Category Archives: All The News That’s Fit To Blog

Congressman Bart Stupak (D., Mich.) is leading the charge in Congress to rescind the PSLRA and also would like to reintroduce the concept of aiding and abetting liability for private Rule 10b-5 litigation (after its rejection under current law by the U.S. Supreme Court in the Central Bank case). Stupak cites the Enron scandal as the motivating factor behind the bill. His proposed legislation deserves a serious review and I will try to provide one later.
Quote of note: “My bill, the�’Shareholder and Employee Rights Restoration Act of 2002,’ was introduced to strip away the shield that� PSLRA and SLUSA placed around companies and their advisors and accountants.”�

There is an interesting article in the April 24, 2003, issue of the New York Law Journal on Milberg Weiss Bershad Hynes & Lerach, the leading plaintiffs’ securities class action firm. According to a recent study, last year Milberg Weiss participated as lead counsel in more than 60% of the securities class actions filed.

Quote of note: “By taking aim at some classic Milberg Weiss practices, the PSLRA inadvertently benefited the larger plaintiffs’ firms, they say. The result has been a much more concentrated securities plaintiffs’ bar dominated by big firms. As the bar’s 800-pound gorilla, Milberg Weiss benefited most of all.”