Without question, the last year has been a tough one for securities fraud plaintiffs. The U.S. Supreme Court (1) found that the securities laws preempted antitrust suits in Credit Suisse Securities v. Billing, 127 S. Ct. 2383 (June 18, 2007); (2) allowed defendants to attack plaintiffs’ pleadings of allegations of scienter (defendants’ state of mind) by presenting opposing inferences in Tellabs Inc. v. Makor Issues & Rights Ltd.,  27 S. Ct. 2499 (June 21, 2007) (click here to read more about the Tellabs decision); and (3) tossed out plaintiffs’ efforts to use a “scheme liability” theory of reliance to assert fraud against secondary actors in Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta, 128 S. Ct. 761(Jan. 15, 2008) (click here to read more about the Stoneridge decision).

To view a full Client Advisory on this topic by Christine O’Connor of Edwards Angell Palmer & Dodge’s Securities and Government Enforcement Practice Group, please click here.