ABA Sound Advice: Conducting Civil Rights Audits: Benefits and Best Practices
The Justice Insiders: The Administrative State is Not Your Friend - A Conversation with Professor Richard Epstein
Litigation developments: federal forum provisions
The "Compass Rose" Method for Corporate Witness Interviews
Investment Management and Private Funds Roundtable: TALF 2020 and PPP Update
Securities Litigation and Disclosure Issues
Investment Management Roundtable Discussion – Regulatory and Enforcement Update
Podcast: Non-binding Guidance: SEC Disclosure Issues for Life Sciences Companies
Life Sciences Quarterly (Q3 2019): SEC Enforcement and Class Actions Regarding FDA Communications
Podcast: Credit Funds: What Managers Need to Know and Practical Tips to Avoid Insider Trading Risks
This month's SPAC Notebook follows up on our recent discussion of risk mitigation and due diligence tips for foreign companies going public in the US. We want to share more information on the current litigation environment...more
Here we are again—another year of SPAC ennui. We’re hearing derisive comments about the death of SPACs, unending deadline extensions, almost 200 liquidations, 70 deal terminations, and general SPAC malaise. If you’ve followed...more
From SPACs to COVID-19, several trends have appeared in core filing activity in recent years. The data below is from Securities Class Action Filings—2023 Midyear Assessment....more
Supreme Court Hears Argument on Traceability Requirement in Circuit-Split Slack v. Pirani - Key Points - - Before the end of June, the U.S. Supreme Court is expected to issue a decision in a high-profile securities case...more
Woodruff Sawyer's D&O DataBox™ Year-End Report provides insights about securities class action activities, developments, and historical trends—sourced from DataBox, our proprietary database and leading resource for securities...more
During 2022, securities case filings fell for the fourth consecutive year and were down slightly from 2021. The number of announced settlements rose substantially last year, as did total settlement amounts. The 2022...more
Tumultuous, exasperating, difficult, nerve-wracking, and frustrating are all apt descriptions of the 2022 SPAC market. We’ve summarized some of its ups and downs in our year in review blog post from October and have touched...more
In the first nine months of 2022, plaintiffs filed 157 securities class action lawsuits, according to Cornerstone Research — a figure only slightly lower than the 162 filings in the same period in 2021. Looking behind the...more
The use of SPACs to take companies public increased dramatically in recent years, but many of these new companies performed poorly after entering the public capital markets. This poor performance, often accompanied by...more
The use of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”) has exploded in recent years. SPACs are an increasingly popular way for private companies to become publicly traded without undergoing a traditional initial public...more
Recent statements by regulators and new court decisions signal continued scrutiny of SPACs and operating companies going public through de-SPAC mergers. Key Points: ..The SEC has indicated that it will continue its...more
In 2021, 182 securities class actions were filed against issuers of stock listed on US exchanges. This statistic means that the total number of annual filings in 2021 was down 13% compared to 2020. As highlighted in our...more
In 2021, there were 613 initial public offerings (“IPOs”) of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”), after 248 SPACs went public in 2020 and 59 in 2019. Prior to 2021, there had not been more than 500 IPOs of any...more
The SPAC market has withstood many challenges throughout 2021, including softening of the private investment in public equity (PIPE) market for a majority of the year after a very robust first quarter for initial business...more
In one of the most high-profile actions recently undertaken by the Securities and Exchange Commission’s Fort Worth Office, the SEC in late October settled securities fraud charges for nearly $40 million against Akazoo, S.A.,...more
Northern District of California Dismisses Shareholder Derivative Suit Concerning Lack of Diversity; Delaware Court of Chancery Dismisses Stockholder Suit Against Medical Device Company for Failure to Plead Demand Futility;...more
Delaware Court of Chancery Awards Attorneys’ Fees After Gilead’s “Glaringly Egregious” Litigation Conduct; S.D.N.Y Grants Plaintiffs’ Partial Summary Judgment in Securities Class Action Against Perrigo; SPAC Investors Launch...more
On July 13, 2021, the SEC announced charges against Stable Road Acquisition Company (“Stable Road”), its sponsor, SRC-NI, its CEO, Brian Kabot, Stable Road’s proposed merger target Momentus Inc.(“Momentus”), and Momentus’s...more
The market has seen a boom in the last two years for emerging companies going public through the use of special-purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). SPACs are attractive vehicles for allowing a private company to gain...more
The recent statement by the Staff of the SEC (the Staff Statement) will likely impact almost every SPAC or post-de-SPAC entity with warrants in its structure. SPAC/post-de-SPAC entities should review warrant terms to...more
In the finance world, Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) are proliferating like Dutch tulips. This year alone, they’ve exploded in popularity, with multitudes of celebrities, politicians, and influencers sponsoring...more
Not far behind the dramatic increase in the use of special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) is a corresponding increase in the number of shareholder lawsuits and increased activity at the US Securities and Exchange...more
Private companies with cutting-edge technology have become particularly attractive targets for special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs). These private companies may choose to go public via SPAC for a number of reasons...more
Despite unprecedented disruptions to the court system from the COVID-19 pandemic, plaintiffs continued to bring securities class actions at elevated levels in 2020 — a sign that filings will remain high in the year ahead....more
Special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) are increasingly being used as an alternate vehicle to traditional initial public offerings. Companies that go public through a traditional IPO process are often subject to...more