Cases & Investigations
PHC, Inc. Shareholder Litigation

This breach of fiduciary duty action, on behalf of former stockholders of behavioral health company PHC, Inc., arises from PHC’s 2011 merger with Acadia Healthcare, Inc. Following a two-week jury trial, Chief Judge Patti Saris of the U.S. District of Massachusetts ordered Bruce Shear, PHC’s CEO, to disgorge a majority of the cash side-payment he received in exchange for the extinguishment of his super-voting shares as part of the merger transaction.  The court thereafter entered a judgment exceeding $3 million against Mr. Shear.  Mr.  Shear’s appeal to the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit, and thereafter the United States Supreme Court, proved unsuccessful.
 
The courts at both the district and appellate level acknowledged counsel for their skill and professionalism.  Following trial, Chief Judge Saris stated that “you all did a great job trying this case….[Y]ou’re very civil throughout this entire proceeding and I thank the folks in [your office] for so much support that they’ve given along the way because I know it’s a big case with a lot of paper.... Someone should study the case in terms of how attorneys should treat one another, and I appreciate that.”   Judge Sandra Lynch of the First Circuit remarked that "this was an unusually good argument from both sides” and that it was “a pleasure to be a judge when we get such good arguments." The First Circuit decision affirming the judgment secured by Wolf Popper observed that the questions presented in the appeal were “intricate, entangled, and in some instances novel,” and that the briefing “read like a law school examination covering a curriculum that ranges from corporate law to the law of equitable remedies.”
 
Wolf Popper, led by Chet B. Waldman, Jeffrey W. Chambers, Patricia I. Avery, and Adam J. Blander, was the court-appointed lead counsel for plaintiff MAZ Partners, LP (a hedge fund) and the certified class.  

Email: outreach@wolfpopper.com
Case Inquiries