Law Commons^™

The Business Of Securities Class Action Lawyering, Jessica M. Erickson, Stephen J. Choi, Adam C. Pritchard

Law Faculty Publications

Plaintiffs’ lawyers in the United States play a key role in combating corporate fraud. Shareholders who lose money as a result of fraud can file securities class actions to recover their losses, but most shareholders do not have enough money at stake to justify overseeing the cases filed on their behalf. As a result, plaintiffs’ lawyers control these cases, deciding which cases to file and how to litigate them. Recognizing the agency costs inherent in this model, the legal system relies on lead plaintiffs and judges to monitor these lawyers and protect the best interests of absent class members. Yet …

Working Hard Or Making Work? Plaintiffs’ Attorney Fees In Securities Fraud Class Actions, Jessica M. Erickson

Law Faculty Publications

In this paper, we study attorneys’ 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, 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, particularly …

Piling On? An Empirical Study Of Parallel Derivative Suits, Jessica Erickson

Law Faculty Publications

Using a sample of all companies named as defendants in securities class actions between July 1, 2005 and December 31, 2008, we study parallel suits relying on state corporate law arising out of the same allegations as the securities class actions. We test several ways that parallel suits may add value to a securities class action. Most parallel suits target cases involving obvious indicia of wrongdoing. Moreover, we find that although a modest percentage of parallel suits are filed first, over 80 percent are filed after a securities class action (termed “follow-on” parallel suits). We find that parallel suits and, …

Obligations And Potential Liabilities Of Attorneys In Public And Private Offerings, William O. Fisher

Law Faculty Publications

This chapter examines issues that attorneys face when performing services for developing companies, with particular focus on private offerings and the initial public offering ("IPO"). In private and public offerings, both the securities laws and the issuer's interests mandate that the offering document present full and fair disclosure of the issuer's business and financial condition. In assisting an issuer, attorneys share this goal; and can face liability if they err when providing services in such a transaction.

When The Government Attempts To Change The Board, Investors Should Know, William O. Fisher

Law Faculty Publications

In 2008 and 2009, the federal government effectively hired and fired directors at American International Group and Bank of America. At AIG, the government exercised its power through the ownership of voting stock, which meant that the company’s public securities filings revealed the government influence, though at times slowly and at times only by inference. At BofA, by contrast, the government imposed its will through an unpublished bank regulatory action, and no securities filing provided even a hint of the federal role. The fact that current law allows the government to secretly reconstitute the governing bodies of multi-billion-dollar, publicly traded …

Four Uncharted Corners Of Anti-Corruption Law: In Search Of Remedies To The Sanctioning Effect, Andrew B. Spalding

Law Faculty Publications

This Article is the third installment in a long-term research project that examines the effects of the U.S. Foreign Corrupt Practices Act in relation to its underlying policy goals. It first reiterates the various data points showing that enforcement now has the unintended effect of reducing investment in higher-corruption markets. Because this amounts to the withdrawal of capital from developing countries in protest of their political conditions, I call this the "sanctioning effect." The paper then seeks to push the envelope of current anti-bribery debates by exploring connections to four fields of academic inquiry not typically associated with the FCPA. …

Corporate Governance In The Courtroom: An Empirical Analysis, Jessica M. Erickson

Law Faculty Publications

Conventional wisdom is that shareholder derivative suits are dead. Yet this death knell is decidedly premature. The current conception of shareholder derivative suits is based on an empirical record limited to suits filed in Delaware or on behalf of Delaware corporations, leaving suits outside this sphere in the shadows of corporate law scholarship. This Article aims to fill this gap by presenting the first empirical examination of shareholder derivative suits in the federal courts. Using an original, hand-collected data set, my study reveals that shareholder derivative suits are far from dead. Shareholders file more shareholder derivative suits than securities class …

Does The Efficient Market Theory Help Us Do Justice In A Time Of Madness, William O. Fisher

Law Faculty Publications

This Article questions how well the efficient market theory, as applied by event studies, works in cases originating during the Internet, high-tech, and telecommunications bubble of 1998 to 2001. In doing so, the Article discusses technical and theoretical challenges to the efficient market theory. Principally, however, this Article argues that the use of the efficient market theory-and relatedly the event study methodology-is inappropriate in bubble cases for normative reasons. The normative connection between the efficient market theory-applied through event studies-and the lOb-5 elements-reliance, materiality, loss causation, and damages-presupposes that the market acts rationally. Market professionals supposedly impose that rationality through …

Where Were The Counselors - Reflections On Advice Not Given And The Role Of Attorneys In The Accounting Crisis, William O. Fisher

Law Faculty Publications

Today's reports of corporate villainy invite these questions: Restricting ourselves to what the profession knew in the last days of the late 1990s soaring stock market, what advice might attorneys have given-about the temptations of deceptive accounting and the defenses to erect against it-to young executives who were taking their companies public then? And, if attorneys did not always give that counsel in fulsome form, why was that so? What forces worked on lawyers to deter that advice? What does all this suggest for counseling today? To help us answer these questions, we begin with two scenes. We return to …

Don't Call Me A Securities Law Groupie: The Rise And Possible Demise Of The Group Pleading Protocol In 10b-5 Cases, William O. Fisher

Law Faculty Publications

Corporations often speak through documents. Some, like press releases, may not identify an author. Others, like 10-Ks, bear the signatures of many who did not write them but sign as required by law. In many cases, groups of individuals, working together, prepare these documents. When such documents contain misstatements, plaintiffs may not know initially who wrote them. To address this difficulty, the U.S. Courts of Appeals for the Ninth and Second Circuits created a judge-made pleading protocol. This protocol permits plaintiffs to name officers, and in some cases directors, as defendants in securities fraud cases without pleading specific facts to …

Manipulation Of Futures Markets: Redefining The Offense, Wendy Collins Perdue

Law Faculty Publications

Historically, one of the most common charges raised against the futures market has been that of market manipulation. It would seem that whenever the public perceives prices as being too high or too low, someone will allege that the price is the result of manipulation. Despite the ease and frequency with which critics have leveled such charges and the fact that federal law has prohibited "manipulation" for over 65 years, a satisfactory definition of manipulation has yet to emerge.

This Article offers a fresh approach to defining manipulation. Rather than asking a court to determine whether a price is "artificial" …

The New Virginia Stock Corporation Act: A Primer, Daniel T. Murphy

Law Faculty Publications

During its 1985 session, the Virginia General Assembly enacted a new stock corporation statute for Virginia ("Revised Statute"). The new statute became effective January 1, 1986. The Revised Statute represents a complete revision of the Virginia corporation statute and is the result of a thorough review of prior law. This article will discuss some of the significant changes in Virginia corporate law effected by the Revised Statute and will offer some guidelines for the interpretation and application of its provisions.

Equity Insolvency And The New Model Business Corporation Act, Daniel T. Murphy

Law Faculty Publications

By eliminating earned and capital surplus, the new Model Business Corporation Act may be perceived as providing directors with some additional flexibility regarding distributions to shareholders. As a practical matter however, the statute does not dramatically enlarge the ambit of their discretion. Directors have always had the flexibility to make distributions from both earned or capital surplus. The distributions are still tempered, as they were under the old statute, by the notion of equity solvency. On the other hand, the Comment to new section 45 provides the board of directors with substantial guidance of the proper methodology to use in …

Incorporation And The Securities Acts, Daniel T. Murphy

Law Faculty Publications

ATTORNEYS, when advising clients regarding the advantages and disadvantages of incorporating a business, must carefully consider the applicability of the securities laws, state and federal, to the venture from its inception. If a business were run as a proprietorship or a general partnership, the principals could dispose of their interests in the business without consideration of the securities laws. The issuance of stock by a corporation to such individuals in exchange for cash or their interests in the business triggers the application of both state and federal securities laws. More importantly, however, the attorney must recognize that these statutes will …

Redemption Of Stock Under The Model Business Corporations Act And The Virginia Stock Corporation Act, Daniel T. Murphy

Law Faculty Publications

The Model Business Corporation Act (hereinafter the "Model Act") has been in existence for more than twenty-five years, and has served as the paradigm for the revised corporation statutes of approximately twenty-five states, including Virginia. Despite its age, certain of its provisions have been infrequently applied and interpreted in judicial opinions. One such set of provisions is that dealing with a corporation's right to redeem shares of its stock. The purpose of this article is to analyze the Model Act's provisions regarding the redemption of shares; and to review, in contrast thereto, the relevant provisions of the Virginia stock corporation …

State Securities Regulation Of Real Estate Investment Trusts, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

If one of John Saxe's blind men of Indostan were to prate about a real estate investment trust (REIT) with knowledge only of state securities regulations thereof, his commentary would be no more accurate or revealing than his descriptions of the elephant. For almost a decade, state blue sky regulation has presented the primary legal obstacle to the organization of real estate investment trusts. This article will consider the nature and problems of such regulation.

Scienter Requirement In Actions Under Rule 10b-5, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

More than twenty years have now elapsed since a private right of action under rule 10b-5 was first recognized judicially. In the interim, rule 10b-5 has become "the most prolific source of litigation since Henry Ford invented the flivver." And, the Rule is assuming even greater importance. Private actions under 10b-5 in excess of seventy-seven million dollars have been instituted against Texas Gulf Sulphur and its officers and directors. The Securities and Exchange Commission proposals to implement the Wheat Report will result in an increased emphasis on 10b-5. Notwithstanding the importance of rule 10b-5 and the numerous reported decisions and …

Security Transfers By Secured Parties, David G. Epstein

Law Faculty Publications

While no Uniform Commercial Code section specifically so provides, the Code clearly contemplates transfer by secured parties of their interest arising under security agreements, and these transfers commonly occur. Yet the legal ramifications of such transfers are to a large extent unknown because of the silence of the Code and the absence of both reported decisions and secondary authorities. This article will examine one type of transfer by secured parties-transfers by secured parties to secure payment of an indebtedness.