Mark A. Kirsch

Mark A. Kirsch is a partner in the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  He is   Co-Chair of the firm’s Litigation Practice Group. 

Mr. Kirsch is a trial lawyer, whose practice focuses on complex securities and financial litigation, white collar and regulatory investigations and litigation, commercial litigation and antitrust litigation. 

Mr. Kirsch currently leads the defense of:

• Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Bank of America, Merrill Lynch, J.P. Morgan, Deutsche Bank and Royal Bank of Scotland in a putative class action alleging violation of the federal securities laws in connection with underwriting $600 Million of Notes for MF Global Holdings.
• Goldman Sachs, Citigroup, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, UBS, and BNY Mellon Capital Markets in a putative class action alleging violation of the federal securities law in connection with underwriting securities for the Bank of New York Mellon.
• UBS in a putative class action alleging violation of federal securities laws in the underwriting of the $165 Million IPO for SinoTech, a Chinese issuer which has since been delisted from NASDAQ following allegations that SinoTech was merely a shell operation.
• UBS in an action brought by the Federal Home Loan Bank in Indianapolis alleging securities law violations in the underwriting of $270 Million in RMBS.
• The Bank of New York Mellon in a class action and a mass action in California arising out of the revelation of Medical Capital Holdings as a multi-billion dollar Ponzi scheme, where the Bank served as trustee for Medical Capital investor funds.
• The Royal Bank of Canada in a suit brought in Wisconsin by five Wisconsin school districts alleging fraud in the sale by RBC of $200 Million in synthetic CDOs, and a cross-claim by placement agent Stifel Nicolaus relating to those CDOs.
• A leading global bank in connection with a United States Department of Justice grand jury investigation and an SEC investigation relating to FCPA and money laundering issues.

Mr. Kirsch will also have a lead role in an upcoming federal jury trial in New York, in which CareCore National, a major insurance reimbursement administrator for physicians, is alleged to have committed antitrust violations by physicians excluded from the CareCore network.

Among his recent victories, Mr. Kirsch secured the dismissal of two separate cases against Trust Company of the West brought by China Development Industrial Bank and Landesbank Baden-Wurtemberg, respectively, alleging fraud-based claims in connection with CDOs.  

Mr. Kirsch also obtained summary judgment for Citigroup in connection with a securities fraud claim for $13.2 Billion brought by Parmalat investors after Parmalat’s collapse.  

Mr. Kirsch also led the team that achieved five significant victories for AllianceBernstein in securities litigation arising out of the Enron collapse, including a seven-week state court jury trial in which Alliance defeated the Florida state pension fund’s attempt to recover $3.2 billion in losses the fund sustained in Enron and other stocks, and Alliance won its damages counterclaim and costs. The National Law Journal selected the trial victory as one of its “Top 10 Defense Verdicts of 2006.”

In the Newby securities class action in Houston, in which Enron shareholders and bondholders sought over $1 billion in damages against AllianceBernstein, Mr. Kirsch obtained summary judgment for Alliance and costs against plaintiffs’ counsel.

Mr. Kirsch is routinely named among New York’s leading litigators.  He is ranked in Tier 1 for Securities Litigation in New York by Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business and The Legal 500.  In Chambers USA, Mr. Kirsch is noted as “a force to be reckoned with”, “a leader in securities litigation,” “a great strategist who’s detail-oriented and fantastic on his feet,” and “a superb securities litigator with excellent trial skills.”  In 2006, The Lawyer selected Mr. Kirsch as one of its “Global Hot 100 Attorneys.”

From 1991 to 1995, Mr. Kirsch served as Assistant United States Attorney in the Eastern District of New York, focusing on complex financial crimes.  In 1994, U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno personally awarded Mr. Kirsch the Justice Department Director’s Award for Superior Achievement as an Assistant U.S. Attorney.

Mr. Kirsch was previously a partner with Clifford Chance, where he served as Global Chair of the Litigation Practice and as a member of the Global Management Committee.