John A. Barker

John Barker is a partner in Goodwin’s Securities + Shareholder Litigation and Complex Litigation + Dispute Resolution practices and is a member of the firm’s Life Sciences Disputes group. His practice focuses on complex securities class actions and commercial disputes, with a concentration in securities, fiduciary duty, corporate governance, and M&A litigation. He represents companies, directors, and officers primarily in the life sciences, biotechnology, e-commerce, and technology industries.

John represents and counsels companies, as well as their directors and officers, in all phases of litigation and litigation avoidance. His recent representations include:

• Litigated and favorably settled fiduciary duty litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery on behalf of former officers of a biopharmaceutical company arising from the company’s $11.6 billion acquisition by a large pharmaceutical company, involving claims of inadequate merger consideration, process deficiencies, disclosure deficiencies, and conflicts of interest
• Represented a real estate developer in connection with a $100 million+ derivative and corporate governance lawsuit with a joint venture partner concerning an unsuccessful billion dollar estate development project
• Secured complete dismissal for the two founders and co-chairmen of a home goods e-commerce company in derivative fiduciary duty litigation in the Delaware Court of Chancery involving claims that a convertible debt offering diluted shareholders to the benefit of the founders and other insiders
• Represented the directors of multiple biopharmaceutical companies in derivative fiduciary duty lawsuits concerning allegedly excessive compensation in the Delaware Court of Chancery, securing favorable settlements
• Represented the Independent Trustees of certain closed-end investment funds in corporate governance litigation against activist investor, securing a partial dismissal of the claims asserted
• Represented the seller of a large rural health care telecommunications provider in post-closing litigation in the Delaware Superior Court alleging breaches of representations and warranties, breaches of contract, and fraud in connection with the sale of the company, securing a favorable settlement
• Obtained complete victory on behalf of the largest equity holder of an LLC in arbitration against the LLC’s board, including breach of operating agreement and derivative breach of fiduciary duty claims
• Represented the Audit Committee of a publicly traded consumer goods company in connection with an internal investigation concerning accounting issues
• Advised the President and General Counsel of a large public university concerning a confidential internal investigation impacting university funding
• Represented a pharmaceutical and biotechnology company in connection with an SEC investigation into disclosure- and insider trading-related issues, which resulted in the SEC declining to bring an enforcement action
• Favorably resolved numerous demands for books and records on clients across industries, including pharmaceutical, biotechnology, e-commerce, real estate, engineering, and technology companies
• Represented the directors of a major media company in litigation with its controlling shareholder in the Delaware Court of Chancery over corporate governance-related issues*
• Defended a major engineering and manufacturing company in a federal securities class action and several related shareholder disputes*
• Represented members of an investment management partnership in a corporate governance dispute against other members of the partnership*

* Denotes experience prior to joining Goodwin.

Prior to joining Goodwin, John was an associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz in New York. Prior to that, he served as a law clerk for the Honorable Richard J. Sullivan, District Judge on the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York, and for the Honorable Priscilla R. Owen, Circuit Judge on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.