Robert F. Serio is a Partner-in-Charge of the New York office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher.  Mr. Serio focuses on securities litigation and is Co-Chair of the firm's Securities Litigation Practice Group.  His practice involves commercial and business litigation and counseling.  Recently, Mr. Serio appeared in The Legal 500 US 2008 edition, and was also named in 2007 as one of the leading trial lawyers in the US.

Mr. Serio represents Bear Stearns in the IPO litigation that is pending in the Southern District of New York.  Mr. Serio has represented Merrill Lynch in connection with various Enron-related securities and bankruptcy litigation matters.  In 2003, he obtained the dismissal with prejudice of all claims against Merrill Lynch and Morgan Stanley in the Duke Energy Securities Litigation, which dismissal was affirmed in 2004 by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  In addition, Mr. Serio represented Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc. in the defense of a multi-state class action litigation involving the sale of $2 billion of real estate limited partnerships.  While other financial institutions settled similar actions for amounts in excess of $100 million, Mr. Serio persuaded Judge Mukasey of the Southern District of New York to dismiss the action with prejudice, and won an affirmance of the dismissal in the Second Circuit Court of Appeals.  Mr. Serio also represented Merrill Lynch in a class action filed in the Southern District of New York, alleging that brokerage houses had conspired to prevent their retail customers from "flipping" shares purchased in IPOs.  Merrill Lynch prevailed in that action as well.

Mr. Serio represented Turkey's prominent Uzan family in litigation in the US, winning a dismissal of all RICO claims brought against them.  In other matters, Mr. Serio has represented Cincinnati Bell, Inc., Veeco Instruments, Inc., The FINOVA Group Inc., Citiscape Corporation, Unilever, Bank Brussels Lambert, Swiss Bank Corporation, Banque Indosuez, Farmers Insurance Company, Dow Jones & Company, Inc., European American Bank, and Unibank.  In addition, he has represented secured bondholders of Trans World Airlines, Memorex Corp., Franklin Savings Association and CenTrust Bank.

Mr. Serio received a bachelor of arts degree cum laude from Harvard University in 1980, and a law degree from the University of California at Los Angeles in 1985.  From 1985 to 1987, he was associated with the firm of Shearman & Sterling in New York City.  Mr. Serio is a member of the New York and California bars.