Geoffrey Horn
Partner
E-mail: ghorn@lowey.com
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New York Office
White Plains Plaza
One North Broadway
White Plains, NY 10601-2310
Phone: 914-733-7259
Fax: 914-997-0035
Mr. Horn is a partner of the firm and represents third-party payers including major health insurers and HMOs, employers and health and pharmacy benefits plans and recovers on their behalf from manufacturers and providers who overcharge for prescription drugs, medical devices or services. In addition, he represents institutions and individuals in a range of securities, commodities and antitrust litigation.
Health Care Recovery
Mr. Horn was appointed co-lead counsel on behalf of the certified class of endpayers (health insurers and consumers) seeking to recover overcharges paid for the prescription drug Hytrin. In re Terazosin Hydrochloide Antitrust Litigation, MDL 1317 (S.D. Fla.). The class action was settled for $29.3 million. Mr. Horn also had a lead role in litigating and settling, on behalf of WellPoint's subsidiary BCBS Wisconsin, and approximately 60 other health insurers, a substantial opt-out claim in the In re Lupron Marketing and Sales Practice Litigation, MDL 1430 (D.Mass.). He has also successfully negotiated pre-suit settlement with a drug manufacturer concerning a drug recall on behalf of a large number of leading health insurers. In addition, Mr. Horn had leading roles in the following litigations:
Representation of more than 40 of the largest health benefit plan providers in the U.S. (“TPPs”) in civil actions in New Jersey state court against Merck, seeking recovery of amounts they paid for Vioxx prescribed to their insureds. Vioxx was pulled off the market in September 2004 by Merck due to its side-effect risks of heart attack and strokes. On August 4, 2009, Merck agreed to pay a $65 million to settle these claims and similar claims by other TPPs. .
Representation of a group of the nation’s largest health benefit plan providers in an injunctive action in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Louisiana. Lowey Dannenberg prosecuted our clients’ lien claims through the District Court and Court of Appeals for more than one year, leading to a settlement in 2009 establishing a new model private lien resolution program unlike any ever utilized before in a mass tort settlement. This settlement program was heralded by the District Court as a novel approach to the seemingly intractable, yet recurring, problem of how to deal with the interplay of ERISA reimbursement rights with patients’ privacy rights. The lien resolution program is expected to result in the payment to our clients of tens of millions of dollars in 2010 in satisfaction of reimbursement liens.
Representation of approximately 50 insurers which opted out of a class action settlement, filed an independent action, and negotiated a substantially richer settlement of claims against a brand manufacturer that delayed generic competition for its product. Humana, Inc., et al. vs. GlaxoSmithKline, et al., Philadelphia Court of Common Pleas, December Term 2004, No. 3140.
Securities
Mr. Horn currently represents several institutional clients as plaintiffs in matters related to auction rate securities. These actions include Amegy Bank, N.A. v. BlackRock Munienhanced Fund, Inc., et al. 09 Civ. 0753 (S.D.N.Y.); Amegy Bank, N.A. v. Van Kampen Trust for Insured Municipals, 09 Civ. 0754 (S.D.N.Y.)(Plaintiff alleges closed-end funds breached fiduciary duty to holders of auction rate preferred securities by failing to redeem following collapse of auction liquidity); Zebra Technologies Corporation et al v. Titanium Asset Management Corp. et al, 1:10-cv-00940 (N.D.Ill.)(Plaintiff alleges securities fraud in connection with the purchase of a hybrid auction rate product); and Monster Worldwide, Inc. v. RBC Capital Markets Corporation 1:09-cv-04542 (S.D.N.Y)(Plaintiff alleged securities fraud in connection with the purchase of Student Loan Auction Rate Securities (“SLARS”)).
Mr. Horn has also represented a foreign bank in investigations of its holdings in credit default swaps, synthetic and ABS-CDOs, CMBS, RMBS, and other complex derivatives and structured products.
Commodities
Mr. Horn, as co-lead counsel of the firm's commodity litigation practice group, frequently represents investors in commodities fraud litigations. In February 2008, Mr. Horn was appointed as co-lead counsel in In re: Optiver Commodities Litigation, Case No. 08 CV 6842 (LAP) (S.D.N.Y.), a proposed class action involving the alleged manipulation of NYMEX crude oil, heating oil and gasoline futures contracts prices by Optiver US, LLC and other Optiver defendants. In August 2007, he was appointed as co-lead counsel in In re: Amaranth Natural Gas Commodity Litigation, Case No. 07 Civ. 6377 (SAS) (S.D.N.Y.), a proposed class action involving the manipulation of NYMEX natural gas futures by the hedge fund Amaranth prior to its widely-publicized collapse in September 2006. Mr. Horn is also co-lead counsel in In re: Natural Gas Commodity Litigation, Case No. 03 Civ. 6186 (VM) (AJP) (S.D.N.Y.), a case which concerns manipulation of NYMEX natural gas futures contracts by multiple market participants through use of false trade reports to industry publications. Total settlements, following certification of a three year class of NYMEX natural gas future traders, of more than $100 million were approved by the Court in 2006 and 2007.
Mr. Horn is also counsel for plaintiffs in the proposed class action against Moore Capital relating to manipulation of NYMEX palladium and platinum futures prices in 2007 and 2008 . White v. Moore Capital Management, L.P., Case No. 10 CV 3634 (WHP)(S.D.N.Y.) Mr. Horn also helped achieve landmark results in the Sumitomo Copper Litigation, 182 F.R.D. 85 (S.D.N.Y. 1998) (a case involving manipulation of NYMEX copper futures which settled for more than $115 million) and In re Soybean Futures Litigation, 892 F.Supp. 1025 (N.D.Ill. 1995) (a case involving manipulation of Chicago Board of Trade soybean futures contracts which settled for more than $21 million).
Publications
Antitrust Class Actions Handbook, ABA Section of Antitrust Law, 2010, contributing author.
Education and Bar Admissions
Mr. Horn is a graduate of Trinity College (B.A. 1989) and Albany Law School (J.D. 1993). He is admitted to practice in New York, and the bars of the U.S.Court of Appeals for the 2nd and 11th Circuits, and the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York.
