MHS grad named a Minnesota Attorney of the Year
Anderson recognized for work on SEC whistleblower case
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MINNEAPOLIS -- A Marshall High School alumnus recently received a statewide recognition for his work representing two people blowing the whistle on a stock-manipulation scheme.
Court Anderson, a 1998 MHS graduate and Southwest Minnesota State University alumnus, was named one of Minnesota Lawyer's 2021 Attorneys of the Year. Minnesota Lawyer, a newspaper focused on courts and the legal profession in the state, presented the awards in February.
"It's quite an honor, and I'm really proud of it," Anderson said.
Anderson and Ben Hamborg, both attorneys at the Henson Efron law firm in Minneapolis, were recognized as a team. Together, they worked for years on a court case that resulted in a multimillion-dollar whistleblower award from the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Anderson and Hamborg represented two minority shareholders in a company that went public in 2012. The company's majority shareholders had manipulated stock prices in the first days of trading, to benefit themselves.
It took Anderson about seven years of work on the case, but in the end the clients were awarded more than $7 million -- one of the largest SEC whistleblower awards in the history of Minnesota. One of the company's co-founders, Ryan Gilbertson, was also sentenced to 12 years in prison for the stock manipulation. The fact that the case ended up resulting in criminal penalties for Gilbertson was one of the things that made it unusual, Anderson said.
There are some challenges in working on a case that can take years to reach its conclusion. Anderson said it can be difficult for clients.
"A lot of it is encouraging people to be patient," he said.
This year wasn't Anderson's first time being recognized as an Attorney of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer. He also received a group award in 2015, as part of the trial team representing former Minnesota Gov. Jesse Ventura in his defamation lawsuit against "American Sniper" author Chris Kyle.
Anderson said he had a few different influences in becoming an attorney.
"The law always interested me," he said. Part of that was because his father was a public accountant, and his uncle was a lawyer.
Another influence was his experiences at MHS.
"One of the things that brought me there was the Marshall speech program," Anderson said.
Anderson competed in extemporaneous speaking, where students are given a limited time to research and prepare a speech analyzing current events. Through competing in speech, Anderson said he "really developed the skill set" that helped him become a lawyer.
Anderson said today he mainly works with business and construction litigation. However, he's also worked on some unusual cases, because he also tries cases in court. Not many litigators still do that, he said.
"It's getting rarer. It used to be a higher percentage of cases were getting tried," Anderson said.