Jim Kreissman is a senior litigation partner in Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP’s Palo Alto office.  His practice focuses on securities litigation, antitrust litigation, accounting/tax litigation, and government and internal investigations.  He is the Firm’s senior West Coast litigator specializing in these areas.

Mr. Kreissman currently represents or has recently represented clients in several major securities litigation matters for corporations and financial institutions.  For example, he is currently representing certain former officers and directors of Lehman Brothers in various civil and regulatory matters relating to Lehman’s September 2008 bankruptcy filing.  Similarly, in the Cendant matter, Mr. Kreissman represented many of the former officers and directors of Cendant in numerous civil class action suits, derivative suits, SEC investigations and criminal matters.  Many of his matters involve companies in technology-related areas, such as drugstore.com, Infineon AG, InfoSpace, Intel, and JDS Uniphase.

In recent years, Mr. Kreissman has also worked on numerous direct and derivative litigations related to mergers or acquisitions.  His current and/or recent clients include Blum Capital, Elevation Partners, Captaris, C.B. Richard Ellis, Facet Biotech, Hellman & Friedman, Silver Lake Partners, and Veritas Software.  Mr. Kreissman is also a frequent lecturer on securities litigation issues to lawyers, law students, and public company directors.

Mr. Kreissman was recently named one of the best antitrust lawyers in the Bay Area by Bay Area Lawyer Magazine.  He has worked on a number of antitrust matters with a particular emphasis on the representation of corporations accused of price-fixing or other anticompetitive behavior in both civil and criminal matters.  His represenative matters include representations of Elpida Memory Inc. (DRAM), Virgin Atlantic Airlines (airline fuel surcharge), Appleton Papers, Inc. (fax paper), Haynes International (high nickel alloy steel), and Archer Daniels Midland Corporation (food additives). 

Mr. Kreissman has served as counsel to numerous Special Litigation Committees and Audit Committees in connection with various civil, criminal and regulatory matters, including work for Archer Daniels Midland, BEA Systems, Clorox, LDK Solar, Levi Strauss, Oracle, Verifone and Westar Energy.  Mr. Kreissman has also conducted numerous internal investigations for companies relating to accounting, tax and regulatory compliance matters.

Mr. Kreissman has been a partner at Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP since 1997.  He received his A.B. degree, magna cum laude, from Dartmouth College in 1984 and his J.D. from the University of Virginia Law School in 1987, where he was awarded the Order of the Coif.  He was a law clerk to the Honorable Albert J. Engel, Chief Judge of the United States Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit from 1987 to 1988.  He is admitted to practice in New York and California, as well as numerous federal courts across the country.

Honors/Associations

•	Named one of the best antitrust lawyers in the Bay Area by Bay Area Lawyer Magazine
•	The Association of the Bar of the City of New York
•	American Bar Association
•	Recipient, Thurgood Marshall Award from a Pro Bono Case from the Bar Association of New York

Publications

•	Supreme Court Considers Tolling of Statute of Limitations in Section 16(b) Claims
•	Second Circuit Affirms Madoff Trustee’s Use of “Net Investment Method” to Calculate Net Equity Under SIPA
•	The Supreme Court Limits Rule 10b-5 Liability to Person or Entity Making Alleged Misstatement
•	The Supreme Court Rejects Loss Causation Requirement at Class Certification Stage
•	The Supreme Court Considers Loss Causation at Time of Class Certification
•	The Supreme Court Rejects Bright-Line Rule on Disclosure of Adverse Event Reports
•	The Supreme Court Considers the Materiality Requirement in the Context of Drug Companies’ Disclosure of Adverse Event Reports
•	Shedding Light on Its New Cooperation Initiative, the SEC Announces Its First Non-Prosecution Agreement with a Public Company
•	The Supreme Court Considers the Liability of Investment Advisers in Federal Securities Fraud Cases
•	European Court of Justice Finds In-House Legal Advice Not Protected by Legal Professional Privilege
•	The Supreme Court Affirms the Constitutional Validity of the PCAOB; Strikes Down “Double For-Cause” Removal Provisions as Unconstitutional
•	The Supreme Court Limits the Extraterritorial Application of the Antifraud Provisions of the U.S. Securities Laws
•	The Supreme Court Rejects “Inquiry Notice” as Trigger to Start Running the Statute of Limitations in Securities Fraud Cases
•	The Supreme Court Considers the Application of the Antifraud Provisions of the United States Securities Laws in “Foreign-Cubed” Cases
•	SEC Announces Significant New Initiatives to Encourage Cooperation in Investigations and Enforcement Actions
•	The Supreme Court Considers the Constitutionality of the Public Company Accounting Oversight Board
•	The Supreme Court Considers the ‘Inquiry Notice’ Standard in Federal Securities Fraud Cases
•	The Heightened Pleading Standard of Twombly Applies to All Federal Civil Claims
•	The Supreme Court Rejects "Scheme" Liability For Secondary Actors In The Absence Of Actual Reliance On The Deceptive Conduct Or A Separate Duty To Speak
•	First U.K. Criminal Charges Are Brought Against Cartel Participants Following DOJ Plea Agreements in the U.S.
•	EU Commission Dawn Raids Companies for Alleged Gun-Jumping Violations
•	Supreme Court Hears Arguments on Expanding Securities Fraud Liability to Secondary Actors Based on Allegedly Fraudulent, Arm's Length Business Transactions
•	The European Court of First Instance Upholds the European Commission’s Finding that Microsoft Abused its Dominant Position
•	Supreme Court Holds That Minimum Resale Price Maintenance is Not a Per Se Violation of Antitrust Law
•	Supreme Court Adopts Heightened Standard for Pleading Scienter in Federal Securities Fraud Cases
•	Supreme Court Rules that IPO Litigation is Immune from Antitrust Scrutiny

Admissions

•	New York 1989
•	California 2000
•	U.S. District Court Eastern District of New York 1989
•	U.S. District Court Southern District of New York 1989
•	U.S. District Court Central District of California
•	U.S. District Court Northern District of California
•	U.S. District Court Southern District of California
•	U.S. Court of Appeals District of Columbia Circuit 1995
•	U.S. Tax Court 1994

Clerkships

•	Law Clerk to The Honorable Albert J. Engel, Chief Judge, Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

Education

•	University of Virginia School of Law, 1987 J.D. Order of the Coif; Editorial Board, Virginia Law Review
•	Dartmouth College, 1984 B.A. magna cum laude; Phi Beta Kappa