Sara E. Gilley

Sara Gilley specializes in securities and white collar litigation. Ms. Gilley serves on Cornerstone Research’s executive committee and its pro bono committee. She consults on economic and financial issues related to federal and state class actions, corporate investigations, and government enforcement activity. She also has experience in matters brought under international securities laws. Ms. Gilley has analyzed class certification, loss causation, and damages in a range of contract disputes and litigation. Her industry expertise includes automobiles, financial institutions, high tech, and life sciences.

Ms. Gilley coheads Cornerstone Research’s securities litigation practice. She also co-manages the firm’s research related to enforcement actions by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), and publishes regularly on this topic. She works with clients in all phases of litigation, including motion to dismiss, class certification, merits, testimony, and mediation.

Women We Admire has named her to its list of exceptional Women Leaders in the state of Illinois.

Securities litigation

• Analyze market structure and efficiency for common stocks, corporate bonds, convertible securities, and preferred shares trading on multiple exchanges and in over-the-counter markets
• Assess potential damages exposure under U.S. and Canadian securities laws for class actions and direct action (opt-out) claims
• Evaluate securities damages methodologies against Comcast standards
• Address price impact and causation-related issues in litigation, mediation, and arbitrations
• Analyze potential settlement ranges based on case-specific characteristics and historical settlements
• Evaluate mediation strategies

White collar litigation

• Analyze materiality, trading strategies, damages, and potential ill-gotten gains or losses related to insider trading, under U.S. and Irish law
• Estimate loss causation and damages issues in government investigations and enforcement activities, such as SEC administrative hearings
• Analyze stock market response to disclosures of SEC investigations and enforcement actions
• Examine the materiality of information to stock prices
• Assess corporate government policies and due diligence procedures

Other litigation

• Evaluate damages claims in trade secret and intellectual property disputes
• Evaluate whether efforts to develop medical devices are consistent with “commercially reasonable efforts” for products in a range of life sciences industries
• Support industry practitioners in their analyses of business entities’ policies and procedures relative to industry standards
• Assess loss causation and damages in private party contracts and public–private partnership (PPP/P3) agreements
• Analyze class certification and loss causation issues in consumer fraud and product liability matters

Community engagement

Ms. Gilley is a board member of Open Books, a Chicago-based literacy nonprofit.