Samuel M. Ward

Sam Ward, a partner in Barrack, Rodos & Bacine’s San Diego office, focuses his practice on class action securities fraud and consumer actions.  Sam has twenty years of experience in every stage of litigation, from investigating and initiating actions, through every stage of discovery, class certification, summary judgment, trial, and appeal.  He was a key member of the litigation team in In re Apollo Group, Inc. Securities Litigation, one of just a handful of cases to be tried to a favorable plaintiff’s verdict since the passage of the PSLRA.

Sam is a key member of the Firm’s case evaluation and client services group, analyzing the markets for emerging frauds and other corporate misbehavior on behalf of the firm’s clients and advising those clients on the merits of potential causes of action available to them.  Before joining BR&B in 2003, he worked as a political consultant in San Diego, managing and advising several candidates for City Council, State Assembly, and United States Congress.

Sam is active in his community, having served on the Independent Oversight Committee of the Carlsbad Unified School District where he oversees expenditures made pursuant to public bond offerings. Mr. Ward is the former Chair of Planned Parenthood Affiliates of California and the former Vice-Chair of Planned Parenthood of the Pacific Southwest.

• In re Apollo Group Inc. Securities Litigation, No. CV-04-2147 PHX-JAT , (D. Ariz.), before the Honorable James A. Teilborg in the District of Arizona, which resulted in a $145 million recovery for injured shareholders after a two-month jury trial with a unanimous verdict for investors, and a prolonged appellate process.
• In re Applied Micro Circuits Corp. Securities Litigation, No. 01-CV-0649-K (AJB), before the Honorable Judith N. Keep in the Southern District of California, which resulted in a $60 million settlement for investors.
• Senior Annuity cases in which BR&B served as a co-lead counsel or participated in the prosecution group, which asserted claims against insurance companies under consumer protection and elder abuse statutes and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act, and achieved the following settlements:
  • Negrete, et al. v. Allianz Life Insurance Company of North America, Case No. 05-cv-06838-CAS-MAN (C.D. Cal.), resulted in a claims-made settlement valued between $251 million and $971 million;
  • In re American Equity Annuity Practices and Sales Litigation, Case No. 2:05- cv-06735-CAS-MAN (C.D. Cal.), resulted in a settlement valued at approximately $129 million;
  • Rand v. American National Insurance Co., Case No. 3:09-cv-0639-WDB (N.D. Cal.), resulted in a settlement valued at more than $9 million;
  • Negrete, et al. v. Fidelity and Guaranty Life Insurance Company, Case No. 2:05-cv-06837-CAS-MAN (C.D. Cal), resulted in a settlement valued at approximately $52.7 million;
  • Meadows v. Jackson National Life Insurance Co., Case No. 4:12-cv-1380- CW (N.D. Cal), resulted in a settlement valued at more than $11.2 million;
  • Midland National Life Insurance Co Annuity Sales Practices Litigation, Case No. 2:07-ml-01825-CAS-MAN (C.D. Cal.), resulted in a settlement valued at $79.5 million; and
  • In re National Western Life Insurance Deferred Annuities Litigation, Case No. 05-cv-1018-AJB (WVG), resulted in a settlement valued at more than $21 million.

• In re Plum Baby Food Litigation, Case No. 4:21-cv-00913-YGR, before the Honorable Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers in the Northern District of California.
• Doe v. Cedars-Sinai Health System, et al., Case No. 22STCV41085, before the Honorable Maren E. Nelson, in the Superior Court of the State of California for the County of Los Angeles.

• University of California, Hastings School of Law
  San Fransisco, CA|  J.D. 2001
• University of California, San Diego
  San Diego, CA|  B.A. 1995

• California, 2001
• United States District Court for the Southern District of California
• United States District Court for the Northern District of California
• United States District Court for the Eastern District of California
• United States District Court for the Central District of California