In a three-ring circus — where the first is the motion to dismiss, the second is class certification, and the third is summary judgment — the Second Circuit Court of Appeals has introduced a new act in the second ring for...more
On June 3, 2022, the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed the final two counts in an action against California biotech firm Vaxart, Inc., finding that plaintiffs failed to adequately allege that certain non-public information...more
On June 21, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. v. Arkansas Teacher Retirement System,1 vacating the 2nd Circuit’s previous decision and remanding for further consideration as to...more
On December 11, 2020, the United States Supreme Court granted certiorari in a shareholder securities litigation against Goldman Sachs. On appeal, Goldman argues that federal securities law permits issuer defendants in...more
On January 3, 2020, Judge Edmond E. Chang of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Illinois Eastern Division granted Plaintiffs’ motion to certify a class of investors in an action alleging that two...more
Attorneys who appear in both state and federal courts must be familiar with the differences between the two systems. While some rules have harmonized over time,[1] other procedures are entirely distinct. As a matter of...more
As we previously noted in this post, the United States District Court for the Northern District of California dismissed the Volkswagen Bondholder Plaintiff’s first amended complaint, with leave to amend, holding that it could...more
This quarter's issue includes summaries and associated court opinions of selected cases principally decided between November 2017 and January 2018. The cases address developing trends in appraisal, class certification, core...more
On February 28, 2018, Judge Peter Sheridan of the United States District Court for the District of New Jersey granted class certification in an action against Aeterna Zentaris, Inc. and certain of its executives. Li V....more
Last month, in Arkansas Teachers Retirement System v. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., the Second Circuit vacated the Southern District of New York’s order certifying a class in a Rule 10b-5 securities fraud class action. At issue...more
A California District Court granted certification to a group of SeaWorld investors in a shareholder securities fraud case following the release of the documentary “Blackfish.” ...more
On July 7, 2017, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit offered significant guidance regarding the circuit’s class certification requirements in In re Petrobras Securities, No. 16-1914. In addressing an issue of...more
Plaintiffs filed 300 securities class actions in 2016 — a mark much higher than the annual average of 221 from 2011 to 2015 (as reported by NERA Economic Consulting). Indeed, the number of filings in 2016 was the...more
2016 was an active year in securities litigation. In the first half of 2016 alone, plaintiffs filed 119 new federal class action securities cases. It was also a busy year for SEC enforcement proceedings, with a record 868...more
Bass, Berry & Sims attorney Chris Lazarini analyzed a putative class action case that posed whether common questions of law or fact predominate on the reliance element of Plaintiffs' Section 10(b) claims. The court concluded...more
The Third Circuit recently affirmed the denial of class certification in a suit alleging that a law school made misrepresentations about the employment status of its graduates, thereby inducing students to pay inflated...more
In IBEW Local 98 Pension Fund v. Best Buy Co., Inc., No. 14-3178 (8th Cir. Apr. 12, 2016), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit held, in a Rule 10b-5 securities fraud action, that the district court...more
The Eighth Circuit has become the first federal circuit court to apply the Supreme Court’s Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2398 (2014) (Halliburton II) decision. Relying on Halliburton II, the Eighth...more
U.S. District Judge Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York recently certified a class in Strougo v. Barclays PLC, 14 Civ. 5797 (SAS), (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 2, 2016), a high-profile securities class action based on the...more
From the impacts of U.S. Supreme Court Omnicare and Halliburton cases to the uptick in Securities Act class actions, litigation partners Scott Musoff and Susan Saltzstein discuss the latest securities litigation developments....more
This issue of Inside the Courts, Skadden’s securities litigation newsletter, includes summaries and associated court opinions of selected cases principally decided between May 2015 and August 2015. The cases address...more
Applying the Supreme Court’s landmark decision in Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., 134 S. Ct. 2398 (2014) (“Halliburton II”), which allowed companies facing securities fraud class actions to defeat certification...more
On July 25, 2015, Judge Barbara Lynn of the Northern District of Texas issued a formative opinion in the class actions securities arena. The case, The Erica P. John Fund, Inc., et al. v. Halliburton Co., et al., No....more
Year-end lists are funny things. They take a sort-of arbitrary starting and stopping point, and then they cram a bunch of prejudices into a (usually) arbitrary number of items. And then people take them kind of seriously....more
In recent years, the Supreme Court has decided a number of cases that, alone and certainly in the aggregate, have significantly impacted the ability of plaintiffs to initiate and maintain class actions. By and large,...more