AWARDS & RECOGNITION

Jaren has been repeatedly recognized for her trial and litigation achievements by leading publications and legal directories. The National Law Journal named Jaren a finalist in the “Winning Litigators” category for 2021, highlighting her significant trial victories during the year. Lawdragon has named Jaren to its “500 Leading Lawyers in America” guide for several years and named her to its inaugural “500 Leading Litigators in America” guide for 2022. The American Lawyer named her a “Litigator of the Week” following a resounding trial win in Delaware on behalf of Channel Medsystems in its litigation to enforce a merger agreement. Jaren was also recognized twice by The American Lawyer in its “Litigation Daily” column for significant victories on behalf of QAD defeating a stockholder preliminary injunction motion that allowed for its multibillion-dollar sale to Thoma Bravo to proceed, and Nuance Communications securing the dismissal of a shareholder lawsuit and related motion for attorneys’ fees brought in connection with its multibillion-dollar acquisition by Microsoft. The New York Law Journal recognized Jaren as a “Rising Star” for 2017. She is also recognized by Chambers USA in the Litigation: General Commercial (NY) category and by The Legal 500 US in both the General Commercial Disputes and M&A Litigation: Defense categories.

EXPERIENCE

Representative matters include: 

• Successfully defending Citigroup in New Jersey state court against claims arising out of the collapse of Parmalat, defeating claims worth more than $10 billion and achieving a $364 million counterclaim jury verdict for Citigroup— the largest defense verdict of the year and the largest defense side verdict in the history of New Jersey. 
• Representing ExxonMobil in an eight-month bench trial where the State of New Jersey sought a precedent-setting $9 billion in damages for environmental injuries, making it one of the largest environmental damage cases ever tried. The case settled for $225 million while awaiting verdict.
• Representing blockchain powered “smart securities” startup Symbiont.io in a trial victory in the Delaware Court of Chancery in connection with its lawsuit against Ipreo Holdings and IHS Markit which arose out of the defendants’ bad-faith efforts to undermine a joint venture between Symbiont and Ipreo intended to leverage blockchain technology in the syndicated loan market. The Court issued a verdict awarding more than $140 million to the joint venture entity—one of the largest damages awards in recent years in Chancery Court.
• Representing medical device start-up Channel Medsystems, Inc. in a trial victory in Delaware in connection with a “material adverse change” litigation with Boston Scientific Corporation in which Boston Scientific unsuccessfully sought to terminate its $250 million acquisition of the company.
• Representing the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of QAD Inc., a leading provider of cloud-based enterprise software solutions, in defeating a stockholder’s preliminary injunction motion brought in the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking to block a shareholder vote on QAD’s $2 billion merger with private equity firm Thoma Bravo. The ruling, which followed a highly contested hearing and expedited discovery, allowed for the transaction to proceed to a shareholder vote and the sale was completed shortly thereafter.
• Representing Nuance Communications, a multinational computer software technology corporation, in securing the dismissal of a merger disclosure lawsuit and related motion for attorneys’ fees—a vanishingly rare outcome—brought in connection with Microsoft’s $19.7 billion acquisition of the company.
• Representing the Special Committee of the Board of Directors of Pilgrim’s Pride Corporation in the successful defense of shareholder derivative litigation in Delaware.
• Defending Merck in a class action and other related litigation related to Vioxx.
• Litigating on behalf of Alere, Inc., a medical device and point-of-care testing company, in a closely watched multi-billion dollar mergers and acquisitions litigation.
• Representing JM Eagle, the world’s largest plastic pipe manufacturer, in federal False Claims Act litigation brought on behalf of dozens of state and local water districts asserting $1 billion in potential damages in connection with the sale of its PVC pipe. At the conclusion of the first damages trial on behalf of five exemplar water districts, a federal district judge limited the plaintiffs’ recovery claims from $58 million to, at most, $1.2 to $2.1 million and declared a mistrial when jurors were unable to agree that the plaintiffs suffered any damages stemming from an earlier liability finding against JM Eagle.
• Providing ongoing counsel in connection with cases nationwide relating to consumer benzene exposure.

In addition, Jaren has advised companies and individuals facing a broad variety of commercial, criminal and regulatory matters. She has advised Advance Publications, Alere Inc., ILG Inc., the special committee of the board of directors of CBS Corp, and the special committee of the board of directors of Expedia Inc. in connection with M&A-related concerns.

Jaren also has extensive experience with dispositive motion and appellate practice, in various state and federal jurisdictions including the United States Supreme Court. She was a key member of the Paul, Weiss litigation team representing Edie Windsor, pro bono, through all of the stages in the successful challenge to the federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) that resulted in a victory when the Supreme Court struck down DOMA as unconstitutional in United States v. Windsor. Jaren maintains an active pro bono practice, which includes the representation of an individual incarcerated on Alabama’s death row, among other criminal habeas petitions.

Jaren was a Hamilton Fellow and Kent Scholar at Columbia Law School, where she was also Essay and Review editor for the Columbia Law Review. Following her clerkships, she did a semester-long post-doctoral fellowship at Columbia Law School, focusing on federal jurisdiction and sentencing issues.