In the following guest post, Justin Bove, Chief Revenue Officer and Fiduciary Lead at Encore Fiduciary, reviews and analyses the ERISA fiduciary class action lawsuits filed in 2025. A version of this article previously was published on Encore’s Fid Guru Blog (here). My thanks to Justin for allowing me to publish his article on this site. Here is Justin’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: The State of ERISA Fiduciary Litigation in 2025
The resolution of many securities class action lawsuits would benefit from an economic assessment early in the case process. In the following guest post, Assen Koev argues in favor of a standardization of the initial economic assessment analysis as a way to provide the parties and concerned insurers with a clearer picture of the securities lawsuit at an earlier point in the case. Assen is an economic consultant and founder of SCA iPortal. A version of this article previously was published on Law360. I would like to thank Assen for allowing 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 Assen’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Standardizing Early Case Appraisal in Securities Class Actions
In recent years, one of the curses of the corporate and securities litigation world has been the ubiquitous filing of merger objection lawsuits in connection with proposed M&A transactions. When a deal is announced, plaintiffs’ lawyers almost always file one or more of these suits in which they seek additional proxy disclosures. After the defendant company agrees to make additional disclosures, the plaintiffs’ lawyers dismiss the suits in exchange for the payment of a so-called “mootness fee.” It is a process that the well-respected jurist Richard Posner famously described as “no better than a racket.”
Now, in a recent decision written by Judge Frank Easterbrook, the Seventh Circuit has identified additional tools and ammunition that companies and other objectors can use to try to fight these kinds of lawsuits — which, the appellate court specially recognized, have no purpose other than to transfer money from companies to plaintiffs’ lawyers.Continue Reading Will the Seventh Circuit’s Recent Opinion Deter Merger Objection Lawsuits?
One of the characteristics of “opt-out” class actions in the U.S. is that class members retain the option of opting out of the class settlements. A new study shows that in recent years, opt-outs are becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in securities class action settlements, particularly in connection with securities cases having certain traits. The Cornerstone Research study, entitled “Opt-Outs in Securities Class Action Settlements: 2019-H1 2022” can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s October 25, 2023, press release about the report can be found here.Continue Reading Cornerstone Research: Securities Suit Opt-Outs Increasingly Frequent in Large, Complex Cases
The total number of securities class action lawsuit settlements reached the highest level in 15 years in 2022, and median, average, and aggregate settlement amounts also rose significantly in 2022 compared to the year prior, according a recently published annual report from Cornerstone Research. The report, entitled “Securities Class Action Settlements: 2022 Review and Analysis,” analyzes the 105 securities class action lawsuit settlements finalized in 2022 and compares them statistically with prior years’ settlements. The report can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s March 8, 2023, press release about the report can be found here.Continue Reading Cornerstone Research: Securities Suit Settlements at High Levels in 2022
When companies are hit with cybersecurity incidents, class action privacy litigation often follows. However, claimants in these kinds of cases face a threshold challenge of showing they have suffered a sufficient “injury in fact” to establish that they have standing to assert their claims. The following guest post, written by Paul Ferrillo, Kristine Argentine, Emily Dorner, and Alexandra Drury of the Seyfarth Shaw law firm, provides a survey of the current state of play for the standing requirements in this type of litigation. 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: First There was Litigation; And Then There Was Standing
Data breach class action lawsuits are already well-established in the United States, but are only developing elsewhere. In the following guest post, Stephen Reilly and Andrew Jones of Beale & Company Solicitors take a look at the possibilities and prospects for data breach class actions in the U.K. A version of this article previously was published as a Beale & Company client alert. I would like to thank Stephen and Andrew 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 Stephen and Andrew’s guest post.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Data Breach Class Actions in the UK — What Next?
As local coronavirus pandemic-related stay-at-home orders expire or are withdrawn over the coming weeks, employees will be returning to the workplace. According to a recent blog post, a “wave of workplace class actions” could follow in connection with the return to work. In an April 26, 2020 blog post on the Workplace Class Action Blog entitled “The Coming Surge of Workplace Class Actions in the Wake of COVID-19” (here), Gerald Maatman and Jennifer Riley of the Seyfarth Shaw law firm predict a surge of workplace lawsuits “in several key areas such as discrimination and workplace bias, wage & hour, as well as on the health & safety front.”
Continue Reading Will a Wave of Workplace Lawsuits Follow the Return to Work?
As discussed in the following guest post from John Reed Stark, a recent development in the class action litigation arising out of the massive Marriott International data breach could have significant ramifications for other claimants asserting class action claims — including securities class action claims — based on data breaches or other cybersecurity incidents. Stark is President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement. A version of this article originally appeared on Securities Docket. I would like to thank John for allowing me to publish his 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 John’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Some Good News for the Cybersecurity Class Action Bar
One of the most interesting and significant developments in the corporate and securities litigation arena has been the rise of collective investor litigation outside the United States, as I have discussed in prior posts. This rising tide of litigation has not only included increased numbers of legal actions in a number of different jurisdictions but also has included several substantial settlements, including among others the massive settlements in the Fortis case and in the RBS case. In an updated report July 2019 report entitled “Global Securities Litigation Trends: July 2019 Update” (here), the Dechert law firm takes a detailed look at the “sea change” that has taken place in collective investor litigation in recent years, as a result of which, according to the report, we have entered “a new era of global securities litigation.”
Continue Reading More About the Global Rise in Collective Investor Actions