Christina L. Costley's practice focuses on business litigation. Ms. Costley represents public corporations and their officers and directors in securities class actions, shareholder derivative lawsuits, SEC enforcement proceedings and internal investigations. She has handled several high-profile securities class actions, including cases involving Blue Coat Systems, International Rectifier, Mercury Interactive, Ormat Technologies, Portal Software, Sigma Designs and Veritas Software. She has also handled cases involving mergers and other similar fundamental corporate transactions, including cases for DemandTec, Tekelec and First PacTrust Bancorp. In addition, Ms. Costley has experience defending corporations in consumer class actions, breach of contract cases and environmental litigation.
Ms. Costley has significant courtroom experience. She has first-chaired 15 jury trials and has successfully argued motions to dismiss and other dispositive motions. She has also authored several articles on pleading standards in class action cases, developments in Delaware law and loss causation standards.
Prior to joining Katten, Ms. Costley was an associate at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati and Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton LLP. She received her J.D. from the University of California, Berkeley School of Law, where she was a member of the California Law Review and Honors Moot Court Board and received the Prosser Award in Federal Criminal Law. She received her B.A., magna cum laude, in political science from the University of California, Santa Barbara.
Ms. Costley is admitted to practice in California and before the U.S. District Courts for the Central and Northern Districts of California and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit.