A New York Times article (September 27, 2006) reported on Skadden's representation of DaimlerChrysler and two individual defendants in the appeal of the judgment dismissing the billion-dollar securities fraud action brought against them by financier Kirk Kerkorian's wholly owned investment company, Tracinda. On April 7, 2005, after a 13-day trial, firm client DaimlerChrysler won a complete victory in the U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware, which dismissed the federal securities and common law fraud claims brought by Tracinda claiming that the 1998 business combination of Daimler-Benz and Chrysler was falsely represented to be a "merger of equals." The article quotes Skadden New York litigation partner Jonathan Lerner, in his recent argument before the United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit, as saying: "The merger promised was the merger delivered."
The district court's decision in the matter, entitled Tracinda v. DaimlerChrysler et al., was chosen as the "Top Defense Win of 2005" by the National Law Journal. The NLJ's story noted the magnitude of DaimlerChrysler's victory - the largest securities claim ever tried in federal court, involving compensatory damage claims of more than $1.35 billion by Tracinda.