Francis A. Bottini

Email: fbottini@bottinilaw.com

Mr. Bottini practices in the areas of Securities Class Actions, Mergers & Acquisitions, Antitrust, Consumer Class Actions, Shareholder Derivative Litigation, Privacy Class Actions, and ERISA class action litigation. Prior to forming Bottini & Bottini, Inc., Mr. Bottini was a partner at several firms, including Chapin Fitzgerald & Bottini LLP, Johnson Bottini, LLP, and Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz LLP. Mr. Bottini has achieved numerous multi-million dollar recoveries in securities, consumer, privacy, and antitrust class action cases throughout the country. Mr. Bottini served as an Adjunct Professor of Business Law at the University of San Diego from 1995-97.

He is a 1991 graduate of St. Louis University (B.A. magna cum laude), and the University of San Diego School of Law (J.D. cum laude 1994), where he was the Lead Articles Editor of the San Diego Law Review and received the American Jurisprudence Award in Property and the Graduate Tax Award for Excellence in Federal Tax Policy. Mr. Bottini is admitted to practice before the United States Supreme Court, all California courts, the Second, Seventh, Eighth, Ninth, and Tenth Circuit Courts of Appeal, the United States District Court for Colorado, and the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois. He is AV-rated by Martindale-Hubbell.

Mr. Bottini practices in the areas of securities litigation (including securities fraud litigation under the PSLRA and Sarbanes-Oxley Act, mergers & acquisitions, and proxy litigation), antitrust, ERISA, consumer, and employment class action litigation. His published cases include Wilhoite v. Xiaodi Hou, 2024 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 12040 (S.D. Cal. Jan. 23, 2024) (order granting TRO to prevent company executives from transferring intellectual property to China); Cook v. McCullough et. al., Case. No. 11-cv-9119, 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 114621 (N.D. Ill. August 13, 2012) (order denying motion to dismiss in shareholder derivative action brought on behalf of Career Education Corp. against its officers and directors for breach of fiduciary duty); Snellink v. Gulf Resources, Inc., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 67839, Fed. Sec. L. Rep. (CCH) ¶96,828 (C.D. Cal. May 15, 2012) (denying motion to dismiss in securities fraud class action complaint under the federal securities laws); Smith v. Apollo Group, Inc. et al., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3672 (D. Ariz. Jan. 11, 2012) (denying defendants’ motion to stay shareholder derivative case pending completion of an internal investigation by a Special Committee of the Board of Directors and also denying a stay of the case until resolution of a related securities fraud class action case); Ferguson v. Corinthian et al., 2012 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1358 (C.D. Cal. Jan. 5, 2012) (denying defendants’ motion to stay case pending defendant’s appeal of order denying motion to compel arbitration as to Plaintiffs’ claims for injunctive relief under Cal. Bus. & Prof. Code §17200 et seq.); Ferguson v. Corinthian Colleges et al., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119261 (C.D. Cal. Oct. 6, 2011) (denying in part a motion to compel arbitration post-Concepcion); Rosendahl v. Bridgepoint Education, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 119735 (S.D. Cal. Oct. 17, 2011) (denying in part motion to dismiss consumer class action complaint alleging fraud and misrepresentation by for-profit college); In re Coventry Healthcare, Inc. Sec. Litig., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 34891 (D. Md. Mar. 31, 2011), reh’g denied, Boyd v. Coventry Healthcare, Inc., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 135000 (D. Md. Nov. 18, 2011) (denying motion to dismiss in ERISA class action case); Ferguson v. Corinthian et al., 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 45119 (C.D. Cal. Apr. 15, 2011)(denying motion to transfer case to Southern District of Florida); Harrison v. XTO Energy, Inc., 705 F.Supp.2d 572 (N.D. Tx. 2010) (denying defendants’ motion to dismiss or stay action under Colorado River abstention doctrine); In re Extreme Networks, Inc. Shareholder Deriv. Litig., 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 111445, Fed. Sec. L. Rep. (CCH) ¶95,526 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 17, 2009), reconsideration denied, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 32685 (N.D. Cal. Apr. 2, 2010) (denying motion to dismiss and upholding shareholder derivative complaint, finding that plaintiff had adequately alleged demand futility under F.R.C.P. 23.1); In re Brocade Communications Systems, Inc. Deriv. Litig., 615 F.Supp.2d 1018 (N.D. Cal. 2009) (denying in part and granting in part motion to dismiss in shareholder derivative action, after Mr. Bottini was retained by the Company’s Special Litigation Committee and an amended complaint was filed on behalf of the Company); In Re Dynamic Random Access Memory Antitrust Litig., 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39841 (N.D. Cal. June 5, 2006) (granting motion for class certification in direct purchaser antitrust class action involving DRAM computer memory); Karlin v. Alcatel, 2001 WL 1301216, Fed. Sec. L. Rep. (CCH) ¶ 91,526 (C.D. Cal. 2001) (denying defendants’ motion for summary judgment); In re Imperial Credit Industries, Inc. Sec. Litig., 2000 WL 1049320, Fed. Sec. L. Rep. (CCH) ¶ 91,024 (C.D. Cal. 2000) (denying defendants’ motion to dismiss in a securities fraud action under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934); In re USA Talks.com Sec. Litig., 2000 WL 1887516 (S.D. Cal. Sept. 14, 2000) (denying defendants’ motion to dismiss in 10b-5 case, in one of the first decisions upholding a 10b-5 complaint after passage of the PSLRA); In re DRAM Antitrust Litig., 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 39841 (N.D. Cal. June 5, 2006) (granting motion for class certification).

On April 18-20, 2005, Mr. Bottini gave a presentation on Securities Class Action Litigation at the 2nd Annual CFO Forum in Seoul, South Korea.