Eric J. Belfi

The Chairman's Desk

In June 2025, Eric J. Belfi became Chairman of Labaton Keller Sucharow, taking responsibility for the firm's strategic direction, business innovation, growth, professional culture, and the allocation of resources across its entire litigation portfolio. It was the culmination of a steady climb: partner in 2006, Executive Committee since 2013, and years spent at the two points where every major investor case begins — deciding whether it should exist, and standing beside the client who will carry it.

Where a Case Begins

Before a securities case is a complaint, it is a question: do the market information and an investor's losses justify going further? Belfi plays a central role in the firm's Case Evaluation Group, where that question gets answered. He examines the challenged statements, the contrary facts, the later disclosures, the transaction data, and the connection between new information and market loss — comparing what the issuer said with what the evidence may show, and what later event finally told the market something different.

The review draws on public filings, earnings calls, regulatory developments, industry data, and the precise timing of market movement. In parallel runs the client analysis: reliable holdings data, potential lead-plaintiff duties, governance objectives, authorization requirements. As chair of the firm's Client Development Group, Belfi connects case selection to each pension fund's holdings, written policies, and responsibilities as an institutional investor — so that the factual investigation and the client's position advance together.

The Prosecutor's Eye

Belfi came to plaintiffs' work from the other side of the "v." As an Assistant Attorney General for the State of New York, he led complex white-collar investigations focused on securities-law violations. Before that, as an Assistant District Attorney in Westchester County, he prosecuted economic and environmental crimes.

That training shows in how he takes a case apart: separating the corporate event from the distinct questions of investor disclosure, market loss, available claim, and remedy — then testing the challenged statement against the evidence and tracing the line from later information to the investor's transactions.

Governance Relief at Guess

In the Guess shareholder derivative action, Belfi participated in negotiations for the Employees' Retirement System of Rhode Island. The Delaware Court of Chancery litigation arose from allegations that Guess fiduciaries failed to respond adequately to a pattern of sexual harassment attributed to co-founder Paul Marciano.

The resolution combined $30 million with governance reforms built to reach the alleged oversight failures directly: regulated interactions between Marciano and employees and models, preserved communications available for review, an independent director added to the board, a new council with diversity and oversight functions, a changed reporting line for human resources, and strengthened workplace policies. In a derivative action the investor acts on the corporation's behalf and the relief remains under court supervision — and the Guess provisions gave each reform defined responsibilities and an operational connection to board composition, reporting channels, and workplace controls.

Investor Stewardship Across Borders

Belfi represents public funds and other large investors in United States and non-United States securities matters, advising asset owners on standing, forum, transaction data, disclosure duties, collective procedures, and how proceedings in different jurisdictions relate to one another. Portfolio data may sit with several managers or custodians; his client-facing work joins that data to a documented authorization process trustees can revisit as the proceeding and the available remedies develop.

His combined roles let trustees see the whole picture at once — the factual record, the investor's position, the legal route, the requested remedy, the governance consequence, and the potential recovery under the client's own written litigation policy. Guess shows one route, using derivative procedure to win both money and changes to corporate oversight; other matters pursue a common fund for market losses.

The Matters That Reach the Top

Belfi's chairmanship and long Executive Committee service place him in the firm's decisions on case selection, staffing, experts, litigation systems, client communication, negotiation resources, trial preparation, and administration of approved relief — the machinery behind its largest results.

Dell litigation over a challenged $14 billion share exchange produced a $1 billion class recovery shortly before trial. Walmart litigation concerning board oversight of the prescription-opioid business produced $123 million plus governance measures. A WWE securities matter concerning statements about media-rights arrangements in the Middle East and North Africa reached a court-approved class resolution, and his firmwide responsibilities extend to matters involving General Motors and other large corporate defendants.

Belfi earned his J.D. from St. John's University School of Law and works from the firm's New York office.