Nicole Lavallee

New-Case Investigation and Client Decisions

Lavallee serves as the principal contact for many Berman Tabacco investor clients and is an integral member of the firm's New Case Investigations Team. Before a complaint is ever filed, she evaluates the issuer's statements, the later disclosures, the client's transactions, possible causation, class definitions, filing options, and the responsibilities of serving as lead plaintiff.

She has prosecuted securities cases since the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act took effect in 1995. Her screening work applies the statute's particularized pleading requirements before a public fund or other investor commits its name and beneficiaries to litigation — the rigor comes first, so the commitment can be made with confidence.

Portfolio losses and legally recoverable damages can differ, because causation, traceability, corrective disclosures, defenses, and class definitions all shape the available claim. Lavallee brings those questions into the client's decision whether to seek appointment, remain in a class, or pursue an investor-specific action.

For opt-out decisions, she compares the client's projected class recovery with transaction volume, available claims, filing deadlines, discovery burdens, and the value of a separate recovery. Her completed matters have involved financial reporting, internal controls, offering documents, transaction records, and changing market rules.

IndyMac

Lavallee served as a lead partner for the Wyoming State Treasurer and Wyoming Retirement System in the IndyMac mortgage-backed-securities litigation. The investor plaintiffs alleged that offering materials for certificates issued in 2006 and 2007 misrepresented underwriting practices for the supporting loans.

The statutory claims focused on registration statements and prospectus supplements. With the issuer defunct and underwriters asserting due-diligence defenses, the litigation required offering-specific analysis of certificates, loan evidence, defendants, and purchaser losses — a claim rebuilt security by security, from the loan files up.

IndyMac produced settlements totaling $346 million: $6 million from an earlier agreement and $340 million from underwriters. Judge Lewis A. Kaplan granted final approval in February 2015.

Lavallee's daily responsibilities ran the full length of the case — client communication, discovery, negotiation, approval proceedings, and settlement administration through the funded class resolution.

Aegean Marine and Other Class Resolutions

Lavallee served as lead partner in the Aegean Marine Petroleum Network securities litigation, a matter complicated by defendants based in Greece and a bankruptcy trustee's attempt to release the class members' securities-fraud claims through the bankruptcy proceedings. The matter resolved through separate agreements totaling $41.749 million: $29.8 million from the auditor and approximately $11.95 million from individual defendants.

The agreements reached approval on different schedules. The auditor settlement was approved in 2022, followed by the later component in 2023. The staged process allowed the first agreement to proceed through administration while claims against the remaining parties continued — recovery moving toward investors even as the fight went on.

Lavallee also oversaw lead plaintiffs in Portola Pharmaceuticals, Healthcare Services Group, and Aqua Metals, coordinating pleadings, discovery, negotiation, notice, and court review for each issuer record.

In Aqua Metals, Judge Haywood S. Gilliam Jr. certified the settlement class, found notice adequate, approved a $7 million agreement, and entered final judgment. Her recent class work also includes an approved $17.5 million Portola Pharmaceuticals settlement and a $16.8 million Healthcare Services Group settlement, where she served as the lead partner overseeing the lead plaintiffs.

International Rectifier, KLA-Tencor, and Oracle

In International Rectifier, Lavallee served as the lead day-to-day partner for the Massachusetts Laborers' Pension Fund as co-lead plaintiff. The action settled for $90 million after motion practice and trial preparation.

She held a similar day-to-day role for the Louisiana Municipal Police Employees' Retirement System in the KLA-Tencor options-backdating case. That matter settled for $65 million.

Lavallee also handled daily prosecution in the Oracle derivative insider-trading action against Lawrence Ellison, including summary-judgment briefing. The settlement required Ellison to make $100 million in charitable donations in Oracle's name.

These matters required different forms of relief. International Rectifier and KLA-Tencor produced purchaser recoveries, while Oracle used a derivative remedy structured for the corporation.

In the Oracle derivative action, the presiding judge singled out Lavallee's summary-judgment brief as excellent — a specific judicial assessment of the written advocacy she handled day to day, against some of the most formidable defense opposition in the country.

Class, Opt-Out, and Derivative Strategy

A class action can aggregate investor claims that satisfy Rule 23. An opt-out action permits an investor to control its own claims and proof. A derivative case seeks relief for the corporation itself. Lavallee works fluently across all three structures and advises clients according to the injury, the available evidence, and the remedy each form makes possible.

IndyMac required offering-specific underwriting analysis; Aegean Marine required coordination of separately approved agreements; and Oracle produced a company-centered charitable commitment. Portola, Healthcare Services Group, and Aqua Metals each involved separate lead plaintiffs, issuer records, notice, approval, and administration. The strategy changes case to case; the standard of care does not.

Lavallee is the managing partner of Berman Tabacco's San Francisco office, serves on the firm's Executive Committee, and co-chairs the Securities Practice Group. Her practice includes securities class actions, opt-outs, derivative litigation, lead-plaintiff counseling, new-case investigation, dispositive motions, trial preparation, settlement approval, and claims administration. Clients have described her as a terrific, smart, and creative plaintiffs' lawyer — knowledgeable, responsive, and skilled at bringing a case together and charting the path forward.

She studied both of Canada's legal traditions, earning a civil-law degree from the Université de Montréal and a common-law degree from Osgoode Hall Law School — a dual training in how different systems reason that still shows in how she frames a claim.

Lavallee has also participated in jury and bench trials, including a plaintiff verdict in an individual state-law misrepresentation case. That trial experience informs how she prepares evidence for admissibility and persuasion, not merely pleading: every document gathered as if a jury will one day see it.