The Hungarian-born musician, Franz Liszt, was one of the great piano virtuosos and composers of the 19th century. Liszt’s musical legacy is substantial, and he would be well-remembered even just for his musical compositions. But what makes Liszt interesting is the extraordinary life he lived. As Oliver Hilmes puts it in his recent Liszt biography, Liszt was a “superstar, a genius and a European celebrity – he was utterly exceptional.” During his long life, Liszt reinvented himself several times, yet each time he seemed to enhance his stature as one of the great characters of his age, or indeed of any age. Continue Reading Sunday Arts: Liszt’s B Minor Piano Sonata

Just as the overall number of securities class action lawsuit filings declined in 2021 relative to the year prior (as discussed in detail here), the number of securities suits filed against non-U.S. companies declined in 2021 as well, although the number of suits against foreign companies as a percentage of all 2021 securities suit filings decreased only slightly, as reflected in a new report from the Dechert law firm. The February 24, 2022 report, entitled “2001 Developments in U.S. Securities Fraud Class Actions Against Non-Issuers,” can be found here. Continue Reading Securities Suit Filings Against Non-U.S. Companies Declined in 2021

In the latest post-SPAC-merger securities class action lawsuit, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities suit against a rare earth mining and processing company that completed a SPAC merger in November 2020. Like many SPAC-related securities suits that have been filed in recent months, the lawsuit follows a drop in the company’s share prices following a negative short-seller report. A copy of the February 22, 2022 lawsuit against MP Materials Corp. can be found here. Continue Reading Mining Company Hit with Post-SPAC-Merger Securities Suit After Short Seller Report

Jeff Lubitz
Louis Angelo Panis

As readers of this blog know, an important litigation phenomenon that followed in the wake of the coronavirus outbreak has been the surge of COVID-19 related securities class action lawsuit filings. In this guest post, Jeff Lubitz, Managing Director, and Louis Angelo Panis, Research Analyst, ISS Securities Class Action Services, take a closer look at the coronavirus-related securities class action lawsuits filings and review the status of the cases that have been filed so far. Please note that the date reflected in the article is as of February 15, 2022. A version of this article previously was published as an ISS Securities Class Action Services client alert. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post 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 the authors’ article. Continue Reading Guest Post: COVID-19 Update: Investor Related Class Actions

As readers of this blog well know, since the initial U.S. coronavirus outbreak in March 2020, plaintiffs’ lawyers have filed dozens of COVID-19-related securities class action lawsuits. Even though the coronavirus-related litigation phenomenon, like the coronavirus outbreak itself, is about to enter its third year, relatively few of the coronavirus-related securities suits have yet reached the motion to dismiss stage. However, last week the federal judge presiding over the coronavirus-related lawsuit filed against Zoom Video Telecommunications entered an order granting in part and denying in part the defendants’ motion to dismiss. The Court’s February 16, 2022 order, a copy of which can be found here, also presents an interesting perspective on the ways in which privacy and security issues can lead to potential securities law liability exposures. Continue Reading Zoom Coronavirus-Related Securities Suit Dismissal Motion Denied in Part

In a lawsuit that captures two of the top current securities class action lawsuit trends, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities class action lawsuit against health technology company Butterfly Network. The new lawsuit is both SPAC-related and COVID-related. Butterfly merged with Longview Acquisition Corp., a special purpose acquisition company (SPAC), in February 2021. The allegations included, among other things, a contention that the defendant company failed to take into account pandemic’s “broad consequences” in its operations and reporting. A copy of the plaintiff’s February 16, 2022 complaint can be found here. Continue Reading Post-SPAC-Merger Company Hit with COVID-Related Securities Suit

As I have noted elsewhere on this site (for example here), the number of federal court merger objection class action lawsuits declined significantly during 2021. But as I and others have also noted, the decline in class actions had not necessarily meant less merger objection litigation overall. The merger objection suits are still being filed; they are just being filed as individual actions rather than as class actions. In the following article, Gregory Markel, Vincent Sama, Daphne Morduchowitz, Andrew Escobar, and Matthew Catalano of the Seyfarth Shaw law firm take a closer look at these changing merger objection lawsuit patterns and discuss the implications. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post 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 the authors’ article. Continue Reading Guest Post: Plaintiffs’ Abusive Tax on M&A Deals Changed Form But Continued in 2021

As I have noted in prior posts on this site, the surge in special purpose acquisition corporation (SPAC) IPO transactions over the last two years has also meant a wave of SPAC-related lawsuits. In the following guest post, Peter Evans, Complex Claims Director – Executive & Professional Lines, Berkshire Hathaway Specialty Insurance, Elan Kandel, Member, Bailey Cavalieri LLC and James Talbert, Associate, Bailey Cavalieri LLC, take a look at SPACs and the litigation risks that SPAC sponsors can face, as well as the insurance issues that can arise in claims involving SPAC sponsors. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post 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 the authors’ article. Continue Reading Guest Post: Litigation Risks and Insurance Issues for SPAC Sponsors

Daniel J. Tyukody
Robert A. Horowitz

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s March 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank courts have struggled with application of the Morrison Court’s standard to securities lawsuits involving transactions in American Depository Receipts. As I noted in a prior blog post, one of the latest court rulings involving the application of Morrison to ADR transactions was the denial of the motion for class certification in the Toshiba case. In the following guest post, Daniel J. Tyukody and Robert A. Horowitz take a closer look that the class certification motion denial in Toshiba and consider the implications of the ruling.  Tyukody and Horowitz are Co-Chairs of Greenberg Traurig, LLP’s Securities Litigation Practice. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Here is the authors’ article. Continue Reading Guest Post: The Elusive Search For Determining The Reach Of Section 10(b) Liability Following Morrison

In what is one of the largest shareholder derivative lawsuit settlements ever, the parties to the various FirstEnergy bribery-related derivative lawsuits have reached an agreement to settle the actions for a payment of $180 million and the company’s agreement to adopt a number of corporate governance reforms. The settlement amount is to be funded by D&O insurance. The settlement agreement is subject to court approval. First Energy’s February 10, 2022 announcement of the settlement can be found here. The parties’ February 10, 2022 settlement term sheet can be found here. Continue Reading FirstEnergy Bribery-Related Derivate Lawsuit Settled for $180 Million