Mr. Chimicles has been lead counsel and lead trial counsel in major complex litigation, antitrust, securities fraud and breach of fiduciary duty suits for over 30 years. Representative Cases include:

• Mr. Chimicles together with partner Kimberly Donaldson-Smith litigated a consumer class action against Walmart involving claims of systemic overcharging for certain weighted goods and negotiated a $45 million settlement that has received nationwide media coverage. The settlement was preliminarily approved in early 2024 by a federal judge in Tampa and is scheduled for a final approval hearing in June. [Kukornis v. Walmart Inc., Case No. 8:22-cv-02402 (M.D. Fla.)]
• Mr. Chimicles led our Firm’s team, including partners Kimberly Donaldson-Smith and Timothy Mathews, in representing the lead plaintiff in a securities class action, SEPTA v. Orrstown Financial Services, Inc. (M.D.Pa.), that had a $15 million settlement approved in May 2023. That settlement, which included a monetary contribution from the defendant bank’s former outside auditor, represented a significant percentage of the recoverable damages.  The case is also noteworthy for spawning a landmark Third Circuit decision that upheld the district judge’s granting a motion to amend the complaint to rejoin the outside auditor and other defendants years after their initial dismissal, one of several reasons the district court’s settlement approval order commended our Firm for its “relentless” efforts in the more than decade-old case.
• In three related cases involving the collection of improperly imposed telephone utility users taxes, Mr. Chimicles was co-lead counsel representing taxpayers in the Superior Court in Los Angeles, resulting in the creation of settlement funds totaling more than $120 million. Ardon v. City of Los Angeles ($92.5 million)(2016); McWilliams v. City of Long Beach ($16.6 million)(2018); and Granados v. County of Los Angeles ($16.9 million)(2018). The suits were settled after the Supreme Court of California unanimously upheld the rights of taxpayers to file class action refund claims under the California Government Code.
• W2007 Grace Acquisition I, Inc., Preferred Stockholder Litigation, Civ. No. 2:13-cv-2777, involved various violations of contractual, fiduciary and corporate statutory duties by defendants who engaged in various related-party transactions, wrongfully withheld dividends and financial information, and failed to timely hold an annual preferred stockholder meeting.  This litigation resulted in a swift settlement valued at over $76 million after ten months of hard-fought litigation.
• Lockabey v. American Honda Motor Co., Case No. 37-2010-87755 (Superior Ct., San Diego). A settlement valued at over $170 million resolved a consumer action involving false advertising claims relating to the sale of Honda Civic Hybrid vehicles as well as claims relating to a software update to the integrated motor assist battery system of the HCH vehicles. As a lead counsel, Mr. Chimicles led a case that, in the court’s view, was “difficult and risky” and provided “significant public value
• City of St. Clair Shores General Employees Retirement System, et al. v. Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust, Inc., Case No. 07 C 6174 (N.D. Ill.). A $90 million settlement was reached in 2010 in this class action challenging the accuracy of a proxy statement that sought (and received) stockholder approval of the merger of an external advisor and property managers by a multi-billion dollar real estate investment trust, Inland Western Retail Real Estate Trust, Inc. The settlement provided that the owners of the advisor/property manager entities (who are also officers and/or directors of Inland Western) had to return nearly 25% of the Inland Western stock they received in the merger.
• In re Real Estate Associates Limited Partnerships Litigation, No. CV 98-7035 DDP, was tried in the federal district court in Los Angeles before the Honorable Dean D. Pregerson. Mr. Chimicles was lead trial counsel for the Class of investors in this six-week jury trial of a securities fraud/breach of fiduciary duty case that resulted in a $185 million verdict in late 2002 in favor of the Class (comprising investors in the eight REAL Partnerships) and against the REALs’ managing general partner, National Partnership Investments Company (“NAPICO”) and the four individual officers and directors of NAPICO. The verdict included an award of $92.5 million in punitive damages against NAPICO. This total verdict of $185 million was among the “Top 10 Verdicts of 2002,” as reported by the National Law Journal (verdictsearch.com). On post-trial motions, the Court upheld in all respects the jury’s verdict on liability, upheld in full the jury’s award of $92.5 million in compensatory damages, upheld the Class’s entitlement to punitive damages (but reduced those damages to $2.6 million based on the application of California law to NAPICO’s financial condition), and awarded an additional $25 million in pre-judgment interest. Based on the Court’s decisions on the post-trial motions, the judgment entered in favor of the Class on April 28, 2003 totaled over $120 million.
• CNL Hotels & Resorts, Inc. Securities Litigation, Case No. 6:04-cv-1231 (M.D. Fla., Orl. Div. 2006). The case settled Sections 11 and 12 claims for $35 million in cash and Section 14 proxy claims by significantly reducing the merger consideration by nearly $225 million (from $300 million to $73 million) that CNL paid for internalizing its advisor/manager.
• Prudential Limited Partnerships Litigation, MDL 1005 (S.D.N.Y.). Mr. Chimicles was a member of the Executive Committee in this case where the Class recovered from Prudential and other defendants $130 million in settlements, that were approved in 1995. The Class comprised limited partners in dozens of public limited partnerships that were marketed by Prudential.
• PaineWebber Limited Partnerships Litigation, 94 Civ. 8547 (S.D.N.Y.). Mr. Chimicles was Chairman of the Plaintiffs’ Executive Committee representing limited partners who had invested in more than 65 limited partnerships that PaineWebber organized and/or marketed. The litigation was settled for a total of $200 million, comprising $125 million in cash and $75 million in additional benefits resulting from restructurings and fee concessions and waivers.
• In Re Phoenix Leasing Incorporated Limited Partnership Litigation, Superior Court of the State of California, County of Marin, Case No. 173739. In February 2002, the Superior Court of Marin County, California, approved the settlement of this case which involved five public partnerships sponsored by Phoenix Leasing Incorporated and its affiliates and resulting in entry of a judgment in favor of the class in the amount of $21 million.
• In re the Mendik Real Estate Limited Partnership, N.Y. Supreme Ct. No. 97-600185. Mr. Chimicles, as co-lead counsel, negotiated a settlement which provided for the prompt sale of more than $100 million of the partnership’s real estate assets. Additionally, as co-lead counsel, Mr. Chimicles, together with partner Pamela Tikellis, negotiated the settlement of a suit filed against the general partners of Aetna Real Estate Associates, L.P., providing for the orderly liquidation of the more than $200 million in that partnership’s real estate holdings, the reduction of general partner fees and the payment of a special cash distribution to the limited partners. (Aetna Real Estate Associates, L.P., Area GP Corporation and Aetna/Area Corporation, Delaware Chancery Court, New Castle County, Civil Action Nos. 15386-NC and 15393-NC).
• Continental Illinois Corporation Securities Litigation, Civil Action No. 82 C 4712 (N.D. Ill.) involving a twenty-week jury trial in which by Mr. Chimicles was lead trial counsel for the Class that concluded in July, 1987 (the Class ultimately recovered nearly $40 million).