Debra J. Wyman

Debra Wyman is a partner in Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP’s San Diego office. She specializes in securities litigation and has litigated numerous cases against public companies in state and federal courts that have resulted in over $2 billion in securities fraud recoveries.

Debra served as lead counsel in In re Am. Realty Cap. Props., Inc. Litig., a case arising out of ARCP’s manipulative accounting practices, and obtained a $1.025 billion recovery. For five years, she and the litigation team prosecuted nine different claims for violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and the Securities Act of 1933, involving seven different stock or debt offerings and two mergers. The recovery represents the highest percentage of damages of any major PSLRA case prior to trial and includes the largest personal contributions by individual defendants in history. Most recently, Debra was part of the litigation team in Monroe County Employees’ Retirement System v. The Southern Company in which an $87.5 million settlement was reached after three years of litigation.  The settlement resolved claims for violations of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 stemming from defendants’ issuance of materially misleading statements and omissions regarding the status of construction of a first-of-its-kind “clean coal” power plant that was designed to transform coal into synthetic gas that could then be used to fuel the power plant.

Debra was also a member of the trial team in Schuh v. HCA Holdings, Inc., which resulted in a $215 million recovery for shareholders, the largest securities class action recovery ever in Tennessee. The recovery achieved represents more than 30% of the aggregate classwide damages, far exceeding the typical recovery in a securities class action.  Debra prosecuted the complex securities and accounting fraud case In re HealthSouth Corp. Sec. Litig., one of the largest and longest-running corporate frauds in history, in which $671 million was recovered for defrauded HealthSouth investors. She was also part of the trial team that litigated In re AT&T Corp. Sec. Litig., which was tried in the United States District Court, District of New Jersey, and settled after only two weeks of trial for $100 million. Debra was also part of the litigation team that secured a $64 million recovery for Dana Corp. shareholders in Plumbers & Pipefitters National Pension Fund v. Burns, in which the Firm’s Appellate Practice Group successfully appealed to the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals twice, reversing the district court’s dismissal of the action.

Debra has been named a Top Woman Lawyer and a California Lawyer Attorney of the Year by the Daily Journal, Litigator of the Week by The American Lawyer, an MVP by Law360, a Leading Lawyer in America and a Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer by Lawdragon, a Litigator of the Year by Our City San Diego, and a Super Lawyer by Super Lawyers Magazine. She has also been named a Litigation Star, a National Practice Area Star, a California - Litigation Star, one of the Top 250 Women in Litigation, San Diego Litigator of the Year, and Plaintiff Litigator of the Year by Benchmark Litigation. She earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of California, Irvine and a Juris Doctor degree from the University of San Diego School of Law.

• Litigation Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2023-2025
• National Practice Area Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2024-2025
• California - Litigation Star, Benchmark Litigation, 2024-2025
• California Lawyer Attorney of the Year (CLAY), Daily Journal, 2024
• Top 250 Women in Litigation, Benchmark Litigation, 2021, 2023-2024
• Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer, Lawdragon, 2019-2024
• Leading Lawyer in America, Lawdragon, 2020-2024
• San Diego Litigator of the Year, Benchmark Litigation, 2021
• Plaintiff Litigator of the Year, Benchmark Litigation, 2021
• Top Woman Lawyer, Daily Journal, 2017, 2020
• MVP, Law360, 2020
• Litigator of the Week, The American Lawyer, 2020
• Litigator of the Year, Our City San Diego, 2017
• Super Lawyer, Super Lawyers Magazine, 2016-2017

• University of San Diego School of Law, J.D., 1997
• University of California, Irvine, B.A., 1990

• California
• United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
• United States District Courts for the Northern, Central and Southern Districts of California
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan
• United States District Court for the Western District of Tennessee

Notable Cases

• California Bar Association
• San Diego County Bar Association