Melanie E. Walker

Melanie’s recent experience includes the following:

• Lead trial counsel for T-Mobile subsidiary MetroPCS in a federal preemption challenge to resolutions adopted by the California Public Utilities Commission brought in the Northern District of California. Following a bench trial involving highly technical accounting and telecommunications law issues, the judge held the resolutions were preempted as applied to MetroPCS and issued a permanent injunction blocking their enforcement.
• Lead counsel for GigCapital3, Inc., its officers and directors, and related entities in a class action brought under the federal securities laws in the US District Court for Colorado related to its merger with Lightning eMotors, a manufacturer of electric vehicles for commercial fleets. Also representing these defendants in related shareholder derivative actions in Delaware and Colorado.
• Lead counsel for Atlas Lithium Corp., a mineral exploration and mining company, and its officers in a class action brought under the federal securities laws in the Central District of California.
• Representing SPAC sponsors, officers, and directors in multiple lawsuits filed in the Delaware Court of Chancery, including Laidlaw v. GigAcquistions 2, LLC et al. and Delman v. GigAcquisitions3, LLC et al. Plaintiffs’ theory in these cases is largely based on an article by a Stanford law professor criticizing common attributes of SPACs. The court’s rulings on our motions to dismiss garnered substantial attention given their potentially wide-reaching implications for the SPAC industry.
• Lead counsel for Black Girls CODE, a California public benefit corporation that provides technical education to girls of color, in two actions in the Superior Court of California and an action in the Northern District of California brought by the organization’s founder and former CEO. These high-profile raised important corporate governance issues. Melanie convinced the plaintiff to voluntarily dismiss the federal action and the state court actions settled thereafter.
• Lead counsel for a structured debt and equity fund in a confidential arbitration proceeding related to an earnout adjustment.
• Lead counsel to the audit committee of a public company charged with conducting an expedited, cross-border internal investigation related to revenue accounting. Following the internal investigation, no action was taken by the SEC or other regulators.
• Lead counsel for a foreign company in a purchase price adjustment dispute following the sale of certain subsidiaries to a US private investment firm.
• Obtained a US$62 million arbitration award on behalf of an asset owned by a private infrastructure equity investment fund in an action against the City of Chicago.