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Full-Text Articles in Law
Working Hard Or Making Work? Plaintiffs' Attorneys Fees In Securities Fraud Class Actions, Stephen J. Choi, Jessica Erickson, A. C. Pritchard
Working Hard Or Making Work? Plaintiffs' Attorneys Fees In Securities Fraud Class Actions, Stephen J. Choi, Jessica Erickson, A. C. Pritchard
Articles
In this article, we study attorney fees awarded in the largest securities class actions: “mega- settlements.” Consistent with prior work, we find larger fee awards but lower percentages in these cases. We also find that courts are more likely to reject or modify fee requests made in connection with the largest settlements. We conjecture that this scrutiny provides an incentive for law firms to bill more hours, not to advance the case, but to help justify large fee awards—“make work.” The results of our empirical tests are consistent with plaintiffs’ attorneys investing more time in litigation against larger companies, with …
The Ever-Changing Scope Of Insider Trading Liability For Tippees In The Second Circuit, Sari Rosenfeld
The Ever-Changing Scope Of Insider Trading Liability For Tippees In The Second Circuit, Sari Rosenfeld
Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review
Liability under insider trading law continues to change as federal courts attempt to find new ways to hold insiders liable under the law. As recently as two years ago, the Second Circuit—in analyzing past decisions regarding tipper-tippee insider trading violations—blurred the distinction between legal and illegal insider trading when it fundamentally altered the idea of “personal benefit.” These various decisions provide the basis for antifraud provisions of securities law applying to insider trading, the consequences of which can be detrimental. This Note will discuss the standard that the Second Circuit uses to hold tippees liable for insider trading violations under …
Corporate Governance, Capital Markets, And Securities Law, Adam C. Pritchard
Corporate Governance, Capital Markets, And Securities Law, Adam C. Pritchard
Book Chapters
This chapter explores the dividing line between corporate governance and securities law from both historical and institutional perspectives. Section 2 examines the origins of the dividing line between securities law and corporate governance in the United States, as well as the efforts of the SEC to push against that boundary. That history sets the stage for section 3, which broadens the inquiry by examining the institutional connections between capital markets and corporate governance. Are there practical limits to the connection between securities law and corporate governance? The US again illustrates the point, as Congress has increasingly crossed the traditional boundary …
Protecting Whistleblowing (And Not Just Whistleblowers), Evan J. Ballan
Protecting Whistleblowing (And Not Just Whistleblowers), Evan J. Ballan
Michigan Law Review
When the government contracts with private parties, the risk of fraud runs high. Fraud against the government hurts everyone: taxpayer money is wasted on inferior or nonexistent products and services, and the public bears the burdens attendant to those inadequate goods. To combat fraud, Congress has developed several statutory frameworks to encourage whistleblowers to come forward and report wrongdoing in exchange for a monetary reward. The federal False Claims Act allows whistleblowers to file an action in federal court on behalf of the United States, and to share in any recovery. Under the Dodd- Frank Act, the SEC Office of …
Rebutting The Fraud On The Market Presumption In Securities Fraud Class Actions: Halliburton Ii Opens The Door, Victor E. Schwartz, Christopher E. Appel
Rebutting The Fraud On The Market Presumption In Securities Fraud Class Actions: Halliburton Ii Opens The Door, Victor E. Schwartz, Christopher E. Appel
Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review
In Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. (Halliburton II), the United States Supreme Court reaffirmed the validity of the “fraud on the market” presumption underlying securities fraud class action litigation. This presumption is vital to bringing suits as class actions because it excuses plaintiffs from proving individual reliance on an alleged corporate misstatement on the theory that any public statements made by the company are incorporated into its stock price and consequently relied upon by all investors. Thus, the Court’s decision to uphold the validity of the presumption has been hailed as a significant victory for those …
Fraud Is Already Illegal: Section 621 Of The Dodd-Frank Act In The Context Of The Securities Laws, Nathan R. Schuur
Fraud Is Already Illegal: Section 621 Of The Dodd-Frank Act In The Context Of The Securities Laws, Nathan R. Schuur
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In the aftermath of the financial crisis, lawmakers and the public focused on abuses in the securitization industry. Abacus, a Synthetic CDO created by Goldman Sachs & Co., became a symbol of what many felt was a corrupt system when it became known that Goldman and Fabrice Tourre, a Vice President at its Correlation Trading Desk, had assisted a hedge fund in designing the security to fail. Perceived failings of the securities laws to prevent transactions like Abacus spurred Congress to enact Section 621 of the Dodd-Frank Act, which prohibits conflicts of interest in asset-backed securitizations. But the law is …
The Two Faces Of Janus: The Jurisprudential Past And New Beginning Of Rule 10b-5, John Patrick Clayton
The Two Faces Of Janus: The Jurisprudential Past And New Beginning Of Rule 10b-5, John Patrick Clayton
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act and its implementing Rule 10b-5 are the primary antifraud provisions for both private and public enforcement of the federal securities laws. Neither the statute nor the rule expressly provides for a private right of action, but federal courts have long recognized such an implied right, and the Securities and Exchange Commission has supported the implied private right of action as a “necessary supplement” to its own efforts. However, after a decade of applying an expansive interpretation to Section 10(b), in the early 1970s the U.S. Supreme Court began to narrowly interpret this implied …
The Future Of Securities Class Actions Against Foreign Companies: China And Comity Concerns, Dana M. Muir, Junhai Liu, Haiyan Xu
The Future Of Securities Class Actions Against Foreign Companies: China And Comity Concerns, Dana M. Muir, Junhai Liu, Haiyan Xu
University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform
In Morrison v. National Australia Bank Ltd., the U.S. Supreme Court limited the application of U.S. securities fraud law in transnational situations. The Supreme Court noted that its decision was influenced by international comity considerations. In this Article, we evaluate the availability of class actions in China in cases involving alleged securities fraud. Because we find that the availability of those actions is too limited to fully protect U.S. shareholders, we argue that U.S. investors should be permitted to bring securities fraud class actions against non-U.S. companies whose securities are traded on a U.S. exchange regardless of where those investors …
Securities Class Actions And Bankrupt Companies, James J. Park
Securities Class Actions And Bankrupt Companies, James J. Park
Michigan Law Review
Securities class actions are often criticized as wasteful strike suits that target temporary fluctuations in the stock prices of otherwise healthy companies. The securities class actions brought by investors of Enron and WorldCom, companies that fell into bankruptcy in the wake of fraud, resulted in the recovery of billions of dollars in permanent shareholder losses and provide a powerful counterexample to this critique. An issuer's bankruptcy may affect how judges and parties perceive securities class actions and their merits, yet little is known about the subset of cases where the company is bankrupt. This is the first extensive empirical study …
Private Equity Firms: Beyond Sec Registration As An Investment Adviser How To Build And Administer An Effective Compliance Program, Susan Mosher
Michigan Business & Entrepreneurial Law Review
The Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or the “Commission”) recently adopted new rules and rule amendments under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940 (the “Advisers Act”) that serve to implement provisions of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (the “Dodd-Frank Act”).1 The new rules and rule amendments under the Advisers Act relate to provisions of Title IV of the Dodd-Frank Act (the Private Fund Investment Advisers Registration Act of 2010) that, among other things, require certain private fund advisers and private equity firms to register with the Commission.2 This article is intended to assist firms that …
Stoneridge Investment Partners V. Scientific-Atlanta: The Political Economy Of Securities Class Action Reform, Adam C. Pritchard
Stoneridge Investment Partners V. Scientific-Atlanta: The Political Economy Of Securities Class Action Reform, Adam C. Pritchard
Articles
I begin in Part II by explaining the wrong turn that the Court took in Basic. The Basic Court misunderstood the function of the reliance element and its relation to the question of damages. As a result, the securities class action regime established in Basic threatens draconian sanctions with limited deterrent benefit. Part III then summarizes the cases leading up to Stoneridge and analyzes the Court's reasoning in that case. In Stoneridge, like the decisions interpreting the reliance requirement of Rule 10b-5 that came before it, the Court emphasized policy implications. Sometimes policy implications are invoked to broaden the reach …
Getting The Word Out About Fraud: A Theoretical Analysis Of Whistleblowing And Insider Trading, Jonathan Macey
Getting The Word Out About Fraud: A Theoretical Analysis Of Whistleblowing And Insider Trading, Jonathan Macey
Michigan Law Review
The purpose of this Article is to show that corporate whistleblowing is not analytically or functionally distinguishable from insider trading when such trading is based on "whistleblower information," that is, the information a whistleblower might disclose to the authorities. In certain contexts, both insider trading and whistleblowing, if incentivized, would reduce the incidence of corporate pathologies such as fraud and corruption. In light of this analysis, it is peculiar that whistleblowing is encouraged and protected, while insider trading on whistleblower information is not only discouraged but criminalized. Often, insider trading will be far more effective than whistleblowing at bringing fraud …
A Business Ethics Perspective On Sarbanes-Oxley And The Organizational Sentencing Guidelines, David Hess
A Business Ethics Perspective On Sarbanes-Oxley And The Organizational Sentencing Guidelines, David Hess
Michigan Law Review
This Article assesses the ability of Sarbanes-Oxley and other recent changes in the law and stock exchange listing requirements to reduce the incidence of fraud and to increase the reporting of financial misconduct. It begins by examining the individual decision-makers within a corporation and analyzing their intentions and behaviors under the Theory of Planned Behavior. It then examines the ability of the organization to influence the employees' intentions and behaviors through codes of ethics and compliance programs, and finds growing support for the usefulness of integrity based compliance programs. Finally, the Article considers how the Sarbanes-Oxley legislation and Organizational Sentencing …
The Investor Compensation Fund, Alicia J. Davis
The Investor Compensation Fund, Alicia J. Davis
Articles
The prevailing view among securities regulation scholars is that compensating victims of secondary market securities fraud is inefficient. As the theory goes, diversified investors are as likely to be on the gaining side of a transaction tainted by fraud as the losing side. Therefore, such investors should have no expected net losses from fraud because their expected losses will be matched by expected gains. This Article argues that this view is flawed; even diversified investors can suffer substantial losses from fraud, presenting a compelling case for compensation. The interest in compensation, however, should be advanced by better means than are …
Conscripting Attorneys To Battle Corporate Fraud Without Shields Or Armor? Reconsidering Retaliatory Discharge In Light Of Sarbanes-Oxley, Kim T. Vu
Michigan Law Review
This Note advocates that federal courts should allow attorneys to bring retaliatory discharge claims under SOX. Traditional rationales prohibiting the claims of retaliatory discharge by attorneys do not apply in the context of Sarbanes-Oxley. This Note contends that the Department of Labor and the federal courts should interpret the whistleblower provisions of § 806 as protecting attorneys who report under § 307. Assuring reporting attorneys that they have protection from retaliation will encourage them to whistleblow and thereby advance SOX's policy goal of ferreting out corporate fraud. Part I explores the legal landscape of retaliatory discharge suits by attorneys. This …
Should Congress Repeal Securities Class Action Reform?, Adam C. Pritchard
Should Congress Repeal Securities Class Action Reform?, Adam C. Pritchard
Other Publications
The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 was designed to curtail class action lawsuits by the plaintiffs’ bar. In particular, the high-technology industry, accountants, and investment bankers thought that they had been unjustly victimized by class action lawsuits based on little more than declines in a company’s stock price. Prior to 1995, the plaintiffs’ bar had free rein to use the discovery process to troll for evidence to support its claims. Moreover, the high costs of litigation were a powerful weapon with which to coerce companies to settle claims. The plaintiffs’ bar and its allies in Congress have called …
Self-Regulation And Securities Markets, Adam C. Pritchard
Self-Regulation And Securities Markets, Adam C. Pritchard
Articles
Enron, Arthur Andersen, Tyco, ImClone, WorldCom, Adelphia - as American investors reel from accounting scandals and self-dealing by corporate insiders, the question of trust in the securities markets has taken on a new urgency. Securities markets cannot operate without trust. Markets known for fraud, insider trading, and manipulation risk a downward spiral as investors depart in search of safer investments. Today, many investors are rethinking the wisdom of entrusting their financial futures to the stock market. Absent trust in the integrity of the securities markets, individuals will hoard their money under the proverbial mattress.
A Case-By-Case Approach To Pleading Scienter Under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act Of 1995, Matthew Roskoski
A Case-By-Case Approach To Pleading Scienter Under The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act Of 1995, Matthew Roskoski
Michigan Law Review
Securities fraud litigation under Rule lOb-5 threatens all publicly traded companies: according to the Stanford Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, in 1998 a securities fraud lawsuit was filed for nearly every day that the stock markets were open. Some of these lawsuits appear to be frivolous, triggered by inevitable fluctuations in stock prices (so-called "fraud by hindsight" complaints), while others represent legitimate efforts at private enforcement of the securities laws. Disposition on the pleadings is a critical defense strategy for all securities lawsuits. Securities fraud lawsuits that withstand a 12(b)(6) motion almost always settle, regardless of the actual merits of the …
Private Causes Of Action Under Section 206 Of The Investment Advisers Act, Michigan Law Review
Private Causes Of Action Under Section 206 Of The Investment Advisers Act, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
This Note examines the propriety of implying a cause of action for damages under section 206. Upon concluding that such an implication is appropriate, it then suggests a scope for section 206 actions that implements the Act's underlying purposes.
Limiting The Plaintiff Class: Rule 10b-5 And The Federal Securities Code, Michigan Law Review
Limiting The Plaintiff Class: Rule 10b-5 And The Federal Securities Code, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
The Penn Central litigation, involving a large, publicly held corporation, illustrates the need to examine the reach of the federal antifraud provisions. This Note discusses the problem of defining the plaintiff class when the number of past and present shareholders who are potential plaintiffs is very great. Attention will center on the methods courts have used to limit the class of investors compensable under rule 10b-5. Also, the effect that enactment of present drafts of the American Law lnstitute's proposed Federal Securities Code would have on the composition of the plaintiff class in analogous actions will be discussed. Finally, the …
Investment Advice And The Fraud Rules, Robert N. Leavell
Investment Advice And The Fraud Rules, Robert N. Leavell
Michigan Law Review
Every day thousands of Americans are assaulted by mail, telephone, and personal contact with advice on how to invest their money for capital gains, often with dazzling reminders of the opportunity for great profits. If the advice is good, they may indeed one day have their treasure ship which will send their children to college or provide a round-the-world trip after retirement. If the advice is bad, they will of course learn by experience. But many of them will have to apply their lesson to a second inheritance or twenty years' savings. The quality of investment advice is therefore a …
Proof Of Scienter Necessary In A Private Suit Under Sec Anti-Fraud Rule 10b-5, Michigan Law Review
Proof Of Scienter Necessary In A Private Suit Under Sec Anti-Fraud Rule 10b-5, Michigan Law Review
Michigan Law Review
Of the vast amounts of statutory and quasi-statutory material governing the securities business, the Securities and Exchange Commission's rule 10b-51 has potentially the greatest direct importance to the largest number of people. While several provisions in the government's regulatory scheme set more or less specific standards of conduct for securities issuers, broker-dealers, or corporate insiders, the anti-fraud provisions of rule 10b-5 apply to all persons directly or indirectly connected with any sale or purchase of securities transacted through a facility of interstate commerce, the mails, or on a national exchange. In its three clauses, rule 10b-5 forbids any person (1) …
New And Comprehensive Duties Of Securities Sellers To Investigate, Disclose, And Have An "Adequate Basis" For Representations, Willoughby C. Johnson
New And Comprehensive Duties Of Securities Sellers To Investigate, Disclose, And Have An "Adequate Basis" For Representations, Willoughby C. Johnson
Michigan Law Review
The duties of investigation and disclosure imposed upon securities salesmen have been significantly enlarged by several recent cases generated by the Second Circuit's 1963 decision of Berko v. SEC. In a hearing before the Securities and Exchange Commission it was found that Berko was a salesman working out of an acknowledged "boiler room." His employer had provided its salesmen, including Berko, with fraudulent sales brochures, some of which were subsequently distributed by Berko. The action by the Commission against Berko arose out of the sale of a specific security to a customer who had received fraudulent sales brochures and …
A Reappraisal Of The Role Of Disclosure, Robert L. Knauss
A Reappraisal Of The Role Of Disclosure, Robert L. Knauss
Michigan Law Review
The objective of this paper is to assess the current role of disclosure in its various aspects in security regulation. Following a brief description of the current uses of disclosure in securities regulation, there are separate sections describing and evaluating (1) the obligation of disclosure imposed on issuers at the initial sale of securities, (2) the obligation of disclosure resting on issuers if they have securities which are traded, and (3) obligations of disclosure imposed on parties in the securities business other than issuers. This last section includes obligations of insiders, broker-dealers, and investment advisers, as well as duties of …
Current Problems In Securities Regulation, Robert N. Dorosin, Ira J. Jaffe, Rolfe A. Worden, James C. Lockwood, Willoughby C. Johnson
Current Problems In Securities Regulation, Robert N. Dorosin, Ira J. Jaffe, Rolfe A. Worden, James C. Lockwood, Willoughby C. Johnson
Michigan Law Review
This comment analyzes four areas of central significance to adequate protection for the investor: (1) qualifications of those in the securities industry who deal with the public; (2) dissemination of corporate publicity; (3) dissemination of investment advice; and (4) selling practices in the securities industry. The findings and recommendations of the Special Study are given special attention insofar as they bear upon the problems covered. In certain areas, however, recent developments in court and Commission decisions have brought about changes equally as significant as the findings and recommendations of the Special Study. Thus each section covers the background and recent …
Securities Regulation-Sec Rule 10b-5-Recovery By Corporation Induced By Fraud Of Insider To Issue Shares, Charles K. Dayton
Securities Regulation-Sec Rule 10b-5-Recovery By Corporation Induced By Fraud Of Insider To Issue Shares, Charles K. Dayton
Michigan Law Review
Trustees in reorganization of a corporation brought suit on its behalf to recover damages under section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and rule 10b-5 of the Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that the corporation had been fraudulently induced by defendant, its comptroller, to issue stock for inadequate consideration. Also named as defendants were the American Stock Exchange and several banks and brokers, whose alleged complicity in the improper public distribution of the shares made them parties to the scheme to defraud the corporation. On a motion by all defendants but the comptroller to dismiss the complaint for …
Securities-Investment Advisers Act Of 1940-Antifraud Provisions Interpreted, Byron Bronston S.Ed.
Securities-Investment Advisers Act Of 1940-Antifraud Provisions Interpreted, Byron Bronston S.Ed.
Michigan Law Review
Defendant, Capital Gains Research Bureau, Inc., an investment advisory service, published a bulletin entitled "A Capital Gains Report," each issue of which advised approximately 5,000 subscribers as to the investment potential of a particular corporation's stock. On at least five occasions Capital Gains, and its president and sole stockholder, also a defendant, acquired some shares of a stock and, without revealing their interest therein, recommended its purchase in the bulletin. Following each recommendation, trading in the stock increased, the price rose, and, within a few days, defendants sold their shares at a profit. The Securities and Exchange Commission, alleging that …
Securities Regulation-Federal Anti-Fraud Provisions-Applicability Of Insider Responsibility To Broker In Possession Of Inside Corporate Information, John A. Krsul Jr.
Securities Regulation-Federal Anti-Fraud Provisions-Applicability Of Insider Responsibility To Broker In Possession Of Inside Corporate Information, John A. Krsul Jr.
Michigan Law Review
During a period of upward movement in the price of Curtiss-Wright common stock, the corporation's board of directors voted to reduce the stock dividend by forty percent, an action certain to have an immediate adverse effect upon the stock's market price. Although the board immediately authorized the transmission of information concerning its action to the New York Stock Exchange, an inadvertent delay of forty-five minutes ensued. Unaware of the delay, C, a director of Curtiss-Wright and a registered representative of Cady, Roberts & Co. (registrant) , a registered broker-dealer, telephoned registrant to inform G, one of its partners, …
Regulation Of Business - Sec Rule X-10b-5 - Recovery By Corporation Fradulently Induced To Issue Shares, William S. Bach
Regulation Of Business - Sec Rule X-10b-5 - Recovery By Corporation Fradulently Induced To Issue Shares, William S. Bach
Michigan Law Review
Defendants, Mountain States Securities Corporation and former officers of Consolidated American Industries, Inc., organized a dummy corporation, the Mid-Atlantic Development Company. The defendants drew a formal contract whereby Mid-Atlantic agreed to transfer worthless Cuban insurance company stock and equally valueless Honduran oil exploration rights to Consolidated in exchange for 700,000 shares of Consolidated stock. Consolidated's former secretary falsely certified a corporate resolution authorizing the issuance of the stock, and its former general counsel advised Consolidated's stock transfer agent that the transaction was exempt from SEC regulation. Acting on these representations, the transfer agent issued the Consolidated stock. Since at this …
Two-Contract Analysis May Imperil Stock Option Plans, James F. Ward
Two-Contract Analysis May Imperil Stock Option Plans, James F. Ward
Michigan Law Review
Stock option plans generally have withstood judicial scrutiny where they have complied with the requirements developed to control the operation of this type of arrangement. It would seem, therefore, that the future of stock options is secure against even the most critical court review-that nothing in the nature of the stock option arrangement would render it vulnerable to a general attack. The writer believes that complacency in this assumption is not now advisable. Recently a view (from a respectable authority) has been introduced unnoticed into this area, and may have gained the acceptance accorded to an unsuspected imposter. This view, …