By: Sara Crook Hickey, Jennifer Lee, Shoba Pillay, Charles Riely, Reanne Zheng
The SEC’s high-profile litigation against SolarWinds and its Chief Information Security Officer (CISO), Timothy G. Brown, reached a critical turning point on July 18, 2024, when a district Client Alert: Key Takeaways from the Motion to Dismiss Ruling in SEC v. SolarWinds et al.court in the Southern District of New York issued a ruling granting in large part, but denying in part, the defendants’ motion to dismiss. In its extensive opinion and order spanning 107 pages, the court: (1) denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss with respect to securities fraud claims premised on the company’s Security Statement posted on its website, permitting the SEC to continue pursuing those claims; (2) dismissed the SEC’s securities fraud claims based on certain statements made by Brown in press releases, blog posts, and podcasts; (3) dismissed the SEC’s securities fraud claims premised on risk factor disclosures; (4) dismissed the SEC’s securities fraud claims regarding certain of the misleading disclosures made after the incident; (5) dismissed the SEC’s internal accounting controls claim; and (6) dismissed the SEC’s disclosure controls and procedure claim.[1]