Sara Gilley specializes in securities and white-collar litigation. She consults on economic and financial issues related to federal class actions, corporate investigations, and government enforcement activity. Ms. Gilley also has experience in matters brought under international securities laws. She works with clients in all phases of litigation, including motion to dismiss, class certification, merits, and testimony.
Ms. Gilley manages the firm’s research related to enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and publishes regularly on this topic. She also has experience analyzing class certification, loss causation, and damages in a range of contract disputes and litigation. Her work spans numerous industries, including financial institutions, professional services, the automotive industry, life sciences, and high tech.
Securities litigation
- Analyze market structure and efficiency for common stocks, corporate bonds, convertible securities, and preferred shares trading on multiple exchanges and in over-the-counter markets
- Assess potential damages exposure under U.S. and Canadian securities laws
- Evaluate securities damages methodologies against Comcast standards
- Address price impact and causation-related issues in litigation, mediation, and arbitrations
- Analyze potential settlement ranges based on case-specific characteristics and historical settlements
- Evaluate mediation strategies
White-collar litigation
- Analyze materiality, trading strategies, damages, and potential ill-gotten gains or losses related to insider trading, under U.S. and Irish law
- Estimate loss causation and damages issues in government investigations and enforcement activities, such as SEC administrative hearings
- Analyze stock market response to disclosures of SEC investigations and enforcement actions
- Examine the materiality of information to stock prices
- Assess corporate government policies and due diligence procedures
Other litigation
- Evaluate whether efforts to develop medical devices are consistent with “commercially reasonable efforts” for products in a range of life sciences industries
- Support industry practitioners in their analyses of business entities’ policies and procedures relative to industry standards
- Assess loss causation and damages in private party contracts and public–private partnership agreements
- Analyze class certification and loss causation issues in consumer fraud product liability matters
Ms. Gilley is a board member of Open Books, a Chicago-based literacy nonprofit.
