Professional Background
William C. Rand founded the Law Office of William Coudert Rand on May 1, 2001. After graduating from Harvard College with honors in economics in 1987, Mr. Rand worked for two years as an analyst at Prudential Securities before completing his J.D. at Fordham Law School in 1992. At Fordham, he competed in the Mulligan and Wormser moot court competitions and published a Note in the Fordham Urban Law Journal analyzing the effect of fraudulent conveyance law on leveraged buy-outs.
Mr. Rand commenced his legal career at Brown & Wood, where he spent three years in the litigation department working predominantly on securities class actions, RICO, and accountant liability. He helped Arthur Andersen successfully defend a RICO action brought by the British Government related to DeLorean’s car manufacturing operations in Northern Ireland and effectively defended class actions against broker-dealers related to their practices regarding margin loans and free credit balances.
Mr. Rand next followed Brown & Wood’s head of litigation, E. Michael Bradley, to Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue, where he continued his securities practice. He defended Nextel Communications, Inc. from a class action alleging misrepresentation of its technology’s capabilities and defended Merrill Lynch and Paine Webber from a securities class action alleging accounting misrepresentations related to revenue recognition. Mr. Rand also defended products liability cases involving Tylenol and Camel cigarettes.
Mr. Rand joined Paul, Hastings, Janofsky & Walker LLP on December 15, 1997. At Paul Hastings he defended a securities class action brought against American Bank Note Holographics, Inc. alleging accounting fraud, defended Xpedite Systems, Inc. from an investor action alleging improper transfer of securities, and defended independent directors against suits alleging fraud and breach of fiduciary duty. He also defended an SEC insider trading action, defended an NASD proceeding, defended Mike Tyson from a class action complaint related to his ear biting incident, and prosecuted and defended numerous actions involving trade secrets and restrictive covenants.
On May 1, 2001, Mr. Rand left Paul Hastings to found his own practice, where he has litigated employment termination actions, FLSA overtime and minimum wage collective actions, state wage and consumer class actions, securities arbitrations, securities class and derivative actions, appraisal rights actions, negligence actions, and an assortment of other complex commercial matters.
Mr. Rand has prosecuted in excess of one hundred FLSA cases and has secured settlements on behalf of thousands of workers, including hand delivery couriers, home health aides, tax preparers, office cleaners, and drivers.
Thorman v. Royal Care Inc.
13 Civ. 5465 (E.D.N.Y.) — Approving $668,661 settlement for 1,178 home health aides
Johnson v. Sobtax NY, Inc.
12 Civ. 0433 (S.D.N.Y.) (CM) — Approving $266,250.50 settlement on behalf of 18 tax preparers
Young v. Lasership, Inc.
09 Civ. 10028 (S.D.N.Y.) (RJH) — Approving $235,000 settlement on behalf of 77 hand delivery couriers
Mingo v. Allied Health Services, Inc.
14 Civ. 5674 (S.D.N.Y.) (CM) — Approving $209,464.25 settlement on behalf of approximately 400 home health aides
Dolinski v. Avant Business Service Corp.
13 Civ. 4753 (S.D.N.Y. March 4, 2015) — Approving $184,527 settlement on behalf of 48 hand delivery couriers
Bunion v. Lasership, Inc.
11 Civ. 1881 (S.D.N.Y.) — Approving $181,000 settlement on behalf of 42 hand delivery couriers
Shelton v. A-1 International
11 Civ. 9426 (S.D.N.Y.) (PAE) — Approving $149,333 settlement on behalf of 43 hand delivery couriers
Garcia v. Interline Employee Assistance Program Inc.
15 Civ. 6731 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 31, 2017) — Approving $150,000 settlement on behalf of 10 house managers
Swinton v. Maxx Mail USA, Corp.
12 Civ. 5182 (S.D.N.Y.) (JGK) — Approving $125,000 settlement on behalf of 65 hand delivery couriers
Morton v. Earlybird Delivery Systems, LLC
11 Civ. 8912 (S.D.N.Y.) (KBF) — Approving $100,000 settlement on behalf of 86 hand delivery couriers
Padilla v. Dutch Express, LLC
15 Civ. 6424 (S.D.N.Y.) (GBD) — Approving $90,887 settlement on behalf of 109 hand delivery couriers
Anger v. Success Express, Inc.
15 Civ. 3252 (S.D.N.Y.) (PKC) — Approving $77,500 settlement on behalf of 27 hand delivery couriers
McDonald v. NYC Messenger, Inc.
15 Civ. 6795 (S.D.N.Y.) (CM) — Approving $75,000 settlement on behalf of 9 hand delivery couriers
Hypolite v. Health Care Servs. of New York, Inc.
256 F. Supp. 3d 485 (S.D.N.Y. 2017) (JGK) — Certifying collective class of health aides not paid overtime after January 1, 2015
De Carrasco v. Life Care Servs., Inc.
2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 206682 (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 15, 2017) — Certifying class and collective of health aides not paid overtime after January 1, 2015
Shillingford v. Astra Home Care, Inc.
16 Civ. 6785, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 29576 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 23, 2018) (KPF) — Certifying collective of health aides who worked 24-hour shifts
Heredia v. Americare
17 Civ. 6219 (S.D.N.Y. May 24, 2018) (WHP) — Certifying collective action of health aides not paid overtime after January 1, 2015
Sun Hong Yim v. Carey Limousine NY, Inc.
No. 1:16-cv-05554 (S.D.N.Y. Oct. 25, 2017) — Approving settlements on behalf of 7 drivers
Gani v. Guardian Service Industries Inc.
2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 4353 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 13, 2011) — Ordered FLSA collective action notice to over 4,000 office cleaner employees
White v. Western Beef, Inc.
2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 73945 (July 8, 2011) — Ordered FLSA collective action notice to grocery store clerks with title “manager”
Mr. Rand has been appointed lead class counsel in numerous overtime cases that settled on a class-wide basis, recovering millions for child care workers, cable installers, office cleaners, water meter installers, home health aides, servers, and tour bus employees.
Owens v. Astra Home Care, Inc.
524708-2018 (Sup. Ct. Kings County, Sept. 19, 2025) — Approving $4.9 million wage settlement on behalf of class of 455 health aides
Hypolite v. Health Care Servs. of New York, Inc.
16-cv-04922 (S.D.N.Y. 2017) (JGK) — Approving settlement of $4 million for class of over 10,000 health aides
Douglas v. Constructamax Inc.
10 Civ. 5323 (E.D.N.Y. July 25, 2013) (ENV)(SMG) — Approving $1,022,065 class settlement for 178 water meter installers
Wallace v. Sterling Home Care, Inc.
22703-2019E (Sup. Ct. Bronx County, Jan. 8, 2026) — Approving $791,990 wage settlement for class of 218 home health aides (24-hour shifts)
Darby v. Utopia Home Care, Inc.
523239-2017 (Sup. Ct. Kings County, Feb. 5, 2026) — Approving $750,000 wage settlement for class of 332 home health aides
Lumley v. Bank of America, N.A.
08 Civ. 3993 (S.D.N.Y.) (TPG) — Approving $651,392.79 class settlement on behalf of 21 tax preparation employees
Colbert v. Hand In Hand Group Inc.
22 Civ. 03055 (JP) (E.D. Pa., Jan. 23, 2024) — Approving class and collective settlement of $575,000 on behalf of 95 class members
Gaston v. The Doral Investors Group, LLC
Index No. 501710-2018 (Sup. Ct. Kings County, Dec. 1, 2022) — Approving $470,422 settlement for 239 health aides
Manswell v. Kentrel Corporation
11 Civ. 7108 (S.D.N.Y.) (JGK) — Approving $413,511 class settlement for 79 water meter installers
Gani v. Guardian Service Industries, Inc.
10 Civ. 4433 (S.D.N.Y.) (KBF) — Approving $378,000 class settlement on behalf of 200+ office cleaners
Brown v. KF Office LLC
21 Civ. 01292 (MMH) (Oct. 19, 2023) — Approving class settlement of $370,112 on behalf of 340 home health aides
Wiltshire v. Abbott House
05 Civ. 10596 (S.D.N.Y.) (RPP) — Approving $339,220.42 class settlement on behalf of 164 child care workers
Darby v. Sterling Home Care, Inc.
17 Civ. 5370 (S.D.N.Y. Jan. 2, 2020) — Approving settlement of $330,873.41 on behalf of class of 187 health aides
Carrasco v. Life Care Services, Inc.
17 Civ. 05617 (KBF) (S.D.N.Y. Dec. 14, 2018) — Approving settlement of $277,320 for class of 403 health aides
Gennings v. Aquinas, LLC d/b/a “Senior Helpers”
17-cv-6032-GHW (S.D.N.Y. July 2, 2019) — Approving settlement of $277,320.68 for class of 403 health aides
Campbell v. Uptown Communications & Electric, Inc.
11 Civ. 2758 (S.D.N.Y.) (PKC) — Approving $125,000 settlement for hundreds of cable installer employees
Guzman v. Americare, Inc.
Index No. 24877-2018E (Sup. Ct. Bronx Co. April 13, 2021) — Certifying class of health aides illegally not paid for 3 hours of alleged breaks and 8 hours of alleged sleep during 24-hour shifts
Krebs v. The Canyon Club, Inc.
22 Misc. 3d 1125A (N.Y. Sup. Westchester Co. 2009) — Appointed lead counsel in class action on behalf of hundreds of servers whose tips were illegally withheld
Herbert v. Go New York Tours Inc.
18 Civ. 5653 (S.D.N.Y. June 25, 2020) — Approving class settlement of $54,482 on behalf of 14 class members
Mr. Rand has served as lead counsel in securities fraud class actions, derivative actions, and consumer fraud class actions, securing favorable settlements for investors and consumers. He also has extensive experience challenging inadequate class action settlements to protect class members’ rights.
Jung v. The Major Automotive Companies, Inc.
25668/04 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. Bronx County) (Justice Hunter) — Multi-million dollar settlement for class of more than 40,000 consumers in used car fraud class action
Karpus Management Inc. v. Brantley Capital Corp.
Case No. 1:07-CV-01716 (N.D. Ohio 2007) — Securities fraud class action settled for $3.75 million
Strougo v. Brantley Capital Corp.
243 F.R.D. 100 (S.D.N.Y. 2007) — Rand firm appointed lead class counsel; case transferred to N.D. Ohio
Ravenswood Investment Co. v. Bishop Capital Corp.
374 F. Supp. 2d 1055 (D. Wyo. 2005) — Successfully alleging derivative securities law claims
Calapasas Investment Partnership v. Captec Net Lease Realty, Inc.
Case No. 02-0071 (PJH) (N.D. Cal.) — Securities fraud class action settled on favorable terms
Breakwater Partners L.P. v. Atalanta Sosnoff Corp.
CA No. 20068 (Del. Ch. 2004) — Securities derivative and class action settled on favorable terms
Settlement Challenges
In re M&F Worldwide Shareholders Litigation
C.A. No. 18502 NC (Del. Ch. 2002) (V.C. Strine) — Class action settlement rejected as inadequate; motion to intervene granted
In re Donna Karan Int’l Inc. Shareholders Litig.
C.A. No. 18559 (Del. Ch. 2002) (V.C. Strine) — Successfully objected; fee award reduced from $925,000 to $200,000
Zucker v. Westinghouse Electric Corp.
265 F.3d 171 (3d Cir. 2001) — $580,000 fee award reversed
Kaplan v. Rand
192 F.3d 60 (2d Cir. 1999) — $1 million fee award reversed
Kurzweil v. Philip Morris Companies, Inc.
1999 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 18378 (S.D.N.Y. 1999) — Fee award reduced by $250,000 as settlement of Rand’s appeal
Seinfeld v. Robinson
656 N.Y.S.2d 707 (Sup. Ct. N.Y. Co. 1997) (Crane, J.) — $3.4 million fee request denied in derivative action against American Express directors; on remand, court awarded $512,040
SEC v. Alexander
160 F. Supp. 2d 642 (S.D.N.Y. 2001) (J. Swain) — Denied motion to dismiss insider trading allegations
Saslaw v. Alaskari
1997 WL 221208 (S.D.N.Y. 1997) (J. Preska) — Dismissing Section 14 securities claims
Allard, Trustee of DeLorean Motor Co. v. Arthur Andersen & Co.
924 F. Supp. 488 (S.D.N.Y. 1996) (J. Mukasey) — Summary judgment granted on RICO claims
In re F & M Distributors, Inc. Sec. Litig.
937 F. Supp. 647 (E.D. Mich. 1996) — Motion to dismiss denied
Bissel v. Merrill Lynch & Co., Inc.
937 F. Supp. 237 (S.D.N.Y. 1996) (J. Schwartz) — Dismissing claims to interest on margin loans based on federal preemption
Lind v. Vanguard Offset Printers, Inc.
857 F. Supp. 1060 (S.D.N.Y. 1994) (J. Sweet) — Denying summary judgment on securities fraud claims
Publications
- “Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998,” Paul Hastings Financial Services Report, Spring 1999
- “The Role of the Judge as Protector in Class Action Settlements,” N.Y. Law Journal, September 24, 2002
- “New York’s Common Interest Privilege is Weakened by the Courts,” N.Y. Law Journal, February 22, 1999
- Note on Fraudulent Conveyance Law & Leveraged Buy-Outs, Fordham Urban Law Journal
Volunteer & Pro Bono Work
- Volunteer Mediator, U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York (September 2011–2016; completed 14 mediations)
- Pro Bono Attorney, Southern District of New York
- Appellate Pro Bono Program, N.Y. County District Attorney’s Office (placard awarded December 1994 for exceptional contributions)
