In a flurry of headline-grabbing events involving Bank of America last Thursday, the SEC announced the renewed settlement of its enforcement suit against the company, while at the same time New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced his office’s initiation of a separate fraud action against the company and two former company officials. These high-profile
Rating Agencies Are Not ’33 Act “Underwriters”
Rating agencies are not susceptible to ’33 Act liability as "underwriters," even if they helped structure the mortgage backed securities at issue, according to February 1, 2010 ruling (here) by Southern District of New York Judge Lewis Kaplan in which he dismissed Moody’s and McGraw-Hill (S&P’s parent) from the Lehman Brothers Mortgage-Backed Securities
Dismissal Motions in Thornburgh Mortgage Subprime Securities Suit Denied in Part, Granted in Part
In a 90-page January 27, 2010 opinion (here) District of New Mexico Judge James Browning granted substantial parts of the defendants’ motions to dismiss in the Thornburgh Mortgage subprime securities suit, while also denying the motions to dismiss in connection with certain claims against Larry Goldstone, who served as the company’s President
Vivendi Found Liable in Securities Class Action Trial
According to January 29, 2010 reports in the New York Times (here) and on Bloomberg (here), the jury in the long-running securities class action lawsuit against Vivendi has resulted in a verdict against the company on all 57 of the plaintiffs’ claims. However, the jury also found that the two individual
NERA Releases Annual Canadian Securities Class Action Study
On January 27, 2010, NERA Economic Consulting released its updated annual review of Canadian securities class litigation entitled "Trends in Canadian Securities Class Actions: 2009 Update" (here). The report presents an interesting study of the evolution of class action litigation in a jurisdiction outside the U.S.
According to the report, there were
Legislative Reform for the Securities Laws Before the 2010 Elections?
Over the years, legislative reforms of the U.S. securities laws have cycled back and forth, between initiatives, on the one hand, to discourage abusive litigation and, on the other hand, to restrain corporate misconduct. In the current Wall Street bailout, post-Madoff environment, sentiment may be running high for legislative reforms that could expand liabilities under
Advisen Releases Year-End Study of “Securities Lawsuits”
On January 21, 2010, the insurance information firm Advisen released the latest in a series of various observers’ year end analyses of 2009 securities litigation. Advisen’s year report can be accessed here. The Advisen report takes a somewhat different approach than the other reports, and reaches some strikingly different conclusions. Among other things, the
Insurance Coverage for Special Litigation Committee Expenses and Other Web Notes and Updates
In an earlier post (here), I wrote about a December 30, 2009 ruling in the MBIA coverage litigation that special litigation committee investigation expenses were covered under a D&O liability insurance policy. As I anticipated, the decision has proven to be controversial.
Two law firms that traditionally act as coverage counsel for D&O
Risk Metrics Releases Updated Top 100 Securities Settlements List
RiskMetrics has issued its year-end 2009 scorecard of the Top 100 securities class action lawsuit settlements. The list, which is updated quarterly, can be accessed on the Securities Litigation Watch blog (here). The details in this very interesting tabulation support a number of interesting observations, discussed below.
The year-end Top 100 tally
Securities Suit Filing Trends Continue in 2010 and Other Web Updates
In my year-end analysis of the 2009 securities class action lawsuit filings, I noted a number of filing trends that developed in the second half of the year, including the incidence of new filings against leveraged Exchange Traded Funds (ETFs) and the surprising numbers of belated securities suit filings where the filing date came