John Dellaportas is co-chair of Kelley Drye’s Securities Litigation and Enforcement practice. Mr. Dellaportas has 22 years’ experience representing clients in high-stakes commercial, securities litigation.and arbitration matters. He defends clients in shareholder class action suits, civil enforcement actions, and investigations brought by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC). He also handles cases involving mergers and acquisitions, government contracts, commercial real estate, and intellectual property matters. Mr. Dellaportas serves as an arbitrator and court-appointed fiduciary in financial services and real estate proceedings.

In 2012, Mr. Dellaportas acted as lead trial counsel to Bruce Bent, co-inventor of the money market fund, and his son Bruce Bent II, in an SEC civil enforcement action against them. Following a month-long trial, a Manhattan federal jury rendered a unanimous verdict in favor of the Bents, clearing them of all SEC Rule 10b-5 and other securities fraud charges.

That courtroom victory earned Mr. Dellaportas both “Litigator of the Week” honors from The Am Law Litigation Daily in November 2012, and “Litigator in the Spotlight” recognition by The American Lawyer in January 2013. His closing arguments were highlighted in the November 7, 2012 issue of The Wall Street Journal (“Fund’s 2008 Woes Likened to Sandy”). After the trial, Bloomberg TV interviewed Mr. Dellaportas about the case for its “Rainmakers” series.

A frequent writer and lecturer on securities law topics, Mr. Dellaportas most recently authored chapters on the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 and the Trust Indenture Act of 1939 for the Thomson Reuters treatise Securities Crimes, 2nd ed. In 2009, he was a featured presenter at AsiaLaw’s 4th Annual Dispute Resolution Summit in Singapore, where he spoke on “Dispute Resolution In A Financial Crisis.”