We have all seen the various league tables showing which plaintiffs’ firms have had the highest average securities class action settlements. But do these firms wind up at the top of the tables because they produce better outcomes for the plaintiff class, or do they produce these results simply because they are better at winning the race to become lead counsel in the better cases? As three academics put it in their recent paper, “do the plaintiffs’ lawyers matter”?

In their paper, New York Law Professor Stephen J. Choi, University of Richmond Law Professor Jessica M. Erickson, and University of Michigan Law Professor Adam C. Pritchard survey securities class action lawsuit settlements in order to determine whether the “top tier” plaintiffs’ firms actually produce better outcomes for the plaintiff class. Interestingly, the authors conclude that while the top firms produce better outcomes in a narrow subset of cases, in most other cases they do not. The authors suggest these observations have important implications for both claimants and courts. The authors’ paper can be found here. The authors’ March 12, 2024, column in the CLS Blue Sky Blog about their paper can be found here.  Continue Reading Does the Plaintiff Law Firm Matter in Securities Suit Outcomes?

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 earlier this week, there have already been some distant early warning signs of possible problems on the SPAC horizon. Further developments this week suggest there could be growing trouble in SPAC-land. As discussed below, a newly released statement by the SEC about SPAC accounting potentially could cool off the hot market for SPACs, and a statement of intent by a leading plaintiffs’ firm raises the possibility of further SPAC-related litigation.
Continue Reading Trouble Brewing in SPAC-Land?