Law firm marketing and business development professionals have been politely getting after Kevin McKeown , our VP of Client Development, for an updated report on large law’s use of blogs. Innovators, such as Gloria Fox at Blank Rome , are looking for hard data for their law firm’s management that their competition has effectively addressed any liability and ROI concerns, and made t......
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Just earlier this week (in this previous post ) I referred to a research paper on res judicata and how the development of collective litigation procedures in various European jurisdictions is arguably one factor in the easing of recognition concerns of US courts. But what good are procedures if not put to use? That in turn is the concern of the two authors of the paper Will Aggregate Lit......
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The issue before the court in Morrison v National Australia Bank was whether to excercise subject matter jurisdiction over the foreign claimants who bought their NAB shares on a foreign exchange. (ASX, LSE, NYSE, NZX: NAB/NABHA) It held that in this case it could not ( decision ), based on the ‘conduct test’. The court however refrained from creating a ‘rigid br......
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Weil Gotshal & Manges LLP has published its annual 10b-5 Guide (2007) this summer, with thanks to Paul A. Ferrillo for this submission. It includes discussion of two cases that have featured here, one of which is Borochoff v. GlaxoSmithKline PLC (p.156). In that case the judge did not appoint as lead plaintiff the movant with the largest combined loss, a group of German investor......
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For those interested in the internatio nalization of class action law, be sure to read the Second Circuit’s decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd. , 2008 WL 4660742 (2d Cir. Oct. 23, 2008).  (Thanks to  The 10b-5 Daily  and  Point of Law  for tipping me off to the decision). I have previously commented on the trend in efforts to expand securities class a......
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When the various broker dealers and investment banks recently announced their agreements with government regulators to buy back auction rate securities, the announcements raised questions about the continuing need for the pending auction rate securities litigation. But, at least based on a recently filed lawsuit, it now appears that the settlements may have opened the door for a while new round of......
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The full consequences of the dramatic recent events in the financial markets may take years to emerge, but one direct effect has already appeared – the collapse of several large financial institutions has turned preferred shareholders into securities class action plaintiffs.   Historically, securities class action lawsuits have been pursued on behalf of common shareholders, and to......
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While the recently announced $303 million settlement of the General Motors securities class action has already garnered a fair amount of attention in the blogosphere (See The 10b5 Daily and The D&O Diary ), it is hard to pass up taking our own bite at the apple. As noted by Kevin LaCroix at The D&O Diary, the lead plaintiffs in the GM case were two international institutional inves......
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In recent days, settlements relating to two high-profile securities class action lawsuits were announced. Because there are some interest things about these two settlements, I take a closer look at each of them below. Is the Qwest Securites Class Action Lawsuit Finally Settled?   In Qwest Communications  August 6, 2008 filing on Form 10-Q ( here ), the company announced th......
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If the facts don’t fit, you must remit. That seems to be the view of an increasing number of companies, as they have adopted provisions requiring repayment of executive compensation found to have been based on incorrect financial statements. The concept of compensation clawbacks was actually built into the Sarbanes Oxley Act. Section 304 requires CFOs and CEOs to reimburse their companies......
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One of the main themes of Pricewater houseCoope r ’s 2007 Securities litigation study is in relation to foreign issues, involving both issuers and purchasers. In her introductory observation (page 1 of 77, all pages ‘of 77′), Grace Lamont, Partner and Leader of the Securities Litigation Practice, states among other things that ‘[w]ith the European Union and individ......
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It’s back... The Dura Pharmaceuticals litigation has found its way on remand back to the District Court and a lot has changed in the securities class action world in the nine years since the case was first filed. A lot of ink (well pixels mostly - see The 10b5 Daily and The D&O Diary ) has been spilled talking about Tellabs, one of the other high profile securities clas......
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In August of 2007, LexBlog presented our first report on which AmLaw 200 firms where blogging . 39 AmLaw 200 firms blogging, producing a total of 74 blogs. We’ve seen significant growth in the last 6 months (as of 3/10/08): Growth highlights : Over 25% of AmLaw 200 law firms have blogs. 10% of AmLaw 200 law firms have more than one blog. 36% growth ......
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In the continuing saga that is the Shell Settlement (see the WV&Z archive for previous posts), the latest development came last week with the company’s settlement with US investors. ( Royal Dutch Shell Plc : Euronext, LSE, NYSE: RDSA, RDSB; Shell press release , The 10b-5 Daily ) The US settlement covers all purchasers of Shell shares on US markets during the Class......
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A shareholders’ derivative lawsuit that generated the most prominent judicial pronouncements about options "spri ngloading& quot; has been settled. According to the company’s January 18, 2008 press release ( here ) and its filing on Form 8-K of the same date ( here ), the parties have settled the consolidated shareholders’ derivative lawsuit that has been been ......
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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 June 21, 2007 opinion in the Tellabs case (about which refer ......
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