Joseph C Peiffer

Joe is the managing member of Peiffer Rosca Abdullah Carr & Kane. His practices consist of representing individuals and institutions that have been harmed by investment banks and brokerage firms, prosecuting ERISA class actions, and representing victims of labor trafficking and those who have suffered catastrophic injury. He has co-authored a treatise Litigating Business and Commercial Tort Cases, which is published by Thompson West.

Joe has also taught and lectured extensively. 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.

Joe 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 has represented hundreds of families in cases involving private placements and Ponzi schemes.

His financial services fraud practice also includes representing about 25 hospitals and municipalities around the country in cases involving their issuance of auction rate securities. He also filed several ERISA class actions against large financial services firms alleging that they did not prudently invest retirement money and had conflicts of interest. 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.

Joe also currently represents hundreds of clients in cases involving serious injuries sustained by pharmaceutical products such as Pradaxa, Nuvaring, Granuflo, and Lexapro.

Finally, he represents victims of human trafficking and labor exploitation. In one such case, the plaintiffs have alleged that the defendants have failed to pay overtime, improperly deducted for employee housing, and held the plaintiffs passports while in the United States. He has travelled extensively to the Philippines for this case and another one involving a rig explosion where two of his clients working on a rig owned by Black Elk exploded.

Joe was one of three Louisiana lawyers ranked by Chambers USA for securities litigation in 2011. He has been named a 2013 Rising Star by his peers in the Class Action Administration organization. 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.

He has also successfully risen into the leadership of several national bar associations. He twice served as the chairman of the Business Torts Section of the American Association for Justice. He has served on the Board of Directors of PIABA – a nationwide bar association of lawyers that represent individuals and institutions in arbitrations to recover money lost by investment banks and brokerage firms. He was recently elected Executive Vice President of PIABA and will become PIABA President in October, 2014.

Joe 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.