The credit crisis recently entered a dark new phase, and this new darker phase has also already produced its own distinctive round of lawsuits. Like the ominous economic circumstances, the new litigation phase also seems darker and more threatening.
In the latest issue of InSights (here) — entitled "Has the Credit Crisis
A November 18, 2007 New York Times article entitled "If Buyout Firms Are So Smart, Why Are They So Wrong?" (here) takes a critical look at many buyout firms’ sudden haste to walk away from deals that were much ballyhooed only a short time ago. Clearly the bloom has gone off the buyout
In prior posts (here and here) I have questioned whether SOX whistleblower protection is "more theoretical than real." A forthcoming study by Richard Moberly of University of Nebraska Law School entitled "Unfulfilled Expectations: An Empirical Analysis of Why Sarbanes-Oxley Whistleblowers Rarely Win" (here) takes a look at just how poorly employee
In a prior post (here), I raised the question whether the whistleblower protection under Section 806 of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act is "more theoretical than real." A February 2007 study by Alexander Dyck of the University of Toronto, Adair Morse of the University of Michigan Business School, and Luigi Zingales of the University of
At the heart of recent calls for regulatory reform in the Interim Report of the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation and in the Bloomberg/Schumer Report is the assertion that the U.S. securities markets are losing global IPO marketshare because of supposed regulatory overkill and the litigious environment in the U.S. Accompanying this assertion is the
In the latest of the securities class action opt out settlements, California’s teacher pension fund reached a $46.5 million settlement in its separate case against Qwest Communications, its accountants and investment banks, and certain former directors and officers. According to news reports (here), the parties resolved the pension fund’s case, which was
The growing bribery scandal at Siemens has made the front pages of the world’s financial papers in recent days. For example, on January 31, 2007, the Wall Street Journal (here, subscription required) ran an article entitled "At Siemens, Witnesses Cite Pattern of Bribery." In its February 1, 2007 SEC filing on Form 6-K
As The D & O Diary has previously noted (here and here), earlier this month the National Economic Research Associates (NERA) and Cornerstone Research (in conjunction with the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse) released their respective studies of the 2006 securities class action lawsuit filings. The NERA study can be
Regular D & O Diary readers know that I have been maintaining a running tally of options backdating related litigation (here). According to the most recent count, so far there have been 23 securities class action lawsuits raising allegations of options grant manipulations. (The Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse maintains its
On January 16, 2007, the Lerach Coughlin firm filed a purported securities class action lawsuit in federal court in the District of Columbia against Sunrise Senior Living and several of its directors and officers. A copy of the law firm’s press release can be found here and a copy of the complaint can be found