We won repeated dismissals for client J.P. Morgan in a long fight arising from the 2008 bankruptcy

For over a decade, Davis Polk defended more than a dozen J.P. Morgan entities against fraudulent transfer cases in connection with the 2008 bankruptcy of the Tribune Company. In the cases, individual creditors and a litigation trustee sought to claw back $8 billion paid out to thousands of Tribune’s former shareholders, including the J.P. Morgan defendants, in a leveraged buyout. Davis Polk also served on the executive committee of defense counsel for this major litigation.

The cases wound up and down the federal courts, with the Southern District of New York and the Second Circuit affirming all of the dismissals. The case went to the U.S. Supreme Court three times, with the Supreme Court each time declining to disturb the lower courts’ decisions. After the Supreme Court denied certiorari in February 2022 on the last set of plaintiffs’ claims, the matter officially and decisively ended in defendants’ favor. 

During the entire course of the litigation, the plaintiffs’ claims against the shareholder defendants never proceeded beyond the motion to dismiss stage.

The Davis Polk team included partner Elliot Moskowitz, counsel Marc J. Tobak and associate Tina Hwa Joe, all based in the New York office.

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