Daily Journal’s Top 40 Lawyers Under 40 2023: Erika Oliver

By Kathryn Stelmach Artuso
Daily Journal
Article is reprinted with permission of the Daily Journal. 

As a partner at the San Diego firm of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, Erika Oliver is a first-generation Filipino American and the first in her family to attend law school. She notes that her parents grew up in severe poverty in the Philippines before emigrating to the U.S., and she cherishes the strength of their work ethic for creating a safe haven for their children. 

“They gave my two brothers and me this childhood where we never had to face the types of adversities they had to face,” she said. “We never went hungry; we always had a roof over our head, and I’m just really grateful to my parents because I wouldn’t be where I am today if it wasn’t for them.”

This background elucidates her quest for justice, particularly as she seeks reparations in complex securities litigation for investors harmed by corporate misconduct. In several momentous cases, she has helped recover over half a billion dollars in securities class actions.

For example, in Evanston Police Pension Fund v. McKesson Corporation, et al., Oliver played a significant role on the team that helped secure the July 2023 final approval for a $141 million settlement in this securities fraud case. McKesson, the largest wholesaler of generic prescription drugs in the U.S., allegedly concealed knowledge that its financial success resulted in part from a conspiracy to fix generic drug prices among its generic drug manufacturing suppliers, and shareholders suffered losses in the wake of this revelation.

“I’m really proud of the recovery we were able to obtain for the class there,” she said.

Oliver notes that she is also proud of the result of the Teva Securities Litigation (D. Conn.), where she worked with firm partner Luke Brooks to defeat the defendants’ motion to dismiss securities fraud claims resulting from purchases on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange (TASE) in Israel. The court’s opinion represents the first decision allowing securities cases to proceed on all losses suffered by plaintiffs who purchased shares on both the TASE and the American stock exchange.

“Judge Underhill agreed with us that it was appropriate for our clients to be able to pursue all of their damages resulting from a single course of conduct in a single litigation here in the United States,” she said. “Under those circumstances, it’s appropriate for plaintiffs to pursue all of their damages in a single litigation rather than having to file another case in Israel.”

Reprinted with permission from the Daily Journal. ©2023 Daily Journal Corporation. All rights reserved. Reprinted by ReprintPros 949-702-5390.

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