Legal News

2009, Dreadful For So Many, Not So Bad For Some Plaintiffs? Firms

By Ashby Jones

Here’s the conventional wisdom: 2009 was a lousy one to be a lawyer or a law student. You had layoffs and deferrals, de-equitized partners and sinking revenues.

It’s all true, of course, but that snapshot ignores one cluster of lawyers for whom 2009 seemed to just fine: the top plaintiffs’ securities firms.

The RiskMetrics Group has unveiled its annual report on how the top securities firms fared — the “SCAS 50,” as the good folks at RiskMetrics have branded it. And the results are impressive: the top firms seemed to do quite a bit better than they did in 2008.

Leading the pack for 2009: Coughlin Stoia, which brought in $1.58 billion from settling 34 cases. The rest of the top 5: Milberg, which brought in $1.44 billion in a mere 10 settlements; Bernstein Leibhard (1.02 billion in 4 settlements); Barroway Topaz ($889 million, 15 settlements); Barrack Rodos & Bacine ($887 million in 6 settlements).

A few methodological notes from the SCAS 50 are worth noting: The survey tracks federal and state shareholder class actions and does not include data on ERISA or derivative lawsuits.

Furthermore, the SCAS 50 reflects only those final settlements that resulted in the creation of a settlement fund on behalf of shareholders. Cases which resulted in no settlement fund being created, but instead had only non-monetary settlement terms (such as corporate governance changes, changes in the terms of a merger, etc.) are not included.

As our own Nathan Koppel reported last year, these firms do face one nagging detail: Their settlements must be approved by a court, and withstand a rash of objectors who typically show up come settlement time to complain that the lead plaintiffs' firms have done a lousy job.

Still, it’s a small price to pay for some of these settlements.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on April 21, 2010 (boomark / email).