Brower Piven

A Professional Corporation

Charles J. Piven

Charles J. Piven is a seasoned litigator who has led his own practice since 1990. During his 29 years in practice, Mr. Piven has represented individuals, partnerships, trusts, pension plans and corporations in many types of cases. Mr. Piven's experience includes litigation in the areas of complex securities, shareholder, consumer protection, personal injury and property damage class actions, merger and acquisition class actions, bankruptcy, first amendment, copyright, employment, wrongful death, and legal, medical, accounting and broker malpractice.

Class and representative actions in which Mr. Piven has served as lead, co-lead, liaison or local counsel include, among others, Baltimore Bancorp securities litigation, USFG securities litigation, Yorkridge Calvert Savings & Loan securities litigation, Maryland National Bank securities litigation, Reckson Associates Realty Company derivative litigation, Read-Rite Corporation securities litigation, Mid-Atlantic Realty shareholder merger litigation, Pan Pacific Realty shareholder merger litigation, Allied Irish Banks derivative litigation, Sprint Spectrum Cellular Telecommunications Company consumer litigation, IWIF Wiretap consumer litigation, Land Rover Group Ltd. consumer litigation, Cellular One consumer litigation, H&R Block Refund Anticipation Loan consumer litigation, Prison Telephone consumer litigation, and BlueCross/Blue Shield consumer litigation.
In recent years, Mr. Piven has taken an active role in the prosecution of litigation relating to allegations that mutual fund investors have been victimized by directed brokerage arrangements, excessive fees, excessive commissions and deceptive sales practices or other actionable conduct. Some of the mutual fund families and brokerage firms involved in these cases that Mr. Piven has been responsible for originating include: Lord Abbott, AIM/Invesco, BlackRock, Davis, Eaton Vance, Dreyfus, Evergreen, Federated, Alliance, Franklin, Hartford, MFS, PIMCO, Scudder, Columbia, Goldman Sachs, Merrill Lynch, Morgan Stanley, Salomon Smith Barney, Edward Jones, UBS, Wells Fargo and American Express.  Investors in mutual fund cases initiated or led by Mr. Piven's clients have achieved a settlement with brokerage firm Edward Jones for approximately $125,000,000, with American Express for approximately $100,000,000, and with Merrill Lynch for approximately $26,000,000.

Mr. Piven also directly represents the lead plaintiff(s) and/or proposed class representative(s) in approximately 25% of the 309 cases encompassed by the Initial Public Offering Securities Litigation pending in the Southern District of New York, and Mr. Piven and the firm have taken an active role in the discovery in this litigation.

Mr. Piven also has experience in the field of ERISA class actions on behalf of former and current company employees. ERISA cases in which Mr. Piven is or has been counsel for named plaintiffs include: Aquila ERISA litigation (W.D. Mo.); General Motors ERISA litigation (E.D. Mich.); ConAgra Foods ERISA litigation (D. Neb.); the Coca-Cola Enterprises ERISA litigation (N.D. Ga.); Fannie Mae ERISA litigation (D. D.C.); Delphi ERISA litigation (E.D. Mich.); Ford Motor Company ERISA litigation (E.D. Mich.) and the Pfizer ERISA litigation (S.D.N.Y.).

Mr. Piven is a 1975 graduate of Washington University and a 1978 graduate of the University of Miami School Of Law. During law school, Mr. Piven was a student law clerk for the late Honorable United States District Judge C. Clyde Adkins of the Southern District of Florida. Mr. Piven was admitted to the bars of the States of Florida (currently inactive) and Maryland in 1978. Mr. Piven is a member in good standing of the Supreme Court of the United States, the Court of Appeals of Maryland, the United States Court of Federal Claims, the United States Tax Court, the United States District Court for the Districts of Maryland and Colorado, and the United States Courts of Appeals for the First and Fourth Circuits.