For much of Joe's 30 years in commercial litigation he has been involved in securities litigation. His early work included a substantial history of defense of major brokerage houses which included EF Hutton, Smith Barney, Shearson Lehman Brothers, Prudential Securities and Rotan Mosle in dozens of lawsuits and arbitrations. During that same period he was involved in representing several oil companies in scores of securities fraud defense matters relating to sales of limited partnership interests, most notably Copeland Energy Corporation and Jenkins Petroleum Corporation.
During the last decade Joe has changed the focus of his securities defense work to representation of injured investors. This has included an array of businesses such as Fleming companies and local banks but has been primarily focused on individual investors. He has represented more than 30 individual investors in substantial claims against brokerage firms, as well as financial institutions and accounting services, which have resulted in millions of dollars of recovery for his clients. His experience includes disputes involving unauthorized trading, suitability, embezzlement, fraud and theft. Recently his work has focused on hedge fund Ponzi schemes and has involved substantial claims for liability against persons other than the manager of the securities portfolio based on a claim that there was an aiding and abetting of the securities fraud under the applicable version of the more investor friendly Uniform State Securities Act.
Joe is one of only seven Oklahoma lawyers to be a member of the Public Investor Arbitration Bar Association, an educational and networking organization which shares information among lawyers who represent investors in securities and commodities arbitration.
Since most claims of investors must be resolved by arbitration, it is noteworthy that Joe has tried more than 25 major arbitration cases to award in fields both in and outside of securities claims and is one of the most experienced lawyers in the Southwest in the field of commercial arbitration. He also has extensive trial experience in state and federal courts successfully litigating securities matters.