Ira A. Schochet has 15 years’ experience in commercial litigation, with primary emphasis on class actions involving securities fraud.

Mr. Schochet has played a leading role in litigation resulting in multimillion dollar recoveries for class members in cases against Caterpillar, Inc., Spectrum Information Technologies, Inc. and InterMune, Inc. In Kamarasy v. Coopers & Lybrand, a securities fraud class action, Mr. Schochet led a team that won a settlement equal to approximately 75% of the highest possible damages that class members could have recovered. The Court in that case complimented him for “the superior quality of the representation provided to the class.”

Mr. Schochet represented one of the first institutional investors acting as a Lead Plaintiff in a post-Private Securities Litigation Reform Act case, STI Classic Funds v. Bollinger, Inc., and obtained one of the first favorable rulings interpreting that statute’s intent provision.

Most recently, Mr. Schochet negotiated a settlement on behalf of investors in the InterMune litigation. In approving the settlement, the Court complimented Mr. Schochet’s ability to obtain a significant cash benefit for the class in a very efficient manner, saving the class from additional years of time, expense and substantial risk.

Since 1996, Mr. Schochet has acted as chairman of the Class Action Committee of the Commercial and Federal Litigation Section of the New York State Bar Association. In that capacity, he has served on the Executive Committee of the Section and was the primary author of articles and reports on a wide variety of issues relating to class action procedure. Such issues include revisions to that procedure proposed over the years by both houses of the United States Congress and the Advisory Committee on Civil Procedure of the United States Judicial Conference. Examples include “Proposed Changes in Federal Class Action Procedure,” “Opting Out On Opting In,” and “The Interstate Class Action Jurisdiction Act of 1999.” He also has lectured extensively on securities litigation at continuing legal education seminars.

Mr. Schochet earned a J.D. from Duke University School of Law in 1981 and received a B.A., summa cum laude, from the State University of New York at Binghamton in 1977. He is admitted to practice in New York, before the United States District Courts for the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York and the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit.