Pomerantz LLP issued the following announcement on Sept. 1.
Corporate Counsel magazine honored Jennifer Pafiti, Pomerantz’s Partner and Head of Client Services, with an award for Collaborative Leadership in their 2021 Women, Influence & Power in Law Awards. The awards recognize attorneys — general counsel, in-house leaders and law firm partners — who have “demonstrated a commitment to advancing the empowerment of women in law.” Dedicated to honoring women who champion other women and promote diversity in the legal industry, the WIPL award winners are “business strategists, complex problem-solvers and, of course, great lawyers.”
As a key player in Pomerantz’s litigation against Brazilian oil giant, Petróleo Brasileiro S.A.–Petrobras, Jennifer helped secure a record-breaking $3 billion settlement on behalf of defrauded investors. The culmination of over three years of hard-fought litigation, this significant 2018 victory comprised a $2.95 billion settlement with Petrobras and a $50 million settlement with Petrobras’ auditor, PwC Brazil.
Universities Superannuation Scheme (“USS”), the trustee of the UK's largest private pension scheme as measured by assets, served as lead plaintiff for the Class in Petrobras. As an attorney dually qualified to practice law in the US and the UK, with an understanding of the British perception of litigation, Jennifer worked closely with USS throughout the litigation. Jennifer was an integral member of the core litigation team for Petrobras, which was 80% female. Led by Managing Partner Jeremy Lieberman, the team achieved a settlement that set records as the largest securities class action settlement in a decade, the largest settlement ever in a class action involving a foreign issuer, and the fifth-largest class action settlement ever achieved in the United States. It is also the largest settlement ever achieved by a foreign lead plaintiff, and the largest class action settlement in history not involving a restatement of financial reports.
While pursuing complex securities fraud litigation, Jennifer also spearheads client development and oversees PomTrack®, a proprietary system with which Pomerantz monitors its clients’ assets with state-of-the-art technology and a team of professionals who cross-reference trading data against current and potential securities class action claims. PomTrack® enables the Firm to alert fiduciaries when assets they oversee suffer significant loss that may be due to financial misconduct. Jennifer brought in Pomerantz’s first portfolio monitoring clients from the UK, Germany, and The Netherlands, growing the Firm’s foreign and domestic client base to include some of the most influential institutional investors around the globe. Under her supervision, PomTrack® assets under management have tripled, currently monitoring $6.8 trillion in assets with a team comprised of majority women and minorities.
Jennifer also leads the Firm’s institutional investor educational initiatives, organizing Pomerantz-sponsored conferences around the world. A champion of women’s rights, in 2018, Jennifer organized a Corporate Governance and Securities Litigation conference in New York on the theme of how corporations, law firms, government agencies and pension funds might help women and minorities rise through the ranks and pioneer a path for change and unity in our communities.
“There is nothing new about mentoring colleagues while empowering their inclusion and growth in the process,” according to Jennifer. “This has been the status quo for men since time immemorial. What's new is that public sentiment and the number of women in power in the legal industry have both reached a scale where meaningful gains in equity and inclusion for women will no longer be denied. We owe a responsibility to each other and those who have come before us to help our generation push the tipping point over the edge. This is the moment for women to exert their influence and power.”
Jennifer and her fellow honorees will be recognized at an awards ceremony in October 2021 as part of Corporate Counsel’s Women, Influence & Power in Law Conference in Washington, D.C.
Original source can be found here.