Attorneys

Lee A. Weiss is an attorney with Browne George Ross LLP. Mr. Weiss concentrates his trial practice on high-stakes commercial litigation where he represents individuals and institutions in complex commercial disputes and aggrieved consumers and investors in class action litigation in federal and state courts throughout the country. Mr. Weiss has served on the faculty of the Trial Techniques program at Emory University Law School and has been a panelist at various programs discussing securities and class action issues.

Representative Matters:

• Representing borrowers in multiple actions concerning complex art financing agreements.
• Representing borrowers in multiple federal class actions arising out of deceptive mortgage lending practices against major financial institutions, such as Countrywide, Residential Funding Company and RBS.
• Represented plaintiff classes in consumer class actions that have led to important and substantial settlements with Sulzer Orthopedics, Inc. ($1 billion), Iomega Corporation and Pioneer Corporation.
• Represented investor classes in securities fraud actions that led to significant settlements, including those in In re IKON Office Solutions Securities Litigation (E.D. Pa.) ($111 million), In re Computer Associates Securities Litigation (E.D.N.Y.) ($134 million ), and Ridgway v. Ray (Titan Corporation) (D. Del.) (part of global settlement in excess of $90 million).
• Representing class of preferred shareholders in breach of fiduciary duty class action arising out of the acquisition of Equity Inns, Inc. by a Goldman Sachs subsidiary; defeated a motion to dismiss concerning a matter of first impression under Tennessee law concerning the duties owed by directors to preferred shareholders.
• Represented purchasers of deferred variable annuities in multiple class actions based upon deceptive sales practices that led to settlements with some of the nation’s largest insurers, including American Express (IDS), Principal Life, and Pacific Life Insurance Co. In Pacific Life action, played integral role in defeating motion to dismiss and successful motion for class certification in the first federal securities fraud class action alleging claims that deferred variable annuity purchasers paid high fees to insurance companies for a tax shelter product that they did not need.
• Representing plaintiffs in several shareholder derivative actions seeking to prevent mutual funds from paying illegal compensation to brokers.

Publications Authored:

• Co-author of Be Careful What You Wish For: The Unintended Effects of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, INT’L JOURNAL OF DISCLOSURE AND GOVERNANCE, Vol. 3, No. 2 (June 2006)
• The Fiduciary Duties of a Public Pension Plan Trustee: From Monitoring Investments to Recovering Class Action Settlement Proceeds, Information Management Network’s 2006 Indexing Almanac (2006)

• Business Litigation
• Class Actions
• Securities
• Contract Disputes
• Consumer Fraud
• Antitrust
• Financial Services Litigation
• Art Litigation

• George Washington University Law School, Washington, D.C. - J.D., 1991, with honors
• Emory University, Atlanta, GA - B.A., 1988