Regulatory Enforcement

The Securities and Exchange Commission must improve shortcomings in the operations of its enforcement division, according to a government watchdog report. The recently released report from the Government Accountability Office found that the division’s systems for planning, tracking, and closing investigations had “significant limitations that hampered its ability to effectively manage operations and allocate resources.” […]

Whether real estate developer Forest City is building monolithic skyscrapers or mixed-use developments with thousands of homes, the projects all spring from common origins—in contracts, work documents, permits, engineering drawings, and correspondence that consumed, well, forests of paper. In 2003, the company recognized that its intensifying blizzard of documentation was beginning to be a business […]

Corporate America seems to be slipping out of the crosshairs of litigation-hungry plaintiffs these days. The number of class-action securities lawsuits has plunged this year to only 59 such suits filed in the first half of 2007—42 percent below the average midyear mark for the last decade, according to the Stanford Law School Securities Class […]

The long arm of the U.S. law is intimidating enough for corporations. Now the long arms of the law in other nations are getting in on the act. The latest U.S. company tripped up by the global ambitions of overseas regulators in the Bank of New York, hit with a $22.5 million lawsuit by Russian […]

The long arm of the U.S. law is intimidating enough for corporations. Now the long arms of the law in other nations are getting in on the act. The latest U.S. company tripped up by the global ambitions of overseas regulators in the Bank of New York, hit with a $22.5 million lawsuit by Russian […]

Yes, Corporate America and its legal teams are cheering federal district court’s decision to dismiss charges against 13 ex-KPMG workers, amid allegations that government prosecutors had strong-armed KPMG into abandoning its employees. Now, however, comes the difficult question of whether that one favorable decision will translate into broader new legal protections. The answer is far […]

Corporate lawyers are starting to get their first glimpses into how federal courts will interpret new rules for “e-discovery” in civil litigation. In the more than six months since the amended rules for civil procedure went into effect, courts nationwide are only just beginning to decide the host of questions and disagreements bound to crop […]

Corporate lawyers are starting to get their first glimpses into how federal courts will interpret new rules for “e-discovery” in civil litigation. In the more than six months since the amended rules for civil procedure went into effect, courts nationwide are only just beginning to decide the host of questions and disagreements bound to crop […]

The Supreme Court has handed defendants in class-action securities lawsuits yet another bulwark to fend off shareholder litigation, raising the bar for how much scienter, or knowing intent to commit wrongdoing, that plaintiffs must prove. The case, Tellabs v. Makor Issues & Rights, stems from a shareholder lawsuit against Tellabs Corp., accusing the communications equipment […]

One of the most important securities litigation disputes in years is now hurtling toward the Supreme Court, which must answer the hypersensitive question of whether outsiders that help a company commit fraud can be sued by scammed investors in the company. Briefs for the case, Stoneridge Investment v. Scientific-Atlanta, were due June 11. More than […]