Last week, I added a post (here) discussing the March 2, 2008 paper entitled “How the Merits Matter: D&O Insurance and Securities Settlements” (here) by Connecticut Law Professor Tom Baker and Fordham Law Professor Sean Griffith. In response to my invitation, Professor Griffith prepared a reply to my comments
D & O Insurance and Securities Lawsuit Settlements
Although there have been some significant exceptions in recent years, it is still generally the case that securities class action settlements are largely funded by D & O insurance. Yet the impact of D & O insurance on the process and ultimate value of securities lawsuit settlements is little understood outside the small world of
Two Prominent Life Sciences Securities Lawsuits Dismissed
As I have previously observed (most recently here), life sciences companies remain favored targets of the plaintiffs’ class action securities bar. Even during the two-year securities lawsuit filing lull between mid-2005 and mid-2007, lawsuit filings against life sciences companies continued more or less unabated. Indeed, as I noted here, during 2007, a year
More Problems with Foreign Securities Litigants
As courts have wrestled with the issue whether certain foreign shareholders can act as lead plaintiffs, or indeed can even be included in the plaintiff shareholder class, they have faced an ever-broader array of questions and challenges. The kinds of issues that foreign shareholder litigants present are illustrated in the February 13, 2008 lead plaintiff
A New Options Backdating Securities Lawsuit?
It has been such a while since a new options backdating securities lawsuit has appeared that it was with some surprise I noted the new case that has been filed against Teletech Holdings and certain of its directors and officers. According to the plaintiffs’ counsel’s January 25, 2008 press release (here), the lawsuit,
Apollo Group Provides Jury Verdict “Clarification”
As reported in a prior post (here), on January 16, 2008, a civil jury returned a verdict in favor of the plaintiffs in the securities class action lawsuit pending against Apollo Group and its former CEO and CFO. In a January 24, 2008 statement (here), the company provided "clarification of certain
Tellabs 7th Circuit Redux: Why it Matters
In a decision noteworthy both for the prominence of the case and for the implications of its analysis, the Seventh Circuit, hearing the Makor Issues & Rights Ltd. v. Tellabs Incorporated case on remand from the U.S. Supreme Court, has once again reversed the district court’s dismissal of the case.
The Supreme Court, in its
Jury Awards Plaintiff $277.5 Million in Apollo Group Securities Trial
On January 16, 2008, a civil jury in the Apollo Group securities lawsuit in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona entered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff class on all counts, awarding damages of $5.55 per share, an amount that according to Bloomberg (here) could reach as much
Supreme Court Rules in Stoneridge Defendants’ Favor
On January 15, 2008, in a 5-3 majority opinion (here) written by Justice Kennedy (pictured to the left), the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed the Eighth Circuit in the Stonridge Investment Partners, LLC v Scientific Atlanta case. The Court concluded that the implied right of action under Section 10(b) did not reach the respondent
Tracking the Opt-Out Settlements
In prior posts (most recently here), I have written about the increasing importance of opt-out settlements in the context of securities class action litigation. Along the way, numerous readers have inquired whether I am aware of a publicly available resource that is tracking the securities lawsuit opt-out settlements. I am not aware of any