D. Cal and Cal. Superior Court), Coram Healthcare (3d Cir.), Genentech (N.D. Cal.), LeapFrog (Cal. Superior Court); Nektar (N.D. Cal.), Rambus (N.D. Cal. and Delaware Chancery); Read-Rite (9th Cir.), Synopsys (N.D. Cal.), Tier Technology (N.D. Cal.), and Tularik (Cal. Superior Court). He recently argued the proper standard for demand in a shareholder derivative suit before the Indiana Supreme Court, on behalf of Guidant Corp. (Webcast here.)
Boris has been at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in Palo Alto since 1986. He is a member of its Executive Management Committee and Chair of the firm's Policy Committee.
Boris has been listed for several years in the book The Best Lawyers in America. Chambers USA (2005) describes him as a "superb securities litigator" who "inspires complete confidence among clients and investigators, making him a favorite choice for dealings with government agencies. 'There is no better tactician and theoretician than Boris,' say interviewees." The San Francisco Chronicle profiled Boris as one of the Top Ten Lawyers in the Bay Area. The Recorder (the California affiliate of American Lawyer) named Boris the "go to" securities defense litigator in Northern California. The Los Angeles Daily Journal included him in its list of the 100 most influential lawyers in California in 2002 and its list of top securities litigators in the state in 2005. The American Lawyer named Boris one of the top 45 lawyers in the country under the age of 45 in 1995.
Boris was born in South Bend, Indiana in 1955. He attended Yale College on a National Merit Scholarship. At Yale, he was President of the Yale Debate Association and Speaker of the Yale Political Union. Boris graduated from Yale in 1977 (summa cum laude, Phi Beta Kappa, distinction in history).
Boris graduated from Yale Law School in 1980. At the law school, he served as Note & Topics Editor of The Yale Law Journal (Volume 89). He was also the Director of Debating for Yale University.
In 1980-81, Boris served as law clerk to Judge Abraham D. Sofaer in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York. Boris was an associate at Arnold & Porter in Washington, D.C., between 1981 and 1985. In 1985-86, Boris served as Special Assistant to the Legal Adviser at the U.S. Department of State.
Boris is a member of the Advisory Board of the Securities Regulation Institute. He also serves on the Board of Advisors of the Yale Law School Center for the Study of Corporate Law. Boris has lectured on shareholder and disclosure issues before ALI-ABA, American Society of Corporate Secretaries, Glasser Legalworks, NASDAQ, National Investor Relations Institute, New York Stock Exchange, PLI, Professional Liability Underwriting Society, Risk & Insurance Management Society, SEC Institute, Stanford Directors' College, and Software Publishers Association. He has published approximately 20 articles on various disclosure topics.
Boris has served as a lawyer-representative to the Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference, a member of the Ninth Circuit's Lawyer Representative Coordinating Committee, and co-chair of the lawyer representatives to the Northern District of California. Boris is active in TechNet. He has served on the Board of Directors of the Silicon Valley Campaign for Legal Services.
Boris was a member of the six-person advisory committee established by the United States District Court for the Northern District of California to propose modifications of the Local Rules in light of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. Boris testified before the Senate Banking Committee on the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act. He was appointed to a blue ribbon panel to propose changes in the California shareholder laws. He was a member of the Santa Clara County Superior Court Task Force on Complex Litigation.
You can reach Boris at (650) 858-4444 or obtain his e-mail address by contacting "ncarvalho" at "wsgr.com"