Overlawyered » securities litigation

“Harvard’s Shareholder Rights Project is Wrong”

Walter Olson — Sun, 01 Apr 2012 12:03:40 +0000

According to the Harvard Law School online catalog, the SRP is “a newly established clinical program” that “will provide students with the opportunity to obtain hands-on experience with shareholder rights work by assisting public pension funds in improving governance arrangements at publicly traded firms.”

Marty Lipton and others at Wachtell, Lipton don’t like the idea and criticize it here. More at NYT DealBook (via Bainbridge).

Reader J.B. emails to say:

Whatever one thinks of Wachtell’s substantive critique of the attack on classified/staggered boards, it’s kind of interesting for a law school to be promoting a “clinical program” in which the kids get to work for institutional investors with bajillions of dollars in assets (and, you know, the wherewithal to retain sophisticated counsel at market rates) rather than the sort of boring old indigent individuals that are the traditional law school clinic client base.

A different view: Max Kennerly.

Tags: Harvard, law schools, securities litigation

“Harvard’s Shareholder Rights Project is Wrong” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 29 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 29 Feb 2012 14:17:27 +0000

Jackpot justice and New Jersey pharmacies (with both a Whitney Houston and a Ted Frank angle) [Fox, PoL, our Jan. 3 post]
New Mexico: “Trial lawyers object to spaceport limits” [Las Cruces Bulletin]
Dodd-Frank: too big not to fail [The Economist] Robert Teitelman (The Deal) on new Stephen Bainbridge book Corporate Governance After the Financial Crisis [HuffPo] Securities suits: “trial lawyers probably won’t be able to defend a defective system forever” [WSJ Dealpolitik]
Uh-oh: U.K. Labour opposition looks at unleashing U.S.-style class actions [Guardian] “U.K. Moves ‘No Win, No Fee’ Litigation Reforms to 2013″ [Suzi Ring, Legal Week]
More on controls on cold medicines as anti-meth measure [Radley Balko, Megan McArdle, Xeni Jardin, earlier here, here, here]
Recognizable at a distance: “In Germany, a Limp Domestic Economy Stifled by Regulation” [NY Times]
Fewer lawyers in Congress these days [WSJ Law Blog]

Tags: Germany, illegal drugs, New Jersey, New York Times, pharmaceuticals, regulation and its reform, securities litigation, Senate, spac, U.S. House of Representatives, United Kingdom

February 29 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Class-action lawyers swarm around buyout deals”

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:30:12 +0000

Merger announcements often trigger a spate of press releases announcing that securities plaintiff’s firms are “investigating” the situation. Even if the evidence of wrongdoing is absent and the financial analysis thin, lawsuits may be the next step, because that’s where the money is [David Nicklaus, St. Louis Post-Dispatch]

Tags: class actions, securities litigation

“Class-action lawyers swarm around buyout deals” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 8 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 08 Feb 2012 05:15:22 +0000

Popular proposal to curb Congressional insider trading (“STOCK Act”) could have disturbing unintended consequences [John Berlau, CEI "Open Market"] A contrary view: Bainbridge.
Here’s Joe’s number, he’ll do a good job of suing us: “Some Maryland hospitals recommend lawyers to patients” [Baltimore Sun, Ron Miller]
Bribing the states to spend: follies of our fiscal federalism, and other themes from Michael Greve’s new book The Upside-Down Constitution [LLL, more, yet more] “Atlas Croaks, Supreme Court Shrugs” [Greve, Charleston Law Review; related, Ted Frank]
“… Daubert Relevancy is the Sentry That Guards Against the Tyranny of Experts” [David Oliver on new First Circuit opinion or scroll to Jan. 23]
Goodbye old political tweets, Eric Turkewitz is off to trial;
State laws squelch election speech, and political class shrugs (or secretly smiles) [George Will]
Too bad Carlyle Group got scared off promising experiment to revamp corporate governance to curb role of litigation [Ted Frank, Gordon Smith] AAJ should try harder to use people’s quotes in context [Bainbridge]

Tags: arbitration, Baltimore, campaign regulation, Daubert, expert witnesses, federalism, hospitals, securities litigation, Twitter

February 8 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

February 6 roundup

Walter Olson — Mon, 06 Feb 2012 05:02:14 +0000

“A 4-Page Playdate Waiver? Is This the New Normal?” [Lenore Skenazy, Free-Range Kids; our 2000 post on "Rise of the High-School Sleepover Disclaimer"]
Spirit Airlines sets what it calls DOTUC fee, for “Dept. of Transportation Unintended Consequences” [Stoll]
How fairly are fathers treated in family court? [Nina Shapiro, Seattle Weekly via Alkon]
“‘Insider’ Trading by the Representative Plaintiff in Shareholder Litigation” [Bainbridge]
“Donation controversy focuses attention on Madison County asbestos litigation” [St. Louis Post-Dispatch, Chamber-backed LNL]
Update: Appeals court reinstates Duluth doc’s defamation claims [DNT, earlier here, here, here; "bedside manner" criticism]
U.K.: “‘Psychic’ Sally Morgan Sues Critics for £150,000 After Refusing $1 Million to Prove Her Powers” [D.J. Grothe, HuffPo] “She’ll be calling witnesses such as ‘an uncle, or father, or a man… with a b in his first name’.” [@thegagthief]

Tags: airlines, asbestos, divorce, family law, libel slander and defamation, Madison County, recreation, Seattle, securities litigation, United Kingdom

February 6 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

January 18 roundup

Walter Olson — Wed, 18 Jan 2012 05:11:45 +0000

A federal fishing raid, the Pew Charitable Trusts and a biased Business Week account [Nils Stolpe on Gloucester, Mass. fisheries, via Stoll]
Intimidating the judiciary? “Group Opposing Citizens United Pushes ‘Occupy the Courts’ Protest” Jan. 20 [Debra Cassens Weiss, ABA Journal] Mob rallies at Michigan governor’s private home [Meegan Holland, MLive] “Occupy” forces Gingrich to cancel event [Daily Caller] Earlier here, here, here, etc.
“Paper Airplane? Late for School? Shouting Too Loud? You’re Under Arrest!” [Free-Range Kids, Texas]
Spielberg in “Raiders of the Lost Ark” paid homage to earlier movie sequences without sweating permissions. Oh, for those days [Joho] “Cultural gems that should be in the public domain today” [Atlantic Wire, Tabarrok]
UPS settlement exaggerates benefits to class members [Ted Frank; related, CCAF] “Federal Judges Have Harsh Words, Rulings for Class Action Plaintiffs’ Lawyers” [Lammi/WLF]
“Justice Breyer Calls Recusal Controversy a ‘Non-Issue’” [ABA Journal]
“Add Plaintiff-Lawyer Fees To The Cost Of Most Mergers” [Daniel Fisher, Forbes on Cornerstone Research report]

Tags: class action settlements, environment, Massachusetts, movies film and videos, police, recusals, schools, securities litigation, Texas

January 18 roundup is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

The “corporations aren’t people” campaign

Walter Olson — Tue, 08 Nov 2011 15:12:49 +0000

Neither Stephen Bainbridge nor Larry Ribstein is particularly impressed by it.

Tags: constitutional law, First Amendment, securities litigation

The “corporations aren’t people” campaign is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

Unions sue against Wall Street bonuses

Walter Olson — Sun, 16 Oct 2011 02:09:44 +0000

The suit was just a political stunt, writes Marc Hodak:

…Last week, the Delaware Chancery Court decided that in the absence of any substantiation whatsoever, and insisting on these things called facts, that they had to dismiss the case.

I only wish that the fiduciaries who brought this fact-challenged suit could be held accountable for the far more provable waste of their investors’ resources…

Tags: labor unions, securities litigation

Unions sue against Wall Street bonuses is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Judge Blasts Lead Plaintiff’s Firm for ‘Epic Failures’ in Securities Case”

Walter Olson — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 12:51:03 +0000

“Bernstein Leibhard has been chastised by a federal judge for revealing after six years of lawyering that the lead plaintiff in a securities case never bought the funds at issue.” [Mark Hamblett, New York Law Journal]

Tags: class actions, securities litigation

“Judge Blasts Lead Plaintiff’s Firm for ‘Epic Failures’ in Securities Case” is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system

“Free” help from securities class action lawyers

Walter Olson — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 05:07:24 +0000

Following murmurs about pay-to-play, South Carolina has turned down offers from local powerhouse Motley Rice and from Labaton Sucharow, whose attorneys had donated $12,000 to Attorney General Alan Wilson. [The State]

Tags: attorneys general, class actions, Labaton Sucharow, Motley Rice, securities litigation, South Carolina

“Free” help from securities class action lawyers is a post from Overlawyered - Chronicling the high cost of our legal system