On August 6, 2025, Judge Jed S. Rakoff of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York issued an opinion in favor of Coherent’s clients, who alleged that Getty Images Holdings, Inc. (“Getty”) had breached its contractual obligations by preventing them from exercising warrants for Getty common stock. This case is similar to a precedent matter in which Coherent also consulted for plaintiffs, and which was decided favorably in 2023.
Here, plaintiffs claimed that the Getty warrants they had purchased were exercisable 30 days following Getty’s July 2022 business combination with a special purpose acquisition company. Getty asserted, among other things, that the registration statement for the issuance of the shares underlying the warrants did not become effective until a later date, and that the prospectus for those shares was not current when plaintiffs sought to exercise their warrants.
Coherent President Laurel Van Allen submitted two expert reports and testified at deposition concerning damages resulting from Getty’s breach and the opinions of Getty’s damages expert. In granting summary judgment, Judge Rakoff endorsed Ms. Van Allen’s analysis, adopting her damages method “in full,” and awarding plaintiffs $6.2 million in damages plus prejudgment interest.
Coherent worked closely with plaintiffs’ counsel, including John Bradham and Peter Katzman of Morea Schwartz Bradham Friedman & Brown LLP; Michael Rakower, Travis Mock, and Daniel Gilpin of Rakower Law PLLC; and Brian Hail of Allen Matkins Leck Gamble Mallory & Natsis LLP.
The Coherent team supporting Ms. Van Allen included Peter Fabbrucci, Kelsey Shaw, Ian Day, Disovankiri Boung, Joban Singh, and Zach Stephens.