“When forced to defend their conduct and leadership role, original plaintiffs’ counsel approached the concept of candor to the tribunal as if attempting to sell me a used car,” wrote Vice Chancellor Travis Laster, ordering the replacement of shareholder lawyers in a case against Revlon Inc. “The lawsuit was consolidated from several complaints brought by law firms that Laster describes as ‘frequent filers’ — firms which often file cases on behalf of shareholders, sometimes within in minutes of a deal being announced.” [Reuters] More: Dave Hoffman, Concurring Opinions.
Posts Tagged ‘securities litigation’
March 4 roundup
- “Toyota Recall: Scandal, Media Circus, and Stupid Drivers” [Dushane, Car & Driver via Prof. Bainbridge] Some parallels with Audi sudden-acceleration panic [Michael Fumento, who also questions recent numbers] More: Mike Allen, Popular Mechanics via Instapundit (“why widespread theories about electrical throttle problems and electromagnetic interference are misguided”); and Fumento on braking capacity.
- Overly hot sandwich caused $2 million worth of damages, he says, though it’s true he didn’t seek immediate medical attention [Lowering the Bar, earlier]
- Rick Esenberg on judicial recusal wars in Wisconsin and nationally [Point of Law first and second posts] In Circle of Greed, lawyer/felon Lerach flings recusal issue against late father of Carly Fiorina [Gerstein, Politico; our earlier Lerach coverage]
- And more: Notwithstanding earlier denials, Lerach did lobby President Clinton to veto securities litigation reform act [Gerstein, Politico]
- Claim by Connecticut AG and Senate candidate Richard Blumenthal: lawsuits he files “actually create jobs” [Wood, PoL]
- Setback for prolific patent litigant Bender [Zura via Joe Mullin, related]
- Following complaints by traditional video store competitors, prosecutor threatens criminal charges unless DVD rental kiosks remove R- and even PG-rated films [Indianapolis Star via Indiana Law Blog]
- Lawyers send clients to chiropractor, he sends clients to lawyers, circle of life continues [Louisville Courier-Journal via Legal Blog Watch]
March 2 roundup
- “Trial Lawyers vs. Toyota” [Holman Jenkins, Jr./WSJ] Rep. Towns’s hearing didn’t even pretend to be other than showcase for trial bar [Wood, PoL; Henry Payne coverage in National Review here, here, here, and here] And make way for the inevitable investor suits [Daily Breeze]
- “Obama open to curbing medical malpractice suits” [AP/WaPo] Related: The Hill; advice from Newsweek’s Evan Thomas [Jim Pinkerton]
- Why doesn’t the Securities and Exchange Commission hire finance people? “They’re overlawyered. They’re poisoned by lawyers.” [Harry Markopolos interviewed by Deborah Solomon, N.Y. Times]
- “Plaintiffs Lawyer’s ‘Reptile’ Strategy Bites Back” [Fulton County Daily Report] Plus: Max Kennerly wonders why it was admitted into evidence;
- “Facebook plus divorce equals flammable situation” [Tampa Bay Online]
- Officials get wined, dined and more: “Paying public pensions to sue” [Forbes]
- Parents sue many defendants in Colorado ice cream shop crash [Denver Post]
- Called for jury duty yesterday, and Tweeting the results: arts critic/biographer Terry Teachout and conservative writer Michelle Malkin.
Bank of America disclosure controversy
No good deed goes unpunished, suggest the editorialists at the Washington Post of an aggressive enforcement action by New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo over the bank’s Merrill Lynch deal. “Dishonest dealing in the securities markets is a problem. So are duplicative state and federal laws that can make companies repeatedly liable for the same conduct under different legal standards.”
The donations of Scott Rothstein
Did they pave the way for the now-disgraced lawyer’s efforts to obtain lucrative securities class-action work from the state of Florida? [Sydney Freedberg, St. Petersburg Times]
Internet service providers liable for online securities frauds?
Andrew Moshirnia at Citizen Media Law sounds the alarm about a provision of the proposed Investor Protection Act of 2009 that could punch an exception in Section 230 of the Communication Decency Act, which now generally protects ISPs from liability for actions of third-party users. An investment-fraud exception could serve (he warns) as an entering wedge for other groups to pursue similar exceptions for other types of online content.
Suing Buffett, and many others, over takeovers
Dallas attorney Joseph Kendall, a former federal judge, seems to have won the race to the courthouse to challenge Warren Buffett’s takeover of Burlington Northern as inadequately generous. Daniel Fisher of Forbes discusses the economics of entrepreneurial lawsuits arising from takeovers — settlements may reflect defendants’ wish not to undergo the heavy burdens of discovery, and if the acquirer should happen to raise its bid during the process, you can take credit for that as a basis for fees — and reports that “this isn’t the only takeover Kendall thinks investors should be unhappy about: On his firm’s Web site are listed announcements of litigation or potential litigation over Stanley Works’ $4.5 billion takeover of Black and Decker, JDA Software’s acquisition of i2 Technologies, Texas Pacific Group’s $4 billion purchase of IMS Health Inc., and the purchase of Diedrich Coffee by Peet’s Coffee & Tea. And that’s only this month.”
When sending demand letters…
…it’s nearly always a good idea to let the target know who your client is.
400-page securities class action complaint
Lawyers labored so hard to produce this marvel, only to find the judge dismissing it as “verbose and disordered”. [California Civil Justice]
TARP money to settle shareholder class actions
Freelance journalist Dan Slater in the NYT’s “Dealbook” (via Above the Law) spies a “bailout for the plaintiff’s bar”:
…settlements resulting from the scores of shareholder suits against TARP entities will stretch into the stratosphere.
Sure, through TARP, taxpayer money may be used to pay off mortgages and fund bonus pools. But, in what will amount to a far more expensive proposition, TARP money will also be used to line the pockets of allegedly aggrieved shareholders and the lawyers who, wrapped smugly in the flag of corporate governance, are in the process of making a billion-dollar cottage industry out of filing strike suits.