Iron Ark PLLC
Brian C. Kerr
Partner · Trial & Securities
Trial counsel for the disputes that follow the deal – where the documents, the numbers, and the corporate record decide who wins.
Practice
Brian represents companies, boards, senior executives, founders, entrepreneurs, investment funds, and institutional investors in high-stakes disputes that arise from M&A, corporate transactions, securities, partnerships, governance, and other business relationships. His practice covers Delaware fiduciary-duty claims, post-closing disputes, purchase and partnership agreements, reps and warranties, indemnification, valuation, and fraud – the cases where the deal documents, the financial analysis, and the corporate record decide who wins.
Roughly twenty years on the plaintiff side, plus nearly a decade at a leading international firm, shape how he works. Having pressed claims for institutional investors and shareholders and defended companies whose survival was on the line, he knows how sophisticated counterparties size up risk, put a number on a claim, and decide what to do when a deal or investment goes wrong. He has practiced in all three of Delaware's principal courts – the Court of Chancery, the Superior Court, and the Supreme Court – as well as state and federal courts nationwide and cross-border proceedings.
At Iron Ark, Brian leads the firm's litigation, from first assessment through trial, and directs any network counsel a matter requires.
Brian's art-market litigation – including the authenticity and antitrust fight involving the Andy Warhol Foundation and its authentication board – is chronicled in Richard Dorment's Warhol After Warhol: Secrets, Lies, & Corruption in the Art World (Picador / Pegasus Books, 2023). He has also taught the legal issues in buying and selling art as Practising Law Institute faculty.
Representative matters
A landmark securities-fraud trial on behalf of investors, with billions of dollars in claimed damages.
Unanimous jury verdict · est. $9B+ · affirmed on appealDefended a corporation in two separate billion-dollar cases over alleged breaches of representations and warranties in mortgage-purchase agreements.
Dismissed on summary judgment on the eve of trial · affirmed on appealMerger-related action in the Delaware Court of Chancery on behalf of shareholders, over multiple breaches of fiduciary duty.
Preliminary injunction granted · favorable settlementRepresented a publisher in wrongful-termination, breach-of-contract, and defamation claims seeking damages for an alleged smear campaign.
Settled on confidential termsDefended a utility company in complex breach-of-contract litigation.
Summary judgment eliminating the bulk of plaintiff's damagesTeaching & speaking
Faculty, Practising Law Institute – “Art of the Art Deal: An Introduction to the Key Legal Issues in the Buying and Selling of Art.”
Host and presenter, NeueHouse – “Is it Real?” (May 7, 2015), on the role of science in art authentication.
Selected press
Credentials
Education
- Hofstra Law School, J.D.Dean's Scholar · Hofstra Law Review
- University at Albany, B.A., Economics, summa cum laudeValedictorian · Phi Beta Kappa · Gordon Karp Prize
Admissions
- Connecticut
- New York