Overview
KARA M. WOLKE is Co-Chair of the Firm’s securities litigation practice group and serves as the Firm’s General Counsel. With nearly two decades of experience in financial class action litigation, Ms. Wolke has helped to recover hundreds of millions of dollars for injured investors and consumers.
Ms. Wolke currently serves as lead counsel in In re: Alibaba Group Ltd. Securities Litigation, Case No. 20-cv-09568 (S.D.N.Y.), which alleges that Alibaba misled investors in its disclosures regarding the company’s anti-trust regulatory risks and compliance. Alibaba recently agreed to settle the case for $433.5 million, and the proposed settlement is pending a final approval hearing in March 2025. If approved, the settlement will be the largest securities class action settlement against a Chinese issuer and one of the fifty largest securities class action settlements in the U.S. since the PSLRA was enacted nearly thirty years ago.
Other notable cases include: Christine Asia Co. Ltd., et al. v. Jack Yun Ma, et al., Case No. 15-md-02631 (S.D.N.Y.) ($250 million securities class action settlement); Farmington Hills Employees’ Retirement System v. Wells Fargo Bank, Case No. 10-4372 (D. Minn.) ($62.5 million settlement on behalf of participants in Wells Fargo’s securities lending program. The settlement was reached on the eve of trial and ranked among the largest recoveries achieved in a securities lending class action stemming from the 2008 financial crisis.); Shah v. Zimmer Biomet Holdings, Inc., Case No. 16-cv-00815 (N.D. Inc.) ($50 million securities class action settlement); Schleicher, et al. v. Wendt, et al. (Conseco), Case No. 02-cv-1332 (S.D. Ind.) ($41.5 million securities class action settlement); Lapin v. Goldman Sachs, Case No. 03-850 (S.D.N.Y.) ($29 million securities class action settlement); Davis v. Yelp, Inc., Case No. 18-cv-0400 (N.D. Cal) ($22.5 million securities class action settlement).
Ms. Wolke has been named a Super Lawyers “Rising Star,” and her work on behalf of investors has earned her recognition as a LawDragon Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyer during each year from 2019 through 2024.
With a background in intellectual property, Ms. Wolke was a part of the team of lawyers who successfully challenged the claim of copyright ownership to the song “Happy Birthday to You” on behalf of artists and filmmakers who had been forced to pay hefty licensing fees to publicly sing the world’s most famous song. In the resolution of that action, the defendant music publishing company funded a settlement of $14 million and, significantly, agreed to relinquish the song to the public domain. Previously, Ms. Wolke penned an article regarding the failure of U.S. Copyright Law to provide an important public performance right in sound recordings, 7 Vand. J. Ent. L. & Prac. 411, which was nationally recognized and received an award by the American Bar Association and the Grammy® Foundation.
Committed to the provision of legal services to the poor, disadvantaged, and other vulnerable or disenfranchised individuals and groups, Ms. Wolke also oversees the Firm’s pro bono practice. She currently serves as a volunteer attorney for KIND (Kids In Need of Defense), representing unaccompanied immigrant and refugee children in custody and deportation proceedings, and helping them to secure legal permanent residency status in the U.S.
Ms. Wolke graduated summa cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Economics from The Ohio State University in 2001. She subsequently earned her J.D. with honors from Ohio State, where she received the Dean’s Award for Excellence during each of her three years.