M. Norman Goldberger

M. Norman Goldberger leads Ballard Spahr's Securities Enforcement and Corporate Governance Litigation Group and is a member of the firm's Elected and Expanded Boards. He concentrates on complex commercial matters, including securities litigation, consumer fraud class actions, restrictive covenants, derivative actions, internal investigations, False Claims Act litigation, RICO litigation, and issues relating to the availability of insurance coverage for commercial litigation matters.

Norman has represented clients ranging from start-ups to Fortune 500 public clients in industries including financial institutions, stock brokerages, investments/securities, accounting, cable and telecommunications, real estate investment trusts, real estate partnerships, construction, engineering, equipment leasing, semiconductors, chemicals, retail, manufacturing, and hospitals and health care facilities.

Norman has worked on a wide variety of securities cases in the federal district courts and the federal appellate courts. He has also represented clients in NASD and NYSE arbitration proceedings on securities matters. Norman has also successfully defended derivative litigation as well as an important case revolving around a hospital's ownership of research information generated as a result of treatment performed on its patients. He also conducted an arbitration in which the client was awarded $16.2 million.

Norman has been involved in many consumer-fraud class action matters. He has also worked on more than 20 restrictive covenant matters and has used his experience litigating these matters to aid clients when drafting employment agreements that involve such clauses. The kinds of restrictive covenants he has encountered run the gamut from the mundane (e.g., nonsolicitation covenants that prevent poaching clients or customers of the former employer) to the complex (e.g., agreements that involve a garden leave clause requiring an employee to work from home while continuing to receive his or her usual salary and benefits once notice is given to the employer of an intent to work for a competitor).

For more than 20 years, Norman has advised clients about insurance and litigated with insurance carriers on a variety of D&O liability insurance matters. He also has performed risk analysis and due diligence for clients when selecting D&O coverage. He has also obtained coverage for clients under various policies for commercial matters when such coverage seemed at first glance to be unavailable. Norman has argued before the U.S. Supreme Court and in appellate and trial courts throughout the United States.

Professional Activities

American Bar Association

Pennsylvania Bar Association

Philadelphia Bar Association

Recognition & Accomplishments

Chambers USA, litigation: securities law (Pennsylvania), 2009-2019

The Best Lawyers in America, commercial litigation, mergers and acquisitions litigation, regulatory enforcement litigation, and securities litigation, 2006-2020

The Best Lawyers® Annual Guide To Commercial Litigation, 2009

Publications

Co-author, "SEC Embraces its New Enforcement Weapon: Anti-Money Laundering and Reporting Requirements Under the Bank Secrecy Act," Ballard Spahr article, June 20, 2017 

Co-author, "Damage in ERISA Stock Drop Cases: Drop Preconceived Notions," Bloomberg BNA Benefit Practitioners' Strategy Guide, February 2015

Co-author, "MCDC Issuer Deadline is December 1. Are You Prepared?" Ballard Spahr Securities Enforcement and Litigation alert, October 13, 2014

Co-author, "In ERISA Stock Drop Case, Supreme Court Giveth and Taketh Away on Moench Presumption," Ballard Spahr Securities Enforcement and Litigation alert, June 27, 2014

"Supreme Court Hears Argument in Potentially Game-Changing Securities Law Case," Ballard Spahr Securities Enforcement and Litigation alert, March 7, 2014

Co-author, "SEC Assesses Its First Financial Penalty against a Municipal Securities Issuer," Ballard Spahr Securities Enforcement and Litigation alert, November 6, 2013

Co-author, "EB-5 Program Faces Heightened Enforcement Scrutiny," Ballard Spahr Securities alert, October 11, 2013

Co-author, "Pennsylvania's Strong Protections for Corporate Boards," Insights Magazine: Corporate Governance, February 2012

"Responding to Enforcement and Disclosure Requirements in the Securities Law Realm," Recent Developments in Securities Law, 2011 ed., 7-29, Aspatore Books (West), 2011

Co-author, "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Fraud," Financial Fraud Law Report, September 2011

Co-author, "Fraud Prevalent in Reverse Merger Companies with Operations in China," BoardMember.com, July 8, 2011

Co-author, "SEC Issues Investor Bulletin about 'Reverse Merger' Companies," Ballard Spahr Securities alert, June 14, 2011

Co-author, "Supreme Court: Materiality of Adverse Events is Not Tied to Statistical Significance," Ballard Spahr Securities alert, March 31, 2011

Co-author, "Drop Preconceived Notions: Outlook on Damage in ERISA Stock Drop Cases," Pension & Benefits Daily, June 22, 2010, and July 26, 2011

Co-author, "Business as Usual for 3rd Circuit, Twombly Notwithstanding: Pleading Standard Under Rule 8 Remains Intact," The Legal Intelligencer and Pennsylvania Law Weekly, April 7, 2008

Speaking Engagements

"Finding the Pea: Who Has the Privilege in Corporate Investigations?" ACC Greater Philadelphia's 2019 In-House Counsel Conference, Philadelphia, April 24, 2019

"MCDC Self-Reporting: Proving Materiality under Federal Securities Law," Ballard Spahr webinar, August 7, 2014

"After the Issuance of Bonds: Continuing Disclosure and SEC Municipal Enforcement," Ballard Spahr event, Wilmington, DE, June 5, 2014

Panelist, "Securities Litigation Today: Navigating the New Enforcement Regime and Plaintiff’s Actions," Ballard Spahr CLE seminar, Philadelphia, October 19, 2011

"What Constitutes the Right Settlement Predictors, Blow Provisions, and Coverage Disputes," NERA's Thirteenth Finance, Law and Economics Conference, July 5, 2010

University of Pennsylvania Law School (J.D., cum laude, 1978)
Editor, University of Pennsylvania Law Review
Order of the Coif

University of Pennsylvania (B.A., magna cum laude, 1975)

Pennsylvania