Mark Cotton Molumphy

Mark C. Molumphy, a partner at Cotchett, Pitre & McCarthy, LLP, is a native of the Bay Area, born in San Mateo, California.

Mark has served as lead counsel in many of America’s most prominent cases and, during his extensive career, recovered over one billion dollars for his clients. Mark is considered one of the nation’s most accomplished trial attorneys in securities, corporate governance, and data security and privacy.

In March 2026, Mark served as lead trial counsel and obtained a historic jury verdict against Elon Musk relating to his $44 billion purchase of Twitter. The federal court jury unanimously found Musk defrauded Twitter investors through his tweets and awarded damages estimated to exceed $2.6 billion, the largest securities fraud verdict in United States history.

Just months later, in May 2026, Molumphy helped obtain a $110 million discrimination settlement in the In re Wells Fargo Derivative Litigation, following reports that the Bank conducted sham interviews with minority candidates to meet diversity goals even though positions had already been filled, and engaged in discriminatory lending practices. Wells Fargo agreed to create and fund a borrower assistance program providing down-payment and closing cost grants to low and moderate-income borrowers living in more than 50 regions across the country. The United States District Court judge called the deal a “historical moment” and set an example for other banks to follow.

In 2025, Molumphy received the prestigious California Lawyer Attorney of the Year award from the Daily Journal in recognition of his groundbreaking work in the Safelite whistleblower litigation, exposing a years-long scheme to overbill insureds across the country. Molumphy obtained a $31 million settlement, the largest individual insurance fraud act recovery in history.

In the Apple Device Performance Litigation, Mark served as co-lead counsel in an action alleging Apple secretly throttled down the power of iPhone across the country through a software update. After years of litigation, Mark successfully negotiated a $500 million settlement on behalf of a class of approximately 100 million iPhone users.

During the Covid epidemic, Mark served as co-lead counsel in In re Zoom Video Communications, Inc. Privacy Litigation, representing a nationwide class of over 100 million Zoom users, alleging that Zoom failed to encrypt Zoom meetings, improperly shared user information, and left many exposed to “Zoombombing” by unauthorized third parties in violation of privacy and unfair competition laws. In August 2021, Zoom agreed to pay $85 million in cash compensation to Zoom users and implement comprehensive reforms to its business.

Mark has led many of the most prominent securities class actions. In 2023 alone, Mark helped negotiate settlements of behalf of shareholders of Eventbrite ($19.25 million) and MicroFocus ($ million). Mark negotiated multi-million dollar settlements on behalf of former shareholders of Bay Meadows Race Track, mutual fund shareholders of Janus, and investors purchasing shares in the initial public offerings of Alibaba ($75 million) and LendingClub ($125 million), two of the largest IPO class action settlements in history. Mark served as Lead Counsel in the Freddie Mac preferred shareholder securities litigation, following the government’s historic takeover in 2008, and represented numerous cities and counties in California related to their investment losses in Lehman Brothers, Washington Mutual and AIG, amongst others.

Mark has also led some of the largest shareholder derivative actions in the nation, including as co-lead counsel for the Trustee of the Fire Victims Trust, assigned PG&E’s rights to pursue action against its own officers and directors relating to the 2017 North Bay Fires and 2018 Camp Fire. The case settled for $117 million, one of the largest direct recoveries ever against company directors. Mark previously worked on the PG&E shareholder derivative action arising from the San Bruno gas pipeline explosion, resulting in a $90 million recovery, as well as extensive reforms to PG&E’s underground gas transmission systems to protect customer safety.

Mark was honored as a finalist for the Consumer Attorneys of California Attorney of the Year, based on his work as lead counsel for a nationwide class of investors in Medical Capital, a medical receivable company which operated a massive Ponzi scheme that targeted elderly investors. After convincing the federal court to reject a paltry settlement negotiated by the SEC, Mark obtained $173 million in settlements on the eve of trial, which remains the largest Ponzi scheme recovery in California history.

Mark’s string of historic results earned him recognition on the Daily Journal’s distinguished list of the Top 100 Attorneys in California. Mark is also regularly included in Super Lawyer’s list of the Top 100 Lawyers in Northern California, America’s Top 100 High Stakes Litigators, The National Trial Lawyers Top 100, and Irish Legal 100.

Mark is active in pro bono work and community affairs. He was a long-time director and currently serves as a volunteer for the Legal Aid Society of San Mateo County, which provides free legal services to low-income children, families and seniors. Mark currently serves as a volunteer coach for Special Olympics, and a member of the Board of Bay Scholars, which provides financial and personal support to low-income Bay Area students, access to private college prep education, and assistance in enrolling in college.

Mark was also honored with the "Angel Award" by the Parca Auxiliary, a private nonprofit organization that serves people with developmental disabilities and their families in the Bay Area. See Parca Auxiliary Press Release PDF.

Representative Matters

CPM Investigates Underpayments of Crude Oil Royalties by Oil Companies

RE: In re Wells Fargo & Co. Hiring Practices Derivative Litigation

Honors & Recognitions

Daily Journal Top Commercial Litigators (2026)

Top 100 Attorneys in California, Daily Journal (2020)

The National Trial Lawyers: Top 100 (2020-2025)

Top 100 Northern California Super Lawyers (2015-2026)

Community Service Award by the Jack Berman Advocacy Center of the American Jewish Congress for work on the landmark 101 California Shooting Litigation (1996)

Parca’s Angel Award (2008)

Consumer Attorneys of California Attorney of the Year Finalist (2014)

Chambers, Ranked, Securities - California (2022-2026)

LawDragon, 500 Leading Plaintiff Consumer Lawyers (2026)

LawDragon, 500 Leading Plaintiff Financial Lawyers (2019, 2020, 2021, 2022, 2025, 2026)

Irish Legal 100 (2017-2026)