Lester R. Hooker

Bio

Lester R. Hooker, Director, is involved in all of Saxena White’s practice areas, including securities class action litigation and shareholder derivative actions. During his tenure at Saxena White, Mr. Hooker has obtained substantial monetary recoveries of over $1 billion and secured groundbreaking corporate governance reforms on behalf of institutional investors nationwide.

Mr. Hooker played a key role on the litigation teams that have successfully prosecuted numerous historic securities fraud class and derivative actions, including:

• In re Wells Fargo & Company Shareholder Litigation ($240 million settlement in a shareholder derivative action – one of the largest such settlements ever – relating to the well-known “fake account” scandal at Wells Fargo, which included the $240 million cash payment from Defendants’ insurers as well as credit for valuable corporate governance reforms at the bank);
• Employees Retirement System of the City of St. Louis v. Charles E. Jones et al. (FirstEnergy Corp. Derivative Litigation) ($180 million settlement in a derivative action – the largest shareholder derivative recovery in Sixth Circuit history – which also included unprecedented corporate governance reforms);
• Peace Officers’ Annuity and Benefit Fund of Georgia, et al. v. DaVita Inc., et al. ($135 million settlement of a securities class action);
• Fulton County Employees Retirement System, derivatively on behalf of The Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., v Blankfein et al. ($79.5 million cash recovery in a shareholder derivative action, which represented the second largest derivative settlement in Second Circuit history and ranked among the top-twenty such settlements ever nationwide);
• In re Rayonier Inc. Securities Litigation ($73 million settlement, which at the time of settlement represented the second largest recovery from a securities class action achieved in the Middle District of Florida);
• Plymouth County Retirement System v. Patterson Companies, Inc., et al., ($63 million settlement in a securities class action, ranking among the top ten of all settlements ever achieved in a securities class action in the District of Minnesota); and
• In re HD Supply Holdings, Inc. Securities Litigation ($50 million settlement, one of the largest securities class action settlements ever achieved in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia).

Mr. Hooker was profiled in the February 2023 edition of Lawdragon’s Lawyer Limelight, and named a “500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer” by Lawdragon for the sixth consecutive year. He was also named a “Plaintiffs’ Attorney Trailblazer” by The National Law Journal, a “Rising Star” and a “Top Attorneys In Florida Rising Star” by Super Lawyers. Recently, Mr. Hooker received the 2023 Profiles in Diversity Journal “Latino Leadership Award,” an honor bestowed upon accomplished Latino leaders who have blazed new trails, welcomed challenges, mentored others, advanced diversity and inclusion in the workplace and the community, and excelled in their chosen fields. Mr. Hooker is a member of Law360’s 2023 Securities Editorial Advisory Board and provides expert insight on Law360’s coverage.

Mr. Hooker received a Bachelor of Arts degree with a major in English from the University of California at Berkeley. Mr. Hooker earned his Juris Doctor from the University of San Diego School of Law, where he was awarded the Dean’s Outstanding Scholar Scholarship. Mr. Hooker received his Master’s Degree in Business Administration with an emphasis in International Business from the University of San Diego School of Business, where he was awarded the Ahlers Center International Graduate Studies Scholarship.