Stu Bennett has 35 years of trial experience in complex business, construction, environmental and securities litigation. He has handled over 200 litigation matters, including jury and bench trials in state and federal courts, hearings before securities and commercial arbitration panels, and administrative hearings before regulatory agencies, such as state securities commissions, FINRA, the SEC and the CFTC.
Stu’s clients have included local businesses and individuals as well as some of the nation’s largest publicly-traded companies, including nationally known Wall Street broker/dealers, investment banks, investment advisors, banks and other financial institutions, the nation’s largest home builder, a prominent aerospace manufacturer, a direct broadcast satellite television provider, and a commercial real estate development and management company. Stu’s cases have included the defense of securities and construction defect class actions, prosecution and defense of breach of contract suits, theft of trade secret and breach of confidentiality agreements, prosecution and defense of business tort, fraud and misrepresentation actions and patent infringement cases. Recently, Stu was lead trial counsel representing a local county government in a precedent-setting case before the Colorado Supreme Court involving the permitting of a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility.
Stu attended the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law and the Daniels College of Business graduating first in his class from both Colleges. His undergraduate degree in Business with a Major in Accounting has well equipped him to handle litigation involving complicated and novel business and investment products.
Specific Areas of Practice
SECURITIES LITIGATION
- Prosecution and defense of customer litigation and arbitrations.
- Class actions with respect to securities offerings and public disclosures.
- Independent investigation of corporate officers’ responsibilities.
- Statutory appraisal actions for dissenters from corporate mergers and acquisitions.
- Defense with respect to securities, commodities, hedge fund and investment advisor regulation.
CONSTRUCTION LITIGATION
- Class actions involving products liability and construction defects.
- Commercial development construction defects actions.
- Multi-family residential construction defects actions.
- Large single-family residential construction defects actions.
Commercial Litigation
- Breach of warranty actions for defective manufacturing.
- Breach of contract involving television distribution contracts.
- Breach of employee benefits plans.
- Business tort, fraud and breach of contract actions.
- Franchise litigation.
Energy and Environmental Litigation
- Negligence in oil and gas drilling operations.
- Oil and gas operating agreement disputes.
- Permitting of hazardous waste and low-level radioactive waste facilities.
- Permitting of coal-fired electric generation facilities.
Intellectual Property Litigation
- Prosecution and defense of patent infringement actions.
- Theft of trade secrets and breach of confidentiality agreements.
- Breach of licensing agreements.
Significant Representations
- Prosecution and successful appeal of cases to review decisions of state environmental agency with respect to permitting of a low-level radioactive waste disposal facility.
- Successful defense of commercial real estate developer and its principals against fraud and other business torts brought by purchaser of regional retail shopping center.
- Successful prosecution of breach-of-warranty claims brought by a satellite manufacturer against suppliers of defective gyroscopes.
- Successful defense of a direct broadcast satellite television provider against breach of contract for the distribution of international film and television content.
- Favorable settlement of class actions against a wood-products supplier and a distributor of building-products sealants against products liability and other claims relating to allegedly defective residential windows.
- Defense of a class action against a trust company alleging securities fraud and other claims.
- Representation of the independent directors of a publicly-held restaurant chain in an investigation of the company’s officers and inside directors.
- Representation of mutual-fund advisors and mutual funds in a statutory appraisal action arising from the funds’ dissent from a merger of two international oil and gas companies.
- Representation of an international hotel-management company in business tort, breach-of-contract and fraud action brought by the company’s joint venture partners in a destination hotel and resort complex.
- Successful representation of an investment advisor to a savings and loan institution in an action brought by the FDIC alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty in the management of the institution’s commodity-futures hedge program.
- Successful defense of a national franchisor against claim by franchisee for fraud, breach of contract and other business torts.
