FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Wednesday, January 4, 2012 

Labaton Sucharow LLP Announces that Kellie Lerner and Stephen W. Tountas Have Been Elected Partners of the Firm

New York (January 4, 2012) — Labaton Sucharow LLP announced today that Kellie Lerner and Stephen W. Tountas have been elected Partners of the Firm effective January 1, 2012.  

Kellie Lerner, who has been with the Firm for eight years, is a member of Labaton Sucharow's Antitrust Practice Group, where she focuses her practice on representing businesses and governmental entities in complex antitrust/competition law actions.  In March 2011, Kellie was named to Law360's "Rising Star" list of five competition lawyers under 40 to watch.  

During Kellie's tenure at the Firm, she has litigated a wide variety of antitrust claims, including price-fixing, unlawful boycotting, monopolization and monopoly leveraging cases.  Most recently, she was an integral member of the co-lead counsel team that secured $52 million in settlements in the Puerto Rican Cabotage Antitrust Litigation, a class action involving allegations that defendants conspired to eliminate competition in the market for ocean freight services between the continental United States and Puerto Rico.  

Kellie received a J.D. from Rutgers Law School. She earned a B.A., cum laude and with Phi Beta Kappa honors, from Rutgers University.  

Stephen W. Tountas, who has been with the Firm for five years, represents large institutional and individual investors in securities litigation.  He also serves as Secretary of the Securities Litigation Committee of the New York City Bar Association.  

Since joining Labaton Sucharow, Stephen has been responsible for successfully prosecuting many of the Firm's options backdating cases, including In re Broadcom Corp. Securities Litigation ($160.5 million settlement), In re Amkor Technologies Inc. Securities Litigation ($11.25 million settlement), In re HCC Insurance Holdings, Inc. Securities Litigation ($10 million settlement), and In re American Tower Corp. Securities Litigation ($14 million settlement).  

Stephen received a J.D. from Washington University School of Law, where he was a Scholar in Law and served as Editor-in-Chief of the Washington University Journal of Law & Policy.  He earned a B.A. from Union College.  

"As experienced and excellent litigators, both Kellie and Stephen have done outstanding work for our clients since joining the Firm," said Lawrence A. Sucharow, Chairman of Labaton Sucharow. "We are pleased and proud to acknowledge their accomplishments and to have elected them as partners of the Firm."  

Labaton Sucharow LLP, with offices in New York, New York and Wilmington, Delaware, is one of the country's premier law firms comprehensively representing businesses, institutional investors and consumers in complex securities and business litigation.  It is consistently independently ranked among the top plaintiffs litigation firms by Chambers & Partners, The Legal 500, The National Law Journal's Plaintiffs Hot List, and Benchmark Plaintiff.   

More information about Labaton Sucharow is available at www.labaton.com