Joseph C. Peiffer is a New Orleans based attorney. He practices in
our litigation section, primarily in the areas of securities
arbitration and commercial litigation.
Mr. Peiffer has represented hundreds of individual retirees against
their brokers in FINRA arbitration. The highlights of this practice
include representing 32 Exxon retirees in a 90-day FINRA arbitration
against Securities America that resulted in a $22 million verdict—
one of the largest ever awarded by a FINRA arbitration panel. He has
also represented hundreds of Xerox and Kodak retirees against their
broker resulting from the broker’s fraudulent advice to retire and
subsequent unsuitable investments.
He currently represents clients against British Petroleum arising from
the oil spill that occurred in the Gulf of Mexico. He was recently
part of the legal team that filed a temporary restraining order to
stop BP from paying dividends to its shareholders before it could show
that it could pay to clean up the Gulf.
Also, he currently represents the Louisiana Firefighters Retirement
Fund in their case against Northern Trust concerning securities
lending. Additionally, he represents Louisiana Citizens Insurance
Company and several West Virginia hospitals in cases against their
investment banks arising out of their issuance of auction rate
securities. He also is on the plaintiffs’ steering committee in a
nationwide antitrust class action involving the illegal tying of cable
set-top boxes to the provision of premium cable services.
Mr. Peiffer is one of three Louisiana lawyers ranked by Chambers USA
for securities litigation.
He has been quoted by USA Today, Wall Street Journal, the Associated
Press, New York Times, New York Daily News, the Los Angeles Times,
Business Week, Investment News, and many other publications. Mr.
Peiffer has also appeared on CNN. He was named as one of the fifty
Leaders in Law by New Orleans City Business Magazine.
While at the firm, he has also taught and lectured extensively. He is
currently co-authoring a book on Litigating Business Torts for West, a
Thomson Reuters Business. He co-created and taught a class entitled
Storytelling and Advocacy at Loyola Law School. Also, at Loyola Law
School, he has taught a course entitled “The Basics of Arbitration”
and he also serves as an adjunct professor teaching Trial Advocacy. He
has guest lectured at Tulane Law School in its Securities Regulations
class and Syracuse Law School on securities arbitration. He has
spoken at many national conventions on a variety of topics including
prosecuting large, multi-client claims, broker’s deficient advice to
retire and FINRA arbitration.
Mr. Peiffer graduated from Tulane School of Law, cum laude, in 1999.
While at Tulane, he served on the Tulane Law Review and was involved
with the Tulane Legal Assistance Program. Prior to attending Tulane,
he graduated from Bowling Green State University in 1996 with a major
in communications. While at Bowling Green, he worked as the General
Manager of the campus radio station and City Editor of the daily
newspaper.
Mr. Peiffer has also successfully represented criminal defendants on a
pro bono basis. He is a member of the Louisiana State and American Bar
Associations. He also is a member of the American Association for
Justice where he currently serves as Chairman for the Business Torts
section. He is also a member of the Public Investors Arbitration Bar
Association where he has served on the amicus committee.
