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William S. Freeman is a partner in the Cooley Litigation department and has served as chair of the Firm's Securities Litigation practice group. He joined the Firm in 1981 from the U.S. Department of Justice and has been a partner in the Firm since 1986. He is resident in the Palo Alto office.
Mr. Freeman litigates securities and complex commercial cases. He has extensive jury trial experience and has led numerous internal corporate investigations. For nearly 30 years, he has represented companies, officers, directors and investors in a wide array of proceedings including:
- Lead Counsel in over 40 class action and derivative suits
- Corporate control and merger-related litigation
- Dozens of investigations and enforcement actions by the SEC and other regulators
- Over 25 internal investigations in last 5 years
He also advises public companies and their officers, directors, principal shareholders and underwriters on a broad range of issues including:
- Public disclosure
- Fiduciary duties
- Insider trading
- Litigation risk reduction
In 2007-2009, Mr. Freeman represented Kent H. Roberts, former General Counsel of McAfee, Inc., in the successful defense of an SEC enforcement action alleging stock option backdating. The result obtained for the client was unprecedented in all of the SEC's backdating cases: the SEC voluntarily dismissed all charges against Mr. Roberts with prejudice. View the press release here.
Mr. Freeman has secured numerous victories in securities cases on motions, in trial and on appeal, for a broad range of companies including Peet's Coffee & Tea, Ditech Networks, iPass, Verity, Vans, VaxGen, InterMune, BroadVision, Verity and First Virtual.
From 1978 until 1981, he served as a trial attorney in the Civil Division of the U.S. Department of Justice in Washington, D.C., where he won significant monetary recoveries for the government in cases of official corruption, procurement fraud and abuse of government programs.
Mr. Freeman earned a J.D., cum laude, from Harvard Law School in 1978, where he served as an editor of the Harvard Law Review. He received a B.A., summa cum laude, from Harvard College in 1974, and was elected to Phi Beta Kappa.
Education- Harvard Law School
JD, 1978, cum laude; Member, Harvard Law Review - Harvard University
AB, 1974, summa cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa
Court Admissions
- All California State Courts
- U.S. Court of Appeals, First Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Ninth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Appeals, Tenth Circuit
- U.S. Court of Federal Claims
- U.S. District Court, Central District of California
- U.S. District Court, District of Columbia
- U.S. District Court, Eastern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Northern District of California
- U.S. District Court, Southern District of California
- United States Supreme Court
Admissions
- California
- District of Columbia
Memberships
- American Bar Association
- Santa Clara County Bar Association
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