Securities Litigation

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The U.S. Supreme Court’s blockbuster opinion in Morrison v National Australia Bank has had an enormous impact, resulting as it has in the dismissal of numerous securities suits involving non-U.S. companies that previously would have been permitted to go foward in U.S. courts. But over time it has become clear that the Supreme Court’s opinion does not…

In a May 25, 2012 decision in a long-running case that, among other things, could have important implications for the lawsuits recently filed against Facebook, the Second Circuit reversed the lower court’s dismissal of the securities suit involving Ikanos Communications, holding that the plaintiff’s proposed amended complaint “plausibly alleged that the [undisclosed] defects constituted a known…

During 2010 and 2011, a number of securities class action lawsuits were filed against U.S.-listed Chinese companies. Plaintiffs’ lawyers seemed eager to pursue these cases despite likely procedural and practical challenges such as likely difficulties in obtaining discovery, as well as language and cultural barriers. And if a recent decision in one of these cases…

Facebook’s disappointing public company debut has drawn a great deal of media scrutiny and criticism. But the finger pointing has not been contained just to the front pages of the newspapers. Disappointed investors have also now resorted to the courts, and further lawsuits seem likely to follow.

First, on May 22, 2012, an investor…

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the enactment of The Sarbanes Oxley Act, Cornerstone Research has released a study of the filing trends and settlements of securities class action lawsuits involving accounting allegations. The May 2012 report entitled “Accounting Class Action Filings and Settlements: 2011 Review and Analysis” can be found here. A…

In order to try to boost the number of companies going public, the recently enacted JOBS act provides for certain procedural and reporting advantages for “Emerging Growth Companies,” which are defined in the Act as companies within five years of their IPO and with revenues less than $1 billion. A number of companies planning IPOs…

In the wake of JP Morgan Chase’s startling news last week of its $2 billion trading loss, and of the equaling startling statements of Jamie DImon, the bank’s CEO, that the losing trades were, among other things, “flawed, complex, poorly reviewed, poorly executed, and poorly monitored,” there has been speculation whether these disclosures would lead to…

Among the features of the recently enacted JOBS Act that has attracted the most attention are the legislation’s provisions for “crowdfunding.” Under these provisions, a company is permitted to raise up to $1 million during any 12-month period through an SEC-registered crowdfunding portal. While these provisions have attracted a great deal of discussion and even controversy…

Much has been written recently (including on this blog) about the growing prevalence of M&A related litigation. These lawsuits, typically launched by the target company shareholders, are filed shortly after a merger announcement and usually object to some aspect of the proposed merger or of the merger-related disclosure. But the merger objection lawsuit is not…

A great deal of the analysis of securities class action lawsuit settlements revolves around measures of aggregate, average and median settlement amounts. These data, while useful, are relatively unhelpful in trying to anticipate the outcome of any particular case, particularly at the outset. To try to develop a way to predict likely case outcome at…