Arne Wagner, Former BofA Litigation Chief, Joins San Francisco Office of Calvo & Clark
San Francisco, August 31, 2005 – Calvo & Clark LLP announced today that Arne D. Wagner, formerly Director of Litigation for Bank of America and a partner at Morrison & Foerster, has joined the firm as Of Counsel in the San Francisco office. Mr. Wagner will continue his practice in business and commercial litigation, with special emphasis on financial services, class actions, international litigation, unfair trade practices, and lender liability.
Kathy Fisher, a partner in Calvo & Clark’s San Francisco office, commented: “Arne has been at the forefront of financial services litigation for over 20 years. After working closely with him when he was at Bank of America and then again as a partner at MoFo, I’m tremendously excited to have him join us at Calvo & Clark. He’;s a perfect fit for our litigation team that focuses on class actions and complex cross-border litigation.”
Mr. Wagner has been involved in a number of precedent setting cases over the course of his career. He was recently lead counsel for Japanese companies in fifteen class actions seeking billion of dollars in World War II reparations – cases where he obtained dismissals by federal and state courts. As lead counsel for banks facing major claims, he has obtained favorable results in, for example, a $50 million lender liability case where the California Court of Appeal vacated a jury award and directed entry of final judgment for the bank; a $20 million unfair practice suit in California state court involving deposit account fees where the Court of Appeal held that fees were reasonable and directed entry of judgment for the bank; and a $75 million CERCLA litigation case where he obtained summary judgment in U.S. District Court on the basis of CERCLA’s secured lender exemption.
Mr. Wagner commented: “Kathy Fisher played a large role in bringing me to Morrison & Foerster in 1999, so it’s a logical move for me to rejoin her at Calvo & Clark. I’m excited about joining a litigation team that can provide clients with top quality representation in a flexible, focused small-firm environment. Kathy and I have teamed up over the years on major matters involving banks, as well as Japanese companies doing business in the U.S., and we expect to continue that work at Calvo & Clark.”
Mr. Wagner was previously Director of Litigation worldwide for Bank of America, where he was responsible for directing the defense of the bank in its entire portfolio of litigation, managing practice groups handling all consumer and retail cases, class actions and unfair practice cases, fiduciary, securities and lender liability litigation. He joined Morrison & Foerster as of counsel in the San Francisco office in 1999 and became a partner in 2001.
Mr. Wagner received his B.Sc. degree (with honors) in statistics from the University of Manitoba in 1971 and his Ph. D. in statistics from the University of California at Berkeley, where he was a National Research Council Scholar, in 1974. In 1977 he graduated from Boalt Hall (University of California at Berkeley) School of Law, after serving on the California Law Review and being elected to the Order of the Coif, the law honorary society.