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John J. Calandra is a partner in the law firm of McDermott Will & Emery LLP based in the Firm's New York office. As a member of the Firm's Trial Department, John's practice area is in complex commercial litigation. He has significant experience litigating cases involving securities and common law fraud, breach of fiduciary duties, negligent misrepresentation, breach of representations and warranties, accounting irregularities, wrongful terminations, antitrust violations and various claims arising from the sale of assets and businesses.
John has successfully represented former directors and officers of public and private companies who were sued for securities fraud, accounting irregularities and breaches of fiduciary duties. He has successfully represented managers of limited liability companies against claims of self-dealing and breach of fiduciary duty in connection with transfers of substantially all of the company's assets. Additionally, he has represented the board of a large commercial bank in a shareholder derivative action which alleged that the board allowed various securities violations to occur in connection with several IPOs. John has successfully tried cases involving sales of assets, distributor terminations, inverse floating CMOs and telecommunications.
John also has been involved in several cases involving complex financial products. For example, John has successfully represented several financial institutions in cases involving credit and foreign currency derivatives and total return swaps. John won summary judgment in one such case and won very favorable settlements in two others. John also won a favorable settlement in an arbitration involving the collapse of inverse floating CMOs.
John has represented clients in several class actions. For example, in a class action brought by consumers, John successfully defended a large financial institution against claims of fraud, RICO violations, and aiding and abetting. John was also involved in a putative class action case involving charges of price fixing in which he simultaneously served as defense counsel for a magazine publishers trade association and coordinating counsel on behalf of the nation's fourteen largest magazine publishers. John has also represented large financial clients in mass tort litigations.
John has also served as outside general counsel for one of the nation's largest beverage manufacturers and suppliers, managing over 60 significant litigations nationwide. He has significant experience in real estate litigation as well. For example, John has represented several large commercial tenants in disputes involving some of the largest landlords in New York City and has represented large construction firms in disputes with sureties and government agencies.
John's practice has often addressed cutting-edge legal issues. For example, he has litigated the extent to which plaintiffs who are neither privities nor third-party beneficiaries in financial products transactions can still sue in contract. John has also litigated defenses such as commercial frustration, force majeure, and mistake. In the field of antitrust, John succeeded in enjoining a New York City law that prohibited car rental companies from charging differential rates based upon the residence of their renters. John attacked the statute on the novel ground that it imposed a "hybrid" restraint insofar as it limited private firms' ability to set competitive prices and that the statute therefore conflicted with the mandates of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. In affirming the injunction, the Second Circuit acknowledged that "hybrid" restraints (i.e., neither purely unilateral or bilateral) could satisfy the "agreement" requirement under Section 1 of the Sherman Act. (This decision is reported at 1 F.3d 121 (2d Cir. 1993).) The Supreme Court denied the City's certiorari petition.
While at Cornell Law School, he received two American Jurisprudence Awards, was selected to the Order of the Coif, and served on the Cornell Law Review.
John is admitted to the New York State Bar and to the federal district courts in the Southern and Eastern Districts of New York. John is a trustee of the City University of New York, having been appointed by Governor Pataki in 1996 and reappointed in 2000.
Education:
Cornell Law School, J.D. (magna cum laude), 1991.
Columbia College, B.A., 1988. | 