One of the most important aspects of class action litigation in the U.S. is the right of individuals to “opt out” of the class. However, as discussed in the following guest post from David Kaplan and Lane Arnold, a series of recent developments has significantly complicated the decision-making framework for prospective opt outs. Kaplan is a Director at Saxena White P.A. and co-head of the firm’s Direct Action practice. Arnold is a Senior Director – Legal at the University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Company (UTIMCO). This article was originally written and published in the April edition of The NAPPA Report. I would like to thank Dave and Lane for allowing me to publish their article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Dave and Lane’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Protecting Securities Fraud Recoveries: Investors Face a Catch-22
In the latest example of a company that went public through a recent merger with a SPAC getting hit with a securities class action lawsuit, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities suit against plastics recycler PureCycle Technologies, certain of its executives, and the former chairman of the company’s SPAC merger partner. Like many of the recent SPAC-related securities lawsuit filings, this new lawsuit followed shortly after the publication of a highly critical short-sellers report. A copy of the plaintiff’s complaint can be found 
In the latest SPAC-related securities class action lawsuit filing, a plaintiff shareholder has initiated a securities suit against Skillz, Inc., an online gaming platform that in December 2020 merged with Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp. (FEAC), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The share price of the post-merger publicly traded company declined after short sellers issued reports questioning the company’s revenue recognition practices and other financial details. The lawsuit followed after the share price decline. The individual defendants named in the securities complaint include the former President of FEAC, who became a director of Skillz following the merger. A copy of the plaintiff’s May 7, 2021 complaint can be found 
A federal district judge has denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss in a securities class action lawsuit arising out of an electric utility’s eight-year involvement in a domestic bribery scheme. The court’s ruling has several interesting features relating to the securities litigation exposures from domestic corruption. Northern District of Illinois Judge Virginia M. Kendall’s April 21, 2021 opinion in the Exelon Corporation securities suit can be found here. An April 28, 2021 memo about the ruling from the Shearman & Sterling law firm can be found 
In what is a notable development in the emerging SPAC-related securities class action litigation scene, the parties to a SPAC-related securities suit involving the streaming media company Akazoo company have reached a partial settlement in the aggregate amount of $35 million. The deal is a partial settlement because claims remain pending against other defendants. As discussed below, the settlement has a number of interesting features. It is, in any event, a noteworthy data point for the discussion about SPAC-related litigation exposures.
Readers of this blog know that there have been several SPAC-related securities class action lawsuits filed in 2021, with the suits mostly coming in after the de-SPAC transaction has been completed. Even readers who think they get the idea already will want to be sure to take a look at the new SPAC-related lawsuit that came in earlier this week. What makes this one different is that, though the lawsuit names both the SPAC and the SPAC merger target company as defendants, the merger, though announced, has not yet even taken place. And, mind you, this is not your garden variety merger objection lawsuit, it is a full blown 10b-5 class action lawsuit. Interested? Read on.
As I have noted in recent blog posts, there have already been several securities class action lawsuits filed this year related to the current wave of SPAC activity. These recently filed lawsuits have only just been filed and have not yet made their way to the dispositive motion stage. However, there are also other earlier-filed SPAC-related lawsuits pending, involving SPAC-related transactions that preceded the current SPAC wave. One of these earlier filed securities lawsuits involves Alta Mesa Resources, a company that collapsed within the first year after it was formed in a 2018 merger with a SPAC. On April 14, 2021, Southern District of Texas Judge 
Electric vehicle battery company Romeo Power, which became a publicly traded company through a December 2020 merger with a SPAC, has been hit with a securities class action lawsuit following a share price decline after its announcement of a disruption in its supply chain. The new lawsuit is interesting both because of the SPAC angle and because it resulted from supply chain issues. The new lawsuit against Romeo Power was, in fact, one of two securities suits filed last week arising out of supply chain disruption. As discussed below, supply chain disruption could represent an emerging new area of corporate and securities litigation exposure. I also discuss below the fact that the new lawsuit involves yet another de-SPAC company in the electric vehicle industry
As has been extensively noted on this site and elsewhere, the sheer level of SPAC-related action has been the one of the top business stories of the last few months. However, as I noted 
Even though the overall number of federal court securities class action lawsuit filings decrease in 2020 relative to 2019, the number of securities suits involving accounting allegations increased slightly, according to a new report from Cornerstone Research. The report, which is entitled “Accounting Class Action Filings and Settlements: 2020 Review and Analysis” also notes that the number of and value of settlements of accounting-related securities suits increased in 2020, as well. The April 7, 2021 report can be found