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Blair Connelly

Blair Connelly

www.lw.com
Partner
Latham & Watkins
New York, New York

Blair Connelly, a partner in the New York office, has practiced with the firm since 1994. He began his career in the Los Angeles office of Latham & Watkins before transferring to New York in 1998, and is admitted to practice in federal and state courts in both California and New York. His practice focuses on complex securities, corporate governance and insurance coverage matters.

Mr. Connelly has extensive experience in litigation involving securities and corporate control issues, and is a member of the firm's Securities and Professional Liability Practice Group. He has represented issuers, financial institutions, boards of directors and individuals in several high-profile securities, merger and takeover disputes, and has had extensive involvement in large, complex internal investigations, class actions and SEC investigations involving financial reporting issues. Most recently, Mr. Connelly won summary judgment in Orman v. Cullman, 2004 WL 2348395 (Del. Ch. Oct. 20, 2004), a shareholder class action suit before the Delaware Court of Chancery. This was the first Chancery Court decision to address the Delaware Supreme Court's controversial ruling in Omnicare v. NCS Healthcare, Inc. regarding deal protection measures, and it received widespread publicity.

Mr. Connelly co-authored an article titled “New Whistleblower Protection Liability Under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act” that was published in the Corporate Governance Advisor, and an article titled “SEC Urges Second Circuit to Revive Time-Barred Claims Based On Sarbanes-Oxley Act” that was published in Wall Street Lawyer. He recently co-chaired a Practicing Law Institute Seminar titled “What Every Lawyer Needs To Know About Forensic Accounting.”

Mr. Connelly has substantial experience litigating complex insurance coverage and contractual indemnity disputes, including additional insured disputes, primary/excess issues, insured vs. insured exclusions, and bad faith claims. He currently represents Westfield Corporation Inc. in the liability insurance coverage action arising out of the tragic events of September 11, 2001. Mr. Connelly recently was a panelist at the Mealey's Additional Insured Conference, speaking on “The Scope of Additional Insureds Coverage.”

Mr. Connelly also has extensive experience in consumer products litigation, particularly involving dietary supplements. He has worked on several high-profile product liability, consumer fraud and patent matters involving dietary supplements. He played a key role in the successful defense of Weider Nutrition International, Inc. in Garrett v. Weider, a product liability case involving Weider's "Ripped Force" product. This was only the second case involving ephedra to go to trial in the United States, and the first successful verdict for a manufacturer.

Mr. Connelly currently serves on the firm's Training and Career Enhancement committee, is co-chair of the firm's Mentoring Program, and regularly participates in the firm's pro bono program.

Education

JD, Georgetown University, 1994 BA, Georgetown University, 1991