Philippe Z Selendy

Career

Philippe Z. Selendy is a founding partner of Selendy Gay Elsberg.

Heralded as “The Man Who Took on Wall Street” by the Financial Times, Philippe has recovered more than $36 billion for clients in the last decade alone. These successes include an unprecedented $25 billion in trial victories and settlements for U.S. taxpayers stemming from residential mortgage-backed securities suits brought against the world’s largest banks, a representation which earned Philippe The American Lawyer’s “Litigator of the Year” award and first-ever Grand Prize in Litigation.

Named one of the nation’s top 100 trial lawyers by Benchmark Litigation, an “exceptionally talented” securities litigator by Chambers & Partners and a “Trailblazer” (twice) by the National Law Journal, Philippe has over 25 years of experience in complex commercial litigation with particular expertise in securities, financial products, insurance, energy, and antitrust disputes. He is also routinely sought after to represent clients in domestic and international arbitrations and high-stakes public sector litigations.

Work Highlights

Recognized as a “Securities MVP,” “Banking MVP” (Law360), and a “Leading Lawyer in Securities Plaintiff Litigation” (Legal 500), Philippe has secured landmark trial and appellate victories on behalf of both plaintiffs and defendants.

Cerberus Capital Management, L.P: Philippe currently represents private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management as plaintiff in a breach of contract action against the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce, one of Canada’s largest banks. In 2018, the First Department agreed with Cerberus’ interpretation of the agreements and held that CIBC’s contrary interpretation was “unmoored” from the contracts. After a damages hearing and related decision that rejected nearly all of CIBC’s damages arguments, the New York Supreme Court – on February 6, 2023 – entered judgment for Cerberus for $855 million.

Federal Housing Finance Agency: As lead counsel for FHFA, Philippe helmed a seven-year litigation effort across its entire platform of residential mortgage-backed securities (RMBS) litigation, obtaining $25 billion in recoveries for U.S. taxpayers in suits against Bank of America, Barclays, Citigroup, Credit Suisse, Countrywide, Deutsche Bank, First Horizon, Goldman Sachs, HSBC, JPMorgan, Merrill Lynch, Nomura, RBS, and UBS. The only two banks that elected to go to trial rather than settle lost on all claims in a further $830 million win for the U.S. after a one-month trial involving over 40 witnesses, including a dozen experts. The court’s 361-page decision shone a harsh spotlight on industry-standard practices in the period leading to the Great Recession. The court’s judgment that “the magnitude of falsity, conservatively estimated, was enormous,” was unanimously affirmed by the Second Circuit.

National Public Finance Guarantee & MBIA: Philippe currently leads the representation of National Public Finance Guarantee and MBIA in a lawsuit to hold eight major Wall Street banks accountable for inequitable conduct that contributed to Puerto Rico’s economic collapse. The case’s plaintiffs are bond insurers that have received, and fully honored, over $1 billion in claims after the municipal debt underwritten by the banks-–without proper due diligence or disclosures-–became unsustainable for Puerto Rico and its agencies, leading to massive defaults.

Fortis Advisors: Philippe represents the former stockholders of the robotic medical devices company, Auris Health, in a $2.3 billion earn-out suit against Johnson & Johnson and its subsidiary, Ethicon, in the Delaware Court of Chancery. The action centers around the acquirer's post-merger failures to achieve regulatory and net sales milestones.

MBIA: As lead counsel for monoline insurer MBIA against Bank of America, Countrywide, and related entities in litigation regarding securitization insurance, Philippe obtained a series of rulings, including a summary judgment, that set the basic framework for RMBS litigation nationwide, ultimately allowing MBIA to survive as a going concern and to achieve a multi-billion dollar settlement, including the commutation of over $7 billion in swaps.

U.S. Bank: Philippe argued and led a successful appeal to the Court of Appeals on behalf of U.S. Bank, as trustee of an RMBS trust, establishing that plaintiffs are entitled to correct fatal errors regarding procedural conditions precedent even after the expiration of statutes of limitations. Philippe currently represents the trust in its ABSHE RMBS contract action against DLJ in remand, seeking hundreds of millions of dollars in damages.

Kingate Global Fund and Kingate Euro Fund: Philippe represents Kingate in the defense of claims brought by Deutsche Bank Securities Inc. relating to DBSI’s alleged purchase of more than $1.6 billion of Kingate claims against the Madoff estate.

Vote Solar: Philippe represents alternative energy provider Vote Solar in an ongoing matter before the State of Utah Public Service Commission to determine the value of solar energy.

North Atlantic Refinery Limited: Philippe led a team in an international arbitration against BP regarding an exclusive supply agreement. He developed critical counterclaims and won core rulings on contract interpretation that transformed the nature of the action, leading to a highly favorable outcome for his clients.

Other Environmental Litigations: Partnering with the NRDC, Philippe obtained a landmark trial victory in a precedent-setting methylmercury pollution case under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act.

Represented mutual fund shareholders who purchased, sold, or liquidated mutual fund shares managed by Allianz Global Investors U.S. LLC’s Structured Property Groups from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2020, securing a $145 million settlement. The suit alleged that, instead of managing the Mutual Funds as represented, AllianzGI prioritized returns over risk management in ways that were fundamentally inconsistent with AllianzGI’s representations concerning the Mutual Funds Principal Investment Strategies. Selendy Gay Elsberg was co-lead counsel with Silver Golub & Teitell and Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman.

Education

Awards