Andrew C. Johnson

Andrew represents public and private companies, officers, and individuals in connection with US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) enforcement actions, securities and stockholder class actions, and complex litigation matters. Before his legal career, he was a senior assurance associate at a professional services firm that provided audit, tax and advisory services, where he primarily focused on financial statement audits of Fortune 500 companies.

Andrew has represented clients across various industries in litigation in federal and state courts. His experience includes drafting pleadings and dispositive motions, drafting discovery motions, taking and defending fact and expert depositions, arguing motions, participating in trial preparation and trial, and negotiating settlements in both state and federal courts. Andrew also represents clients in responding to investigations by the SEC and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA).

Andrew graduated cum laude from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law. While in law school, he served as a law clerk in the Criminal Division of the US Attorney’s Office for the Northern District of California. Additionally, Andrew participated in the Hastings Appellate Project, representing as student counsel a pro se litigant before the US Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. He was also a member of the Moot Court Board and an executive production editor of the Hastings Business Law Journal.

Andrew’s representative matters include:

• Defending a former executive vice president and chief legal officer of a Fortune 500 company in class allegations of violations of federal securities laws and in a related SEC investigation
• Representing an international consulting firm in an SEC investigation in which valuation and disclosure issues of a public issuer client are at issue
• Representing a national accounting firm engagement partner in an SEC investigation in which revenue recognition issues of a public issuer client are at issue
• Defending a major international cruise line and subsidiary brands in multiple class actions and 200+ individual wrongful-death and personal injury claims arising from the COVID-19 pandemic
• Obtaining a temporary and preliminary injunction for minority shareholders in a beverage distributor against the majority shareholder and president in a breach of fiduciary duty suit
• Defending Adobe in Dolby Laboratories Licensing Corp. v. Adobe Inc. against breach of contract and copyright claims arising from a set of licensing agreements pertaining to audio technologies
• Securing a multimillion-dollar jury verdict on all claims in a federal jury trial for a national women’s healthcare provider in a civil Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO) case and related state law claims, including RICO, trespass, fraud, illegal recording and contract violations

Publications

Co-author, “Chapter 20: Internal Investigations,” in “Environmental, Social, Governance: The Professional’s Guide to the Law and Practice of ESG,” American Bar Association, 2023