It was great to be in New York on Tuesday and Wednesday this week for the return of the live version of the annual PLUS D&O Symposium. I am certain I was not the only one at the event who was delighted to be among friends and colleagues again and to meet so many new people. In one sense, it was a little awkward for everyone, since it has been so long since any of us have been around other people. But with appropriate precautions in place, everything went well and it was just fine being in a large gathering again. My congrats to the Conference organizers for putting together a great conference and to the PLUS staff for putting on a great show. Continue Reading Scenes from the PLUS D&O Symposium

At least since Elon Musk’s infamous “take private” Tweet, we have known that communications on social media can potentially give rise to liability under the federal securities laws. Now, after a company posted an allegedly upbeat Tweet ahead of its full quarterly earnings release, and after the company’s share price rose on the Tweet but slumped on the later release of the detailed results, the company has been hit with a securities class action lawsuit based on the Tweet. A copy of the complaint filed on February 28, 2022 against Affirm Holdings can be found here. Continue Reading Upbeat Social Media Post Draws Securities Suit

As I have noted in numerous prior posts on this site, over the course of the last two years plaintiffs’ lawyers have filed a host of COVID-19-related securities claims. With the passage of time, many of these cases have now worked their way to the motion to dismiss stage. Although the results have been mixed, the dismissal motions have been granted in several cases. In the latest example of favorable outcome for a COVID-19-related lawsuit defendant, the court in the COVID-19-related securities suit pending against Chembio Diagnostics and its executives recently granted the corporate defendants’ dismissal motion. However, in an odd twist, the court denied the dismissal motion of the company’s offering underwriters. A copy of the court’s February 23, 2022 order in the case can be found here. Continue Reading COVID-19-Related Securities Suit Against Diagnostic Testing Company Dismissed

In my recent year-end wrap up of directors’ and officers’ liability and insurance issues that arose during 2021, I conjectured that several current economic circumstances – including in particular supply chain disruptions – could lead to D&O claims in 2022. The way that D&O claims might arise out of these economic conditions is illustrated in a new securities class action lawsuit filed against the software company Cerence, which experienced a reduction in automobile industry demand for its products and services due to the global semiconductor shortage. A copy of the complaint filed against Cerence on February 25, 2022 can be found here. Continue Reading Global Semiconductor Shortage Leads to Securities Lawsuit

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