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Legal Ease

You’ve developed carpal tunnel syndrome at work. You’re underwater with unsecured debt and an upside-down mortgage. Your teen just wrecked the car while driving home from a party. These things can happen to anyone. Which lawyer do you call? Delaware’s own attorneys pick the very best.

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Stuart M. Grant | Corporate Litigation and Securities

When Stuart M. Grant is in the courtroom, judges can count on being entertained. Grant may reference family stories, contemporary music or current events. Lightening the legalese to engage listeners is not unusual in TV-esque jury trials. Grant, however, makes his arguments in the Delaware Court of Chancery, where it’s expected that the discourse will run on the dry side.

Grant sympathizes with the Chancery Court judges. “When I argue, I cite situations that people can relate to,” says Grant, managing director of Grant & Eisenhofer in Wilmington. “Judges are people too.”

Grant focuses on securities, regulatory and corporate governance litigation, and Delaware corporate law. “I love the intersection of business and law,” he says. “And I was always fascinated by the securities markets.”

His passion has paid off. Grant—who is consistently ranked as a leading securities and corporate governance litigator in Chambers USA—serves as litigation counsel to many of the largest public and private institutional investors in the world.

Given his interests, it’s not surprising that the New York University School of Law graduate would wind up in Delaware, which has been called America’s Corporate Capital.

He started his career on the defense side of the fence. Gradually, his practice was about half defense and half plaintiff work. When in 1997 Grant started Grant & Eisenhofer with Jay Eisenhofer, he shifted to handling only plaintiff work. The practice took off. “The willingness of institutional investors to take lead roles in corporate securities litigation has increased dramatically,” he says. “And, as a result, so has our practice.”

Grant was the first attorney in the nation to argue the provisions of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which allowed an institutional investor to be appointed as lead plaintiff in a securities class action.

He has achieved four of the five largest monetary payments in the history of the Delaware Chancery Court. The Digex Stockholders litigation resulted in a $420 million payment, the largest in the court’s history. About half the amount went to shareholders. The balance went to the company in which shareholders remained shareholders. The case led to the establishment of lead plaintiff provisions in Delaware.

Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana v. Greenberg, et al., and the American International Group, the largest settlement of derivative shareholder litigation in Chancery Court history, resulted in a Greenberg entities’ payment of $115 million to AIG.

Since 1994, Grant has been an adjunct professor at Widener Law School, and he is a member of the advisory board of the Weinberg Center for Corporate Governance at the University of Delaware. Despite his interests and practice area, Grant is no stuffed shirt. You’ll rarely see him with a jacket and tie unless he’s headed to court.

His boutique firm is selective about its cases. “We treat every client as though he or she is our only client,” he says.