Joel Haims is a member of the firm’s Securities Litigation, Enforcement, and White-Collar Defense Group and previously served as co-chair of the Group. He focuses his practice on securities litigation, including class actions, shareholder derivative cases, corporate control litigation, and other complex business disputes. He also has significant experience defending clients in SEC enforcement proceedings and conducting corporate internal investigations.
Mr. Haims represents public companies, their officers, directors and board committees in securities cases before trial and appellate courts throughout the country, and in mediation to facilitate settlement. He has represented financial institutions and their executives in litigation and other regulatory matters arising from the recent financial crisis, including in matters related to residential mortgage-backed securities. He regularly defends clients from a diverse range of industries, including financial services, life sciences, technology and consumer products, and has extensive experience advising foreign-based companies, particularly in China, Japan and Israel, in connection with securities and compliance issues related to their cross-border and U.S. operations.
Mr. Haims also works closely with the firm’s Business + Finance department lawyers on a variety of corporate and securities transactions. Among other things, he has extensive experience advising banks and commercial real estate developers on the securities law aspects of real estate financing transactions involving the EB-5 Immigrant Investor Pilot Program.
In addition to his securities litigation practice, Mr. Haims also has extensive experience litigating religious rights cases, particularly under the Religious Land Use and Institutionalized Persons Act (RLUIPA). He served as lead trial counsel for the Westchester Day School in its landmark litigation against the Village of Mamaroneck and its Zoning Board of Appeals under RLUIPA, and continues to regularly consult with religious organizations and their counsel on RLUIPA issues. He also successfully defended the USTA in a religious discrimination lawsuit.
Mr. Haims is a frequent author and lecturer on topics involving securities litigation. He is recognized by Legal 500 for his work in Securities: Shareholder Litigation, and is considered a “Future Star” in New York by Benchmark Litigation.
