Ryan S Stippich

Ryan S. Stippich

Shareholder

Chicago
,
Milwaukee
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Ryan S. Stippich is a shareholder in the firm's Litigation Practice, as well as a member of the White Collar Litigation and Corporate Compliance Group and Reinhart Institutional Investor Services. He represents clients in a wide range of complex civil and criminal matters at both the trial and appellate levels.

Ryan focuses his litigation practice in the areas of securities litigation, shareholder disputes, professional liability litigation, other business torts and class actions. Ryan has extensive experience representing clients such as investment advisors, banks and financial institutions, public companies, officers, directors, actuaries, accountants, investment advisors and other professionals in these types of litigation. Ryan advises board committees consisting of independent directors in conducting internal investigations, disputes with shareholders, or in litigation arising out of strategic transactions, such as mergers or acquisitions. He also represents institutional investors and other companies that have been victimized by fraud.

As part of the White Collar Group, Ryan represents companies in highly regulated environments such as banks and other financial services firms, defense contractors and health care companies, providing regulatory compliance advice, defending government investigations and related litigation, such as False Claims Act cases.

Ryan focuses his practice with Reinhart Institutional Investor Services on providing independent securities litigation review services and other compliance, investigation and litigation services to public pension funds and other institutional investors. He is a member of the National Association of Public Pension Attorneys and has served the last several years on NAPPA's SEC Actions Working Group.

Ryan brings to these matters significant trial experience, including service as a special prosecutor for the Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office, where he acted as lead counsel in eight trials, including felony jury trials. Ryan has also argued cases in Seventh Circuit and Ninth Circuit Courts of Appeal.

Education

  • J.D., magna cum laude, University of Wisconsin Law School
  • B.A., with honors, University of Wisconsin-Madison (Political Science)

Bar Admissions

Wisconsin | Illinois

Court Admissions

  • U.S. Supreme Court
  • U.S. Court of Appeals, Seventh Circuit
  • U.S. District Court, Eastern District of Wisconsin
  • U.S. District Court, Western District of Wisconsin
  • U.S. District Court, Northern District of Illinois
Practices
Services

Matters

Securities, Financial and White Collar Litigation:

  • Obtaining summary judgment in favor of an investment company compliance officer in the first reported decisions involving allegations of insider trading in the shares of mutual funds.  SEC v. Bauer, 42 F. Supp. 3d 923 (E.D. Wis. 2014); SEC v. Bauer, 723 F.3d 758 (7th Cir. 2013).
  • Obtaining judgment in favor of a financial services firm enforcing an arbitration award.  Renard v. Ameriprise Fin. Servs., Inc., 778 F.3d 563 (7th Cir. 2015).
  • Obtaining early dismissal of $4 million fraudulent transfer claims brought by a receiver for a failed investment advisor who was appointed by the SEC.  Feinstein v. Long, No. 11-CV-57, 2011 WL 3555727 (E.D. Wis. 2011)
  • Representing a public company manufacturer of outdoor equipment in defense of lawsuit by a dissident hedge fund shareholder relating to alleged director and officer liability in a strategic transaction. The trial court granted the company's motion for summary judgment, dismissing all of the hedge fund's claims against the company before trial.
  • Obtaining dismissal of class action claims brought against a special committee that approved a merger for nuisance value settlement.  Buttonwood Tree Value Partners v. A.O. Smith, et al. (Milw. Co. Cir. Ct. 2012).
  • Representing a special litigation committee of a publicly traded company in response to alleged breaches of fiduciary duty by officers and directors
  • Representing publicly traded companies, officers, directors, investment advisors, and other individuals in SEC enforcement actions and private securities litigation.
  • Obtaining dismissal of a $10 million lawsuit against a financial institution alleging its negligence allowed a customer to defraud investors. The decision is Grad, et al. vs. Associated Bank, N.A., 2010 AP 1461 (Wi.Ct. App. June 7, 2011).
  • Obtaining dismissal of a lawsuit against an actuarial professional on the pleadings in a case with a potential nine-figure damage exposure. The decision is reported at Trenwick Am. Corp v. Ernst & Young, 906 A.2d 168 (Del. Ch. 2006)
  • Representing institutional investors in evaluating securities fraud class actions and in challenging excessive lead counsel contingency fee requests. Ryan successfully overturned a $30 million attorneys' fee award in the Ninth Circuit, establishing new law in class action procedures. In re Mercury Interactive Securities Litigation, 618 F.3d 988 (9th Cir. 2010). The decision was featured in a National Law Journal article.
Other Complex Commercial Litigation:
  • Obtaining summary judgment for a manufacturer of mining conveyor equipment against allegations the equipment failed causing over $10 million in damages. The decision is reported at Oldenburg Group v. Frontier-Kemper Constructors, 597 F.Supp.2d 842 (E.D. Wis. 2009)
  • Obtaining a favorable settlement in defense of an engine distributor against breach of warranty claims
  • Representing a manufacturer in the HVAC industry against claims that it improperly terminated a Wisconsin distributor. We obtained a highly favorable settlement at the summary judgment stage

Honors & Affiliations

Honors

  • Best Lawyers in America - Criminal Defense: White Collar; Commercial Litigation
  • Selected for inclusion in Wisconsin Super Lawyers - Rising Star Edition
Affiliations
  • State Bar of Wisconsin, Chair of Bench-Bar Committee
  • National Association of Public Pension Attorneys, Member SEC Actions Working Group
  • Wisconsin Law Review (Managing Editor)
  • Worked at the Wisconsin Department of Justice in the Criminal Appeals Division, representing the State of Wisconsin before the Wisconsin Supreme Court and Courts of Appeals
  • Admitted to practice before courts in Wisconsin and Illinois, the United States Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit and the United States District Courts in Wisconsin and the Northern District of Illinois
  • Milwaukee Bar Association

News & Insights

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Presentations

  • Impact of Yates on Attorney-Client Privilege and Corporate Compliance, presented at Reinhart CLE Series (November 2016)
  • Internal Investigations, presented at Marquette University Law School (March 2016)
  • Constitutional Challenges to SEC Administrative Proceedings In the Wake of Dodd-Frank, presented at the Chicago Bar Association (October 2015)
  • Government Enforcement Actions: Strategies For Management, State Bar of Wisconsin (June 2015)
  • Combating Increased Shareholder Constraints, presented at Institutional Investor Forum (February 2015)
  • Federal Receiverships as an Alternative to Chapter 11: a New Look at Fed.R.Civ.P. 66 in the wake of Madoff, Stanford, and Wealth Management (Apr. 2012)
  • "The Real Costs of Fraud:  How to Prevent it and What to do if it Happens to You" (February 2010)

Publications