Sky Blog
Fraud-on-the-market (“FOTM”) suits are thought to generate considerable benefits for society – namely, those associated with increased stock-market price accuracy and liquidity. But these suits are also said to impose exceptionally large social costs relative to even those associated with …
We recently wrote about the emergence of a new breed of business organizations — decentralized autonomous organizations (DAOs) — to contend that the governance design for these blockchain-based organizations should heed some of the hard-fought lessons that have helped to …
On September 1, 2020, Judge Marie S. Weiner of the San Mateo County, California Superior Court held that an exclusive federal forum provision was enforceable under California law. See Wong v. Restoration Robotics, Inc., No. 18CIV02609 (Cal. Super. Ct., Sept. …
The lynchpin of many securities fraud cases is whether a plaintiff can establish with particularity that a defendant acted with scienter (i.e., fraudulent intent). Where the defendant is an individual person, this question may be relatively straightforward. Where the defendant …
Most securities fraud class actions under SEC Rule 10b-5 involve revelation of negative information about the defendant company that should have been disclosed earlier – bad news that (allegedly) has been covered up by company agents. The standard remedy in …
Class action reform could take a lesson from U.S. public company governance, I argue in a new working paper, available here.
Class actions and public companies have a lot in common. Class action scholars routinely explain problems in class …
Lord Denning, a highly quotable British judge, once remarked:
“As a moth is drawn to the light, so is a litigant drawn to the United States.”[1]
Some reasons for this strong attraction are obvious: (1) the U.S. (and only …
In a recent series of landmark decisions, the Delaware Supreme Court has constructed an orderly doctrinal framework designed to reduce wasteful post-closing merger litigation. These cases recognize that the market’s judgment is usually sound and that the costs of intensive …
A drama is playing out in Boston federal court before a respected judge that could prove to be a legal “Watergate,” one that could reshape class action practice.[1] Combining elements that are both sordid and comic, this litigation has …
What motivates a firm to disclose information rather than remain silent following a material, negative economic event? For example, why did oil companies issue multiple, detailed disclosures about oil spills caused by Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita but not disclose …
In the consolidated cases of Epic Systems Corp. v. Lewis, Ernst & Young LLP v. Morris, and National Labor Relations Board v. Murphy Oil USA, Inc.,[1] the U.S. Supreme Court held on May 21 that arbitration agreements in which …
Close to 40 percent of all companies listed on major U.S. stock exchanges have been targeted by a securities class action lawsuit at least once between 1996 and 2017, according to the Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse. These lawsuits are …
On March 20, 2018, the Supreme Court in Cyan, Inc. v. Beaver County Employees Retirement Fund, No. 15-1439, unanimously held that state courts have jurisdiction over class actions alleging only violations of the Securities Act of 1933.[1] The …
Firms faced with a class action lawsuit experience reputational and financial penalties. [1] However, research has focused solely on the consequences for the defendant and, to our knowledge, no studies have examined whether the repercussions of alleged malfeasance range beyond …
Securities class actions soared in 2017, jumping from 271 filings in 2016 to a near record 412 filings in 2017 — well above the average of 193 per year for the years 1997 to 2016.[1] Only 2001 was comparable, …
Watch lawyers, scholars, and a federal judge discuss the thorny issues involved in settling the high-profile class action filed by former players against the pro football league. John C. Coffee, Jr., the Adolf A. Berle Professor of Law at Columbia …
Today [February 24, 2018] is a special day for the [Securities and Exchange Commission’s] Office of the Investor Advocate.[1] I started this job four years ago today, and because I am the first Investor Advocate that is also the …
On May 23, Target Corp. reached a record $18.5 million settlement with 47 states and the District of Columbia to end investigations into Target’s data breach in 2013. The settlement highlights the growing list of specific measures that companies are …
It’s been five years since Concepcion made “clear” that the Federal Arbitration Act (FAA) preempts state laws that forbid class action waivers. Concepcion did not protect arbitration agreements from laws of general applicability (such as unconscionability), but it …
The practice of nominal shareholder plaintiffs challenging virtually every sizable corporate merger with a lawsuit alleging a fiduciary breach has been a scandal for some time. At least when brought by the “bottom fishers” of the plaintiff’s bar, these suits …