Seyfarth Secures $68 Million FINRA Arbitration Win For C.L. King

Seyfarth Shaw LLP successfully secured a complete defense verdict in a FINRA arbitration seeking over $68 million for C.L. King & Associates, Inc., a full-service investment bank and self-clearing broker-dealer, in one of the largest and most complex FINRA arbitrations involving a clearing firm in recent years. After 39 days of evidentiary hearings, a three person panel of FINRA arbitrators denied all of the claims by a former customer against C.L. King.

The claimants, a number of family accounts, alleged that C.L. King as the custodial and clearing broker for an independent investment adviser failed to prevent significant losses and took additional actions that contributed to those losses. After several weeks of testimony from over fifteen witnesses, including five expert witnesses called by the claimants on issues relating to supervision, margin rules, account management, market variables, hedging and options strategies and damages, the FINRA panel sided completely with C.L. King on all counts and denied the claimants’ claims in their entirety. The full decision can be found here.

The Seyfarth Litigation team was led by Boston partner Christopher Robertson and included associate Dallin Wilson in Boston. In addition to the trial team, Seyfarth lawyers Jason Priebe (Chicago), Ryan Tilot (Chicago), and Douglas Rooney (Boston) assisted in the case.