Declaration of Laurence M. Rose

Summary

A Joint Declaration of Laurence M. Rosen and Kevin J. Orsini in Support of the Joint Motion to Amend the Scheduling Order in In re: January 2021 Short Squeeze Trading Litigation, Case No. 21-2989-MDL-ALTONAGA/Damian (Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA, Document 619-2), executed November 6, 2023 and entered on the FLSD docket November 6, 2023. Rosen, of The Rosen Law Firm, P.A. for Lead Plaintiff Blue Laine-Beveridge and the Named Plaintiffs, and Orsini, of Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP for Robinhood, declare in support of extending the close of discovery from March 15, 2024 to June 28, 2024, citing 88 document requests served September 30, 2022, more than 30 Robinhood productions approaching 600,000 pages, 18 million rows of trading data and a FINRA production of 207 gigabytes delivered October 25, 2023. A certificate of CM/ECF service is dated November 6, 2023.

Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used

Full text

UNITED STATES DISTRICT COURT
SOUTHERN DISTRICT OF FLORIDA

CASE NO. 21-2989-MDL-ALTONAGA/Damian

In re: JANUARY 2021 SHORT SQUEEZE
TRADING LITIGATION

This Document Relates to: All Actions Involving the Federal Securities Laws

JOINT DECLARATION OF LAURENCE M. ROSEN AND KEVIN J. ORSINI IN
SUPPORT OF THE JOINT MOTION TO AMEND THE SCHEDULING ORDER

The undersigned, under penalties of perjury under the laws of the United States of
America, declare as follows:
1.
I, Laurence M. Rosen, am the Managing Partner of The Rosen Law Firm, P.A.,
Lead Counsel for Lead Plaintiff and proposed Class Representative Blue Laine-Beveridge, and
Named Plaintiffs and proposed Class Representatives Abraham Huacuja, Ava Bernard, Brendan
Clarke, Brian Harbison, Cecilia Rivas, Doi Nguyen, Joseph Gurney, Marcel Poirier, Sandy Ng,
Santiago Gil Bohórquez, and Thomas Cash (“Plaintiffs”).
2.
I, Kevin J. Orsini, am a partner at Cravath, Swaine & Moore, LLP, attorneys for
Defendants Robinhood Markets, Inc., Robinhood Financial LLC, and Robinhood Securities LLC
(“Robinhood” or “Defendants”).
3.
We submit this Joint Declaration in support of the concurrently filed Joint Motion
to Amend the Scheduling Order, to extend the close of discovery from March 15, 2024, to June
28, 2024, and to reschedule pre-trial deadlines and the trial date in accordance therewith. We each
have personal knowledge about the information in this Joint Declaration relating to ourselves and,
if called upon, would completely testify thereto.
Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA   Document 619-2   Entered on FLSD Docket 11/06/2023   Page 1 of 5

2
4.
On September 30, 2022, Plaintiffs served Plaintiffs’ First Requests for Production
of Documents, which consisted of 88 Requests.
5.
The Parties’ commenced the meet-and-confer process with respect to these requests
in November 2022 and, after dozens of letters and conferences, the process is only now winding
down.
6.
Since Plaintiffs served their First Requests for Production of Documents,
Robinhood has made more than 30 separate productions, which, by early November 2023, will
comprise nearly 600,000 pages, including hundreds of spreadsheets containing vast quantities of
data.
7.
While the Parties continued the meet-and-confer process in the spring of 2023, and
documents continued to be produced on a rolling basis, much of the Parties’ attention was focused
upon class discovery, to wit, the exchange of opening and rebuttal expert reports and supporting
documentation, document discovery from the proposed class representatives, and more than 20
depositions taken of plaintiffs, experts, and third parties.
8.
Following the completion of the class certification briefing, the Parties have been
exclusively focused on fact discovery for the past several months.
9.
Despite diligent efforts to complete discovery in compliance with the deadlines set
in the Scheduling Order a year ago, however, the Parties have concluded that this will not be
possible.
10.
Plaintiffs’ Requests sought, inter alia, the production of documents evidencing
large amounts of technical trading data. The data on Robinhood customers’ trades and option
contracts alone that Robinhood has agreed to produce amount to not less than 18 million rows of
data.
Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA   Document 619-2   Entered on FLSD Docket 11/06/2023   Page 2 of 5

3
11.
Moreover, because Plaintiffs’ Requests are targeted at the trading restrictions at
issue in this case, Robinhood’s trading data must be sorted using a variety of technical query tools.
12.
Both the quality and quantity of the trading data make it hard to query. Plaintiffs
have requested data that is not contained in a structured format that is easily queried. A large
amount of requested data flows between multiple systems related to order execution, settlement
and clearing, before landing in a “data lake” where it must be plumbed and placed into a more
easily queried format. This query process is difficult, even for the specialized information
technology vendors that are working on this case.
13.
Separately, Plaintiffs subpoenaed trading data from third parties, including the
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (“FINRA”) on March 7, 2023. Plaintiffs negotiated with
FINRA for nearly four months before coming to an agreement on the scope of the production of
data by FINRA. Much of that time was spent by FINRA researching the practicality, difficulty and
cost of producing the requested data.
14.
Given the large quantity of trading data being compiled, FINRA first produced the
data on October 25, 2023, on a hard-drive with a PIN pad and produced the PIN the following day.
This production comprises 207 gigabytes of data in compressed archive (.gz) format. Plaintiffs
have not had the opportunity to review the data to determine whether the data satisfies the
parameters of the agreed-upon production or whether it is in a useable or shareable format.
15.
The Parties also served subpoenas duces tecum on the DTCC, NSCC, and a number
of brokerage firms, including Axos Clearing LLC, Interactive Brokers LLC, and Apex Clearing
Corporation, Tradestation Securities, Inc., MooMoo Financial Inc., and E*Trade Financial
Corporation.
Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA   Document 619-2   Entered on FLSD Docket 11/06/2023   Page 3 of 5

4
16.
The Parties are still in the process of negotiating the scope of production of
documents, confidentiality provisions and depositions with these non-parties.
17.
An extension of the close of discovery will provide the Parties the necessary time to
obtain the documents and data, for the Parties and their experts to review them and prepare their
reports, and for the Parties to take any depositions in conjunction therewith prior to filing pre-trial
motions.
We declare under penalty of perjury that the foregoing is true and correct.

Executed: November 6, 2023

THE ROSEN LAW FIRM, P.A.

/s/ Laurence M. Rosen

Laurence M. Rosen, Esq., Fla. Bar No. 0182877

Executed: November 6, 2023

CRAVATH, SWAINE & MOORE LLP

/s/ Kevin J. Orsini

Kevin J. Orsini, Esq.
Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA   Document 619-2   Entered on FLSD Docket 11/06/2023   Page 4 of 5

5
CERTIFICATE OF SERVICE

I hereby certify that on November 6, 2023, a true and correct copy of the foregoing
document was served by CM/ECF to the parties registered to the Court’s CM/ECF system.

/s/Laurence M. Rosen

Case 1:21-md-02989-CMA   Document 619-2   Entered on FLSD Docket 11/06/2023   Page 5 of 5

File and source

File

gov.uscourts.flsd.590042.619.2.pdf

Size

138,633 bytes

SHA-256

d67083ad882d9f2a967a07802aeee5bc14dfb240bdeaa53df73d4c10ae171bbc

Our copy

gov.uscourts.flsd.590042.619.2.pdf

Original

archive.org