Securities Law Commons^™

Recanting Confidential Witnesses In Securities Litigation, Gideon Mark

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Article examines the contentious and recurring issue of how courts should handle confidential witnesses in securities litigation who recant the information attributed to them in complaints or deny that they ever provided such information to plaintiffs’ counsel and/or investigators. The use by plaintiffs of confidential witnesses has become ubiquitous in recent years, as a primary unintended effect of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. That legislation raised the bar for pleading securities fraud and established an automatic stay of all discovery and other proceedings during the pendency of a motion to dismiss, absent application of one of …

Pleading Securities Fraud Claims--Only Part Of The Story, Marc I. Steinberg

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act And Particularity: Why Are Some Courts In An Alternate Universe?, Charles W. Murdock

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The focus of this Article is to suggest that the judicial decision-making process is often not as rational and objective as we would like to believe. Bias often affects the decision making of judges, sometimes to the extent that it appears that the writer of the opinion is living in an alternate universe.

As we progress professionally, and become more steeped in our biases, we sometimes move toward creating a world that exists in our heads and has little relation to the “real” world. While this assertion will be developed in the context of courts’ interpreting “particularly” in the Private …

The Virtues Of Private Securities Litigation: An Historic And Macroeconomic Perspective, Steven A. Ramirez

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

In the wake of the Great Depression, the federal securities laws operated to mandate disclosure of material facts to investors and extend broad private remedies to victims of securities fraudfeasors. The revelation of massive securities fraud underlying the Great Depression animated the federal securities laws as investment plunged after 1929 and failed to recover for years. For over sixty years after the enactment of the federal securities laws, no episode of massive securities fraud with significant macroeconomic harm occurred. The federal securities laws thereby operated to facilitate financial stability and prosperity, in addition to a superior allocation of capital. Unfortunately, …

Pleading Securities Fraud Claims: The Good, The Bad, And The Ugly, Sharon Nelles, Hilary Huber

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of The Prefiling Phase For Securities-Fraud Litigation, John M. Wunderlich

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

The pleading burden that governs securities-fraud litigation is significantly higher than those standards that govern traditional civil cases. The heightened pleading burden applicable to securities cases has transformed the motion to dismiss into something like summary judgment. In fact, to contend with this heightened pleading burden, plaintiffs typically must spend more time in the prefiling phase gathering sufficient, reliable evidence of securities fraud.

With almost two decades of litigation under the securities laws’ heightened pleading burden, empirical studies are revealing that certain kinds of evidence are more likely to defeat a motion to dismiss than others. But dismissal statistics and …

Class-Action Tolling, Federal Common Law, And Securities Statutes Of Repose: A Recommendation, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Essay focuses on a narrow, but potentially outcome-determinative, question: Does the filing of a securities class action toll the three-year outer time limit applicable to claims under sections 11 and 12(a)(2) of the Securities Act and the five-year outer time limit applicable to claims under section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act, such that potential class members—after a decision on class certification—can assert an individual federal action, even if those outer time limits would have elapsed absent tolling? There is currently a circuit split on this issue, with the Tenth Circuit answering “yes” and the Second Circuit answering “no.” …

The Significance And Impact Of Price Distortion And The Fraud-On-The-Market Theory After Halliburton Ii, Charles W. Murdock

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This past summer, the United States Supreme Court handed down its decision in Halliburton v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. (“Halliburton II”), in which the Court held that a defendant may establish lack of price impact at the certification stage to establish a lack of reliance based upon the fraud-on-the-market theory. This was the third decision in three years dealing with the fraud-on-the-market approach to establishing commonality with respect to reliance by plaintiffs on management’s misrepresentations. In so doing, the Supreme Court retained market efficiency as an element of the fraud-on-the-market theory, but also reflected a broader and less restrictive …

Navigating Alternatives To Securities Fraud Class Actions: State Law And Opt-Out Litigation, Jeffrey Paul Mahoney

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Securities Litigation As A Window Into Supreme Court Litigation, Thomas Goldstein

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Implications For Market Efficiency And Damages Analysis Of Plaintiff Interpretations Of Halliburton Ii's Statement That "Market Efficiency Is A Matter Of Degree", David Tabak

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

On June 23, 2014, the Supreme Court issued its ruling in Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. (“Halliburton II”) that prior case law “affords defendants an opportunity to rebut the presumption by showing, among other things, that the particular misrepresentation at issue did not affect the stock’s market price.”1 While this has generally been considered the key holding, it has not gone unnoticed that the Court affirmed its prior ruling in Basic, Inc. v. Levinson,2 mentioning that the “presumption of reliance thus does not rest on a ‘binary’ view of market efficiency”3 and, referring to the Brief for …

Predatory Lending: What's Race Got To Do With It, Zainab A. Mehkeri

Public Interest Law Reporter

No abstract provided.

The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act And Particularity: Why Are Some Courts In An Alternate Universe?, Charles W. Murdock

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

The Virtues Of Private Securities Litigation: An Historic And Macroeconomic Perspective, Steven A. Ramirez

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Around The World Of Securities Fraud In Eighty Motions To Dismiss, Wendy Gerwick Couture

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Janus Capital Group, Inc. V. First Derivative Traders: The Culmination Of The Supreme Court’S Evolution From Liberal To Reactionary In Rule 10b-5 Actions, Charles W. Murdock

Faculty Publications & Other Works

"Political" decisions such as Citizens United and National Federation of Independent Business (Obamacare) reflect the reactionary bent of several Supreme Court Justices. But this reactionary trend is discernible in other areas as well. With regard to Rule lOb-5, the Court has handed down a series of decisions that could be grouped into four trilogies. The Article examines the trend over the past forty years which has become increasingly conservative and, finally, reactionary.

The first trilogy was a liberal one, arguably overextending the scope of Rule lOb-5. This was followed by a conservative trilogy that put a brake on such extension, …

Leave Time For Trouble: The Limitations Periods Under The Federal Securities Laws, Michael J. Kaufman, John M. Wunderlich

Faculty Publications & Other Works

No abstract provided.

Confidential Informants And Securities Class Actions: Mixed Messages And Motives, Jed S. Rakoff

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Are Sox And Dodd-Frank Securities Law? The Answer Is Up In The Air, Geoffrey Christopher Rapp

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Random Thoughts Of A Federal District Judge, Shira A. Scheindlin Judge

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Road Map For Class Certification Post- Halliburton Ii, Marc I. Gross

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

The Importance Of Conducting Thorough Investigations Of Confidential Witnesses In Securities Fraud Litigation, Leigh Handelman Smollar

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

This Article examines the use of confidential witnesses (“CWs”) in investigating and substantiating securities fraud claims. The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act has placed a heavy burden on plaintiffs at the pleading stage, which has caused plaintiffs to perform preliminary investigations and seek confidential information as a basis for their allegations in the complaint. Testimony of CWs is often the centerpiece of the evidence substantiating plaintiffs’ securities fraud claims. As a result, the investigation conducted prior to filing an amended complaint has become a central issue in the realm of securities litigation, subject to attack by the defendants. This Article …