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In the following guest post, Ed Whitworth, the Head of Directors and Officers Liability at Inigo, and Yera Patel, Head of Casualty & Financial Lines Claims and Analytics for Inigo, summarize the results of a recent survey Inigo conducted of U.S. securities litigation defense counsel. The original of the survey summary previously was published on Inigo’s blog, here. I would like to thank Ed, Yera, and Inigo for allowing me to publish the report summary on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to the blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is the authors’ article. 

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Continue Reading Guest Post: Inigo’s 2023 Defense Counsel Survey

The U.S. Supreme Court – in a short, concise, unanimous opinion – has ruled that to assert Section 11 claims against Slack in connection with the company’s June 2019 direct listing, the plaintiff must plead and prove that he purchased shares pursuant to Slack’s allegedly misleading registration statement. Slack had offered both registered and unregistered…

In the latest edition of its annual report, the Sidley Austin law firm takes a detailed look at important securities litigation developments in 2022 relating to life sciences companies. The report includes not only a review of life sciences companies’ securities litigation class action filings trends but also examines life sciences companies’ track record in the courts, both with respect to motions to dismiss in the district courts and on appeal. The law firm’s report, entitled “Securities Class Actions in the Life Sciences Sector: 2022 Annual Survey” can be found here. A May 17, 2023 blog post summarizing the report can be found here.…

Continue Reading A Detailed Look at the 2022 Securities Litigation Against Life Sciences Companies

One of the significant contributing factors to the total number of securities class action lawsuit filings in 2022 was the number of SPAC-related securities suits filed during the year. However, while there were a significant number of SPAC-related suits filed in 2022, the number of SPAC-related suit filings declined as the year progressed, to the point that it was not clear whether the phenomenon would continue into 2023. As it has turned out, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have continued to file SPAC-related suits this year. In the latest example, on May 12, 2023, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities suit against energy storage services provider Stem, Inc., which merged with a SPAC in April 2021. This latest filing shows that the SPAC-related suits continue to be filed and that the suits continue to be a factor in the total overall number of securities suit filings.…

Continue Reading Energy Services Company Hit with SPAC-Related Securities Suit

The parties in the Kraft Heinz Securities Group securities class action litigation have agreed to settle the case for $450 million, a massive settlement that makes the list of all-time largest settlements. The settlement is subject to court approval. A copy of the parties’ stipulation and agreement of settlement, which was filed with the court on May 5, 2023, can be found here.…

Continue Reading Kraft Heinz Securities Litigation Settles for $450 Million

              

In the immediate aftermath of the banking crisis in mid-March, several of the key banks at the center of the crisis – including Silicon Valley Bank, Signature Bank, and Credit Suisse – were quickly hit with securities class action lawsuits. First Republic, another bank that suffered massive deposit withdrawals in March and that received a $30 billion infusion from J.P. Morgan and other large banks, has now been hit with a securities class action lawsuit after it announced its fiscal first quarter financial results on Monday. This latest lawsuit, only coming in as it does now, may fuel further uneasiness that the March banking crisis-related events, might not represent the end of the banking crisis story, nor the end of the related lawsuits.…

Continue Reading First Republic Bank Hit with Banking Crisis-Related Securities Suit   

As readers of this blog know, in the last couple of years a significant number of SPAC-related securities lawsuits have been filed, often arising after the post-merger de-SPAC company stumbles following the SPAC merger. In many of these cases, the securities suit plaintiffs often allege that the pre-merger private company made misleading statements about its business or operations, the truth about which only became apparent after the merger with the SPAC was completed.

In an interesting decision in a securities suit involving the used car consignment company CarLotz, which merged with a SPAC in January 2021, the court held that the named plaintiffs, one who purchased shares of the pre-merger SPAC and another bought shares in the post-merger de-SPAC, did not have standing under the securities laws to sue for alleged misrepresentations made by the pre-merger private company. Because this issue often comes up in SPAC-related securities suits, the court’s ruling potentially could have important implications in other SPAC lawsuits. A copy of the Southern District of New York’s March 31, 2023, order can be found here.…

Continue Reading Plaintiffs Lack Standing to Sue Over Pre-Merger Statements of SPAC Target Company

Joseph Gross

Earlier this week, the U.S. Supreme Court heard oral argument in the Slack case, the  high-profile securities law case the Court is considering this term. In the following guest post, Joseph Gross of the Wiley firm provides a detailed overview of the legal issues in the case and summarizes the parties’ oral arguments. I would like to thank Joe for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Joe’s article.…

Continue Reading Guest Post: Will the Supreme Court Cut Securities Plaintiffs Some Slack? 

As I noted in my year-end round up of D&O related issues (here), plaintiffs’ lawyers have continued to file securities class action lawsuits following cybersecurity incidents, even though the plaintiffs’ track record in these kinds of lawsuits generally has been poor. Among the cybersecurity-related securities lawsuits filed last year was the suit against cloud-based software company Okta relating in part to the cybersecurity incident at the company earlier in the year. Consistent with the general trend, on March 31, 2023, the court presiding over the Okta securities lawsuit granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss the cybersecurity-related allegations, although the court denied the dismissal motion with respect to certain of the plaintiffs’ other unrelated allegations. The court granted the plaintiff leave to amend the dismissed allegations. The court’s March 31, 2023, order can be found here.…

Continue Reading Cybersecurity-Related Securities Suit Allegations Against Okta Dismissed