- Counsel for numerous publicly traded companies and their directors, officers, and financial advisors in M&A litigation matters alleging claims for breach of fiduciary duty and violations of the federal securities laws.
- Counsel to public companies and their boards of directors on matters related to mergers and acquisitions, corporate governance, shareholder disclosure, corporate records requests, internal investigations, and D&O insurance and indemnification.
- Long-standing counsel to a leading global technology company in numerous M&A and securities class actions filed throughout the country.
- Outside general counsel for a New York-based, veteran-owned investment bank and broker-dealer.
- Trial counsel for the former owners of a construction company in a breach of contract suit challenging various merger agreement disclosures.
- Assisted insurance companies with the underwriting of D&O-related contingent and litigation risk products.
- Represented a building products distributor with internal and SEC investigations into alleged accounting irregularities.
- Represented the former CFO of a public utilities company in a series of related shareholder class and derivative actions pending in South Carolina federal and state courts.
- Defended the executives of a Louisiana-based health care company in New York federal court where our motion to dismiss was granted.
- Counsel for one of the nation’s largest electric cooperatives in a class action brought by the cooperative’s members alleging violations of state statutory law and breaches of fiduciary duty.
Partner,
- Phone: +1 404 881 7414
- Email: andy.sumner@alston.com
Publicly traded and privately held companies rely on Andy to navigate the most complex shareholder class actions and disputes.
- Represented the former directors and officers of a Georgia-based bank holding company in securities fraud actions alleging that the defendants made false and misleading statements about the financial condition of a subsidiary bank.
- Defended the directors and officers of a California-based optical components manufacturer in a securities-fraud class action alleging that the defendants made false and misleading statements about the business and financial condition of the company.
- Counsel for the directors and officers of distressed financial institutions in numerous investigations and lawsuits brought by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.
- Defended a biologics company executive in a parallel DOJ and SEC investigation of alleged accounting irregularities.
- Counsel for a former hedge fund portfolio manager in parallel DOJ and SEC enforcement proceedings involving various alleged insider trades.
Andy Sumner defends public and private companies, directors, officers, majority shareholders, and financial industry professionals in securities class actions, M&A and SPAC litigation, shareholder derivative suits, D&O and corporate governance matters, regulatory enforcement actions, internal investigations, and other high-stakes litigation. Andy has been recognized by Super Lawyers as a 2022 and 2023 “Rising Star” for Securities Litigation.
Bar Admissions
- Georgia
Education
- University of Tennessee (J.D.)
- The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill (B.A.)
Memberships
- U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit
- U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Georgia
- U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Georgia
- Supreme Court of Georgia
VIDEO | DECEMBER 28, 2021
The number of special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) IPOs has skyrocketed. Securities Litigation partner Andy Sumner discusses the increase in SPAC-related class actions, issues to watch, and future litigation activity to look out for.