Sharan Nirmul

General Electric and a $362.5 Million Settlement

The General Electric securities litigation concerned GE Power’s use of long-term factoring, in which GE Capital purchased receivables and supplied immediate cash to the industrial business. Investors alleged that GE’s public reporting did not adequately explain how extensively those transactions supported reported industrial cash flow. Sweden’s Sjunde AP-Fonden, known as AP7, and the Cleveland Bakers and Teamsters Pension Fund represented purchasers of GE common stock.

Nirmul and the class team developed the case through interviews with more than one hundred witnesses, review of more than 1.1 million pages, fifteen fact-witness depositions, seven expert depositions, and depositions of both institutional class representatives. The resulting record connected accounting treatment, internal cash movements, public statements, market evidence, and expert analysis.

After years of discovery and pretrial work, former federal judge Layn Phillips proposed a $362.5 million settlement. The parties accepted the proposal in October 2024, weeks before the scheduled trial. The court approved the settlement, allocation plan, and final judgment in April 2025.

The Work Completed Before Resolution

Before settlement, counsel had completed trial-level preparation. Counsel filed detailed pretrial orders with witness and exhibit lists, deposition designations, proposed jury instructions, verdict forms, statements of fact, and positions on disputed issues. The team prepared examinations for more than fifteen potential live witnesses, developed demonstratives and video excerpts, and readied experts for direct and cross-examination.

Nirmul’s final-approval declaration organized that work from investigation through discovery, expert review, mediation, and settlement. It also described the claims process through which eligible investors submit trading records and receive a pro rata share of the net fund under the court-approved allocation plan.

Pricing Hidden in the Spread

Nirmul also served as lead counsel in private customer litigation against Bank of New York Mellon concerning foreign-exchange transactions executed through the bank’s standing-instruction service. Custody clients alleged that the bank priced purchases near the day’s high and sales near the day’s low while retaining the difference between customer rates and the interbank market.

The private customer class received a $335 million fund as part of a 2015 global resolution totaling $714 million across private and government proceedings. The relief also required clearer disclosure of transaction pricing and additional information allowing institutional clients to evaluate later foreign-exchange rates.

The matter joined monetary recovery with operating changes: the dollars addressed past spreads, while the disclosure provisions gave custody clients a more transparent basis for reviewing future transactions.

Rivian and a $250 Million Settlement

In the Rivian Automotive securities litigation, investors challenged offering documents and later statements concerning the cost of producing the company’s R1T and R1S electric vehicles. Nirmul stated in a March 2026 declaration that he actively supervised and participated in the prosecution and resolution of the action.

The team analyzed more than 3.5 million pages, took or defended forty-eight fact and expert depositions, exchanged fifteen opening and rebuttal expert reports, completed summary-judgment briefing, and prepared the case for trial. The court approved a $250 million cash settlement and allocation plan on May 20, 2026, and entered judgment on May 29.

The GE and Rivian matters involved different companies and disclosure records, but each reached resolution only after institutional plaintiffs and counsel had assembled the documents, witnesses, experts, and market evidence needed to evaluate the case at trial scale.

Institutional Investor Practice

Nirmul is a partner at Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check LLP, where his practice includes securities, consumer, and fiduciary class actions for institutional investors and other plaintiffs.

He earned his undergraduate degree at Cornell University, studied international human-rights law through the New College, Oxford programme, and received his J.D. from George Washington University Law School.