Partner

Peter Isajiw

Peter Isajiw is a partner in the Litigation & Dispute Resolution practice in New York.

He represents corporations, financial institutions and individuals in complex commercial and securities litigation as well as regulatory enforcement matters.

• Relevant experience
• Publications and insights

• Two global financial institutions in parallel SEC and CFTC Enforcement inquiries involving employees’ use of personal devices to send “off-channel” business-related text messages, resulting in the first resolution in the industry-wide marquee enforcement sweep for both a broker-dealer and investment advisor, and the first resolution where regulators acknowledged the firms’ proactive compliance and cooperation efforts.
• Multiple financial institutions and over 90 senior individuals in connection with several subsequent waves of the SEC’s multi-year off-channel enforcement sweep. Among other benchmarks, Peter secured the first zero-dollar resolution for a broker-dealer in the street-wide sweep.
• A global asset manager in an SEC Enforcement investigation into potential misuse of material nonpublic information and associated control environment, which concluded in the closure of the investigation without further action.
• Deutsche Bank Securities Inc., in connection with defeating a New York state court breach of contract action alleging the improper refusal to close on a US$150 million real estate loan due to lack of interest in the CMBS market.
• Darwin Deason, Xerox’s third-largest shareholder, in a successful action to stop Fuji from acquiring control of Xerox in a proposed US$6.1 billion Xerox-Fuji merger. Following a two-day evidentiary hearing in New York Supreme Court, the court preliminarily enjoined the transaction and, for the first time under New York law, the court also allowed Xerox shareholders to nominate new director candidates even though the company’s notice deadline had passed.
• Global Brokerage, Inc. (f/k/a FXCM), in a federal securities class action. After an evidentiary hearing, defeated class certification for FXCM note holders by successfully challenging plaintiffs’ assertions of market efficiency and the presumption of class wide reliance for these securities.
• The Outside Directors of Digital Domain Media Group (DDMG), a digital effects provider responsible for visuals in movies including “Iron Man 3,” the “Transformers” and “Titanic” and for creating virtual performers such as the “Hologram Tupac” at the 2012 Coachella festival in a Section 11 securities class action and multiple state court matters.
• The CEO and Chairman of KIT digital Inc., a premium video management software provider, in a federal securities class action and several shareholder derivative suits stemming from financial restatements and disclosures of material weaknesses in the company’s internal controls over financial reporting.
• Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in 26 class actions consolidated in the Southern District of New York claiming violations of Antitrust laws and the Commodity Exchange Act for alleged manipulation of gold and gold derivative prices, and six class actions making similar allegations concerning silver and silver derivatives.
• Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. in multiple lawsuits against leading prime brokers alleging, among other claims, unlawful securities market manipulation, state RICO and federal antitrust law violations in connection with purportedly illegal “naked short selling” practices.
• A major broker-dealer with multiple FINRA investigations related to the Market Access Rule (SEA Rule 15c3-5).
• A major broker-dealer with FINRA investigations related to the Customer Protection Rule (SEA Rule 15c3-3).
• A major international financial institution with a FINRA investigation concerning alleged rule violations related to certain prime brokerage activities.
• A major broker-dealer with a NYSE investigation related to NYSE Rule 122 (orders with more than one NYSE Floor Broker). A major international financial institution and two individuals in a joint investigation by the FBI and SEC concerning the alleged improper use of “stock loan finders” in securities lending transactions.
• A federal death row inmate in successful post-conviction proceedings to vacate the death sentence due to multiple constitutional errors. Despite the client’s mental illness, he was improperly permitted to defend himself on a capital murder charge and sentenced to death based on the faulty testimony of a now-discredited psychiatric expert whose methodology has been rejected as unreliable, unscientific, and unethical “junk science” by the American Psychiatric Association, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals, and numerous other organizations. Due to his mental condition, the client was unable to adequately defend his innocence. After over a decade of post-conviction litigation, in April 2021 the United States District Court in Waco, Texas vacated the capital conviction and death sentence. The decision represents one of the first applications of the Supreme Court’s landmark ruling in U.S. v Davis, which invalidated the residual clause of the Armed Career Criminal Act, a statute that imposed additional punishment on persons with multiple prior convictions based on an unconstitutionally vague and discriminatory definition of “violent felonies.” Peter’s work on this matter was featured in the 2009 American Lawyer Pro Bono 100 project and nominated for the American Bar Association’s Death Penalty Representation Project’s Exceptional Service Award.
• An unmarried woman who was fired because she chose to live with her boyfriend in violation North Carolina’s anti-cohabitation law. The law was declared unconstitutional because it violated the liberty rights established by the Supreme Court’s landmark decision, Lawrence v. Texas. As one of the first applications of Lawrence, Peter’s work was covered by The New York Times, BBC, CNN, Colbert Report and other international news outlets

 

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