Goldman Ismail Helps AbbVie Secure Summary Judgment in Circuit Court of Cook County

On September 13, 2021, the Circuit Court of Cook County granted AbbVie’s motion for summary judgment in full in Elliott Associates L.P. et al. v AbbVie Inc. Several hedge funds brought securities fraud claims against AbbVie related to its attempted $55 billion merger with Shire plc. The hedge funds claimed they “suffered substantial damages” in 2014 when AbbVie announced its plans to abandon the merger. After years of protracted discovery, Cook County Circuit Judge Margaret Brennan dismissed the lawsuit finding AbbVie’s public announcements about its proposed Shire merger were opinions and non-actionable forward-looking statements. Judge Brennan also rejected the hedge funds’ so-called holder claims and ruled that the dormant foreign Commerce Clause barred any claims that stemmed from foreign securities traded on foreign exchanges.     

A Goldman Ismail team (Tarek Ismail, Alan Littmann, Andrew Rima, Betsy Farrington, and Symone Shinton) partnered with co-counsel Kirkland & Ellis LLP to secure AbbVie’s victory in court.

Press coverage of the Circuit Court of Cook County ruling is available here and here.