The Drama Around Moelis and New DGCL Section 122(18) Just Got Hotter

By Mark Lebovitch November 18, 2024 by renholding

The 2024 amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) were born from an atypical period of acrimony and controversy among the corporate bar, stockholder advocates, and corporate law academics, including harsh public criticism of members of the Court of …

The Dual Role of Short Sellers in Securities Litigation

By Chelsea Liu, Lily H.G. Nguyen and Kelvin Jui Keng Tan October 25, 2024 by renholding

In a new paper, we explore the often-misunderstood role of short sellers in corporate misconduct and securities class actions. Short sellers are investors who bet on a future decline in a company’s stock price. While their actions are sometimes criticized …

Cohen Milstein Discusses Two U.S. Supreme Court Cases that May Increase Hurdles for Securities Fraud Plaintiffs

By Laura H. Posner and Alexandra Gray September 12, 2024 by renholding

In November, the U.S. Supreme Court will hear two cases from the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals that will implicate the ability of investors to bring securities fraud claims. The most worrisome – NVIDIA Corp. v. E. Ohman J:or Fonder …

A New Approach to Measuring Shareholder Damages in Securities Class Actions

By Michael McDonald September 11, 2024 by renholding

Securities class-action lawsuits play a crucial role in holding corporations accountable for financial misdeeds. They typically involve allegations of securities fraud, where a company makes misleading statements or omits important information that leads to an inflated stock price. When the …

Just Friends? Managers’ Connections to Judges

By Sterling Huang, Sugata Roychowdhury, Ewa Sletten and Yanping Xu July 25, 2024 by renholding

The Code of Conduct for United States Judges prohibits judges from allowing personal relationships, including social connections with parties or attorneys involved in a case, to influence the judges’ conduct. However, the disclosure of such social conflicts, as well as …

Does Plaintiffs’ Attorney Marketing Predict Corporate Litigation Risk?

By Steven E. Kaplan, Adi Masli, Matt Peterson, and Eric H. Weisbrod May 23, 2024 by renholding

Plaintiffs’ attorneys often issue marketing releases after public companies announce adverse corporate events. These releases typically say the attorneys are “investigating potential claims” against the company and encourage shareholders who have been harmed to contact the law firm. In a …

The Class Certification of Exchange-Listed Options in Securities Class-Action Litigation

By Don Chance, Steven Feinstein and Onnig H. Dombalagian April 4, 2024 by renholding

Class-action litigation for fraud on the market typically focuses on purchasers and sellers of stock. Yet those that traded in options on the shares can also be harmed. In a recent paper, we draw from experience in In re Apple, …

Are Securities Class Actions Appropriate to Address Secondary-Trading Crypto Fraud?

By Menesh S. Patel April 2, 2024 by renholding

Traders in the United States now routinely trade hundreds of crypto assets in secondary crypto markets, and the pool of tradable assets is growing. Through these transactions, traders have seen financial gains and losses, which at times have been substantial. …

In Securities Fraud Class Actions, Do You Get What You Pay For?

By Stephen J. Choi, Jessica M. Erickson and A.C. Pritchard March 12, 2024 by renholding

When it comes to recovering money for shareholders injured by corporate fraud, do the plaintiffs’ lawyers matter? Intuitively, the answer seems like it must be yes. The most talented lawyers should develop more creative legal theories and uncover more evidence …

How Private Rights of Action in Securities Laws Affect the Capital Markets

By Fernan Restrepo February 2, 2024 by renholding

Few topics in the corporate and securities law literature are as controversial as securities class actions – that is, actions in which shareholders of public firms seek to collectively obtain compensation for damages resulting from false or misleading statements in …

Skadden Discusses Securities Class Actions in 2024

By Susan L. Saltzstein, Tansy Woan and William J. O'Brien February 1, 2024 by renholding

Plaintiffs asserted securities class actions at elevated levels in 2023 — a sign that filings will remain high in the year ahead. Based on data from Cornerstone Research through Sept. 30, 2023, plaintiffs were on pace to file approximately 216 …

ISS Discusses Largest Securities-Related Class Action Settlements of 2023

By Jarett Sena January 24, 2024 by renholding

2023 delivered a banner year for investor recoveries, as the $7.9 billion^[1] in settlement funds across the globe was the highest total in the last five years. The $5.8 billion^[2] specifically secured in securities-related class actions in the

…

Paul Weiss Discusses Second Circuit Decision on Falsity in Securities Fraud Cases

By Andrew J. Ehrlich, Daniel J. Kramer, Audra J. Soloway, Kristina A. Bunting and Brian M. Erickson January 17, 2024 by renholding

On December 26, 2023, the Second Circuit in In re Philip Morris Int’l Inc. Securities Litigation issued a decision on two matters of first impression relating to falsity in the securities fraud context. [1] First, the court held that statements …

Why Is the Number of Securities Class Actions Alleging Insider Trading Dropping?

By James J. Park January 11, 2024 by renholding

In a typical year, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) brings a few dozen enforcement cases against individuals for insider trader. These cases are typically settled before a decision by a court. Many of the issues raised by insider selling …

Why Short Attacks May Compel a Company to Sue

By Joshua Mitts September 25, 2023 by renholding

In a recent post on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance, three partners at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP give practical advice to companies in preparing for and responding to a short attack. With respect …

Socially Acceptable Securities Fraud

By Christine Hurt August 18, 2023 by renholding

In the 90 years since the passage of the Securities Exchange Act, the number of ways market participants can publicly disseminate statements to investors has skyrocketed. Yet no regulator, legislator, or judge has answered a fundamental question: Should the law …

ISS Discusses Wells Fargo’s Historic $1 Billion Settlement With Investors

By Jarett Sena June 1, 2023 by renholding

Investors’ $1 billion tentative settlement – a Top 20 settlement of all time if approved – comes in the wake of years of scandal and resolves allegations that the bank concealed its inability to clean up its act. Prior scandals …

How Litigation Risk Affects Companies’ Liquidity

By Tommaso Oliviero, Min Park and Hong Zou March 7, 2023 by renholding

Securities litigation has become a major source of risk to businesses. From 2007 to 2016 the number of securities class actions (SCAs) filed each year increased by roughly 70 percent in the U.S. and by 115 percent worldwide (PricewaterhouseCoopers, 2017).…

ISS Discusses Five Non-U.S. Class Actions Investors Should Pay Attention To

By Jeff Lubitz September 1, 2022 by renholding

As institutional investors know, a vast majority of shareholder related class actions take place in the United States. This is accurate in terms of both newly filed cases and settlements.

However, non-North American shareholder litigation is significantly important to investors …

ISS Discusses Securities Class-Action Settlements in First Half of 2022

By Jeff Lubitz July 18, 2022 by renholding

The value of U.S. shareholder class action settlements in the first half of 2022 totaled $2.32 billion, the exact amount as the same period in 2021. However, the quantity of settlements in the first six months of the year increased

…

1 2 3 Next »

The CLS Blue Sky Blog

Columbia Law School's Blog on Corporations and the Capital Markets

securities class actions