On April 12, 2024, a unanimous U.S. Supreme Court issued an opinion in Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. v. Moab Partners, L. P., vacating a judgment of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit that had reinstated claims...more
Looking back, 2022 was light on groundbreaking appellate-level securities decisions. The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, however, closed out the year with a notable decision in Menora Mivtachim Insurance Ltd....more
In the first quarter of 2022, federal appellate courts issued a number of thought-provoking (albeit not monumental) decisions addressing the reach of the federal securities laws and, in some cases, highlighting potentially...more
Federal courts closed out 2021 with a flurry of securities decisions in the month of December. In this update, we discuss two decisions involving claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule...more
1/19/2022
/ Coronavirus/COVID-19 ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Infectious Diseases ,
Material Misstatements ,
Rule 10(b) ,
Rule 10b-5 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Violations ,
Vaccinations
On November 24, 2021, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit issued a pair of decisions addressing threshold requirements for securities fraud claims under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and...more
12/8/2021
/ Appeals ,
Article III ,
Failure To Disclose ,
Investment ,
Material Misstatements ,
Omissions ,
Pleading Standards ,
Proxy Statements ,
Rule 10(b) ,
Rule 10b-5 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Standing
On September 20, 2021, in Pirani v. Slack Technologies, Inc., a divided panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that investors who purchase stock in a “direct listing”—in which pre-existing shares are...more
11/2/2021
/ Article III ,
Class Action ,
Direct Listing ,
Investment ,
Misrepresentation ,
Registration Statement ,
Section 11 ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Transactions ,
Securities Violations ,
Slack ,
Standing ,
Unregistered Securities
On July 9, 2021, in Karth v. Keryx Biopharmaceuticals, Inc., the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit affirmed entry of judgment for the defendants in a putative class action asserting violations of Section 10(b) of...more
The Third Circuit extended American Pipe tolling to the period before a decision on class-certification, opening a new avenue for potential class members to assert otherwise untimely individual securities claims. The Ninth...more
7/15/2021
/ American Pipe & Construction Co. v. Utah ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Material Misstatements ,
Omissions ,
Presumption of Reliance ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Regulation ,
Statute of Limitations ,
Tolling ,
Valeant ,
Volkswagen
On June 3, 2021, in Donelson v. Ameriprise Financial Services, Inc., a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit ordered class-action allegations in a putative securities fraud class action stricken on the...more
6/14/2021
/ Ameriprise Financial ,
Arbitration ,
Arbitration Agreements ,
Brokerage Accounts ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Discovery ,
FRCP 12(f) ,
Motion to Compel ,
Motion To Strike ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Litigation ,
Stock Trades
On May 10, 2021, in SEC v. Morrone, a panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit held that the federal securities laws apply to securities transactions as long as “irrevocable liability”—the point at which...more
On April 16, 2021, in In re Bibox Group Holdings Ltd. Securities Litigation, Judge Denise Cote of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York dismissed a putative class action alleging registration...more
4/23/2021
/ Blockchain ,
Crypto Exchanges ,
Cryptoassets ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Digital Currency ,
Distributed Ledger Technology (DLT) ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Financial Markets ,
Investment Opportunities ,
Putative Class Actions ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Standing ,
Unregistered Securities
While the past year, or even eighteen months, was short on landmark federal securities law decisions, there was significant activity on the part of private securities litigants. In 2018, plaintiffs filed 403 new federal...more
5/13/2019
/ China Agritech Inc v Resh ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Cyan Inc v Beaver Cty Emps Ret Fund ,
Cybersecurity ,
Emulex Corp. v Varjabedian ,
Government Investigations ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Violations ,
Retail Investors ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Regulation ,
Statute of Limitations ,
White Collar Crimes