If outside counsel for a company drafts factual memoranda concerning an internal investigation conducted in response to alleged wrongdoing, and then voluntarily shares the memoranda at the company’s direction with government investigators, has the company waived the work product privilege? According to a recent decision from a federal district court in New York, the answer is yes.
D&O Liability
NY Court of Appeals Introduces Derivative Liability Exposure to LLC Managers
By Troutman Pepper Locke on
On February 14, 2008, a divided New York Court of Appeals held that a member of a New York limited liability corporation (often referred to simply as a “LLC”) could bring a derivative lawsuit on behalf of the LLC against the entity’s managers. …
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D.C. Federal Court Names Lead Counsel in Standard & Poor’s CMO Securities Class Action
By Troutman Pepper Locke on
On February 11, 2008, Judge Colleen Kotelly of the United States District Court for the District of Columbia appointed the Lerach, Stoia, Geller, Rudman & Robbins law firm as lead plaintiffs’ counsel in a securities class action arising out of Standard & Poor’s allegedly fraudulent rating of certain bonds collateralized by subprime mortgages.
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Broker Agrees To Reimburse Massachusetts City for $14 Million in Subprime Losses
Merrill Lynch recently agreed to “make whole” the city of Springfield, Massachusetts by paying nearly $14 million in connection with subprime losses the city suffered in cash accounts held with the brokerage firm.
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Latest Aspect of the Credit Crisis: Auction Rate Securities Auction Failures
The credit crisis ushered in by the collapse of the market for subprime-mortgage-backed securities continues to spread through the debt markets. …
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First Circuit Applies Tellabs For The First Time
By Troutman Pepper Locke on
Posted in D&O Liability, United States
In its first application of the Supreme Court’s Tellabs opinion issued last summer, the First Circuit Court of Appeals recently affirmed the dismissal of securities fraud claims against various actors associated with defaulted bonds issued by the now-defunct Bradford College. …
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Federal Court Dismisses Subprime Class Action Claims
By Troutman Pepper Locke on
Late last year, the United States District Court for the Central District of California dismissed a securities class action claim against IndyMac Financial, Inc. and several of its officers and directors because the plaintiffs failed to plead scienter.
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Recent Study Finds That Securities Class Actions Increased Significantly in 2007 Due to Subprime Crisis
A joint study conducted by the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse and Cornerstone Research recently concluded that there were 166 securities class action lawsuits filed in federal courts nationwide last year. This is a 43% increase from 2006. …
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Further Analysis: Supreme Court Limits Securities Fraud Liability of Third Parties
By Troutman Pepper Locke on
As we reported on here, in Stoneridge Investment Partners, LLC v.Scientific-Atlanta, Inc., the U.S. Supreme Court recently declined to permit investor suits against third parties who engaged in deceptive acts that contributed to another party’s securities fraud, where the third parties had no duty to disclose their acts to the public, and where their deceptive acts were in fact not communicated to the public. …
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$280 Million Securities Class Action Verdict Against Apollo Group
By Troutman Pepper Locke on
Posted in D&O Liability, United States
On January 16, 2008, at the end of a two-month trial, a federal jury in the United States District Court for the District of Arizona found that Apollo Group, Inc. (“Apollo”) and two former Apollo executives violated federal securities laws by fraudulently misleading its investors about its recruitment policies. …
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