Posting will screech to a halt for the rest of this week as SLW heads across the pond for the 2006 ISS Corporate Governance Conference in London. Stuart Grant of the US law firm Grant & Eisenhofer and Hilton Mervis of the pan-European law firm SJ Berwin will join me for a panel on the role of European institutions in US securities class action litigation.

Let me leave you by emptying my "To Blog" folder with these quick hits:

1. How's That Safety Net?

The first checks to defrauded WorldCom investors should be going out shortly in the SEC's $750 million settlement with the company. The first wave of checks will total approximately $150 million, and will provide claimants with a recovery of 2% of their Eligible Loss Amount. Another wave of cash will go out later, and will apparently provide investors with an additional 3% of their Eligible Loss Amount.

The SEC says in its press release that this "shows that even when things go terribly wrong, there is a safety net for injured investors." By my math, this "safety net" would return $5,000 to an investor who had an Eligible Loss of $100,000 in this case.

2. Statute of Limitations Expires in AOL Case

Did you read the Alec Klein's "Stealing Time: Steve Case, Jerry Levin, and the Collapse of AOL Time Warner" yet, which I recommended way back when? If you did you'll be surprised to learn that, according to this article in the Washington Post, the 5 year statute of limitations in the case has now passed, and prosecutors were unable to make a case against any AOL execs other than two mid-level persons.

The article states that

Despite a lengthy investigation by the U.S. attorney's office for the Eastern District of Virginia, lawyers involved in the case now say the government will not be able to bring criminal charges against top AOL executives over transactions in which the Dulles Internet service provider and its business partners allegedly sought to artificially boost each other's revenue numbers as the dot-com bubble was bursting in 2000 and 2001.

3. Not Appearing in the SEC Litigation Releases

A Minnesota federal court let the SEC have it last week, ruling that the SEC must actually review documents requested to be released under FOIA before asserting that it cannot release the documents without harming ongoing law enforcement efforts. As discussed in this Dow Jones article, the Court wrote that it

adamantly disapproves of the manner in which the SEC has conducted itself as it relates to Gavin's requests. The SEC has shirked its responsibility by brazenly refusing to conduct a document-by-document review-despite a direct order from the Court.

The SEC told the Court that a review of the requested documents would have cost over $2 million. The Court ruled that the group requesting the documents would be required to pay any such costs.

Friday, September 1, 2006

Blogging in Earnest

SLW will resume blogging in earnest following Labor Day.  Apologies for the extended break!

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Tuesday, July 18, 2006

SLW: We're Back

SLW lives! I just forgot to post that we were headed out on (yet another) vacation last week.  Lots going on in the securities litigation world while we were gone, so look for some catch-up posts today and this week.

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Wednesday, June 7, 2006

The Wisdom of Solomon

First it got its own worldwide society and then a World Championship tournament.  Now the game/sport/strategy tool of  "Rock, Paper, Scissors" has gone to the next level.  Yes, RPS has now received the judicial imprimatur of a federal court in Florida as a "new form of dispute resolution."

According to this order signed yesterday by the Hon. Gregory A. Presnell resolving a motion filed in a squabble between the parties over the location for a deposition,

Upon consideration of the Motion – the latest in a series of Gordian knots that the parties have been unable to untangle without enlisting the assistance of the federal courts – it is

ORDERED that said Motion is DENIED. Instead, the Court will fashion a new form of alternative dispute resolution, to wit: at 4:00 P.M. on Friday, June 30, 2006, counsel shall convene at a neutral site agreeable to both parties. If counsel cannot agree on a neutral site, they shall meet on the front steps of the Sam M. Gibbons U.S. Courthouse, 801 North Florida Ave., Tampa, Florida 33602. Each lawyer shall be entitled to be accompanied by one paralegal who shall act as an attendant and witness. At that time and location, counsel shall engage in one (1) game of “rock, paper, scissors.” The winner of this engagement shall be entitled to select the location for the 30(b)(6) deposition to be held somewhere in Hillsborough County during the period July 11-12, 2006....

(Which I suppose will ultimately lead to this attorney time sheet entry: "2.0 hours--Prepare for and engage in ADR proceedings at federal court").

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Wednesday, December 28, 2005

See You in 2006

SLW is going into "Operation Shutdown" until 2006.  I thank all of you for reading and contributing to SLW, and I wish you a prosperous New Year.

By the way, until reading the link above I had completely lost sight of the fact that the original Operation Shutdown by Derek Bell (the now immortal "ultimate Pirate") is now in its 45th month!

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Wednesday, November 23, 2005

The Last Straw

As the website says, these "make the perfect holiday gift"... perhaps for that lawyer you've been trying to push over the edge into insanity.

Thanks to Jim Calloway's Law Practice Tips Blog for the link.

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Friday, September 30, 2005

Brilliant Idea #2: Marital Prisons

Night Shift (1982)

Bill Blazejowski:  "Wait a minute! Why don't they just mix the mayonnaise with the tuna in the can... HOLD THE PHONE! Why don't they just FEED the tuna fish mayonnaise! Call Starkist!"

I'm going to retroactively declare that the Perp Mask was Brilliant Idea #1, and make the idea I'm about to unveil be Brilliant Idea #2.  This will be part of an ongoing series of Brilliant Ideas that will be published as they occur to me (in other words, really infrequently).

After reading this NYT article about the criminal insider trading prosecution now under way against a Massachusetts husband and wife who face up to 10 years in prison on charges that they traded on inside information that Citizens Financial Group would buy Charter One Financial, I had a moment of clarity:  Marital Prisons.

Under my plan, this young couple ( "Shengnan Wang, 29, a former Citizens Bank employee, and her husband, Hai Liu, 31") would not be sent off to random separate prisons if convicted but rather to "marital prison."  This would be a special prison dedicated to simultaneous husband and wife offenders, and they would, of course, share a cell.  I see many efficiencies here:

• save on cell space
• easier for relatives to visit both inmates
• could serve as a significant deterrent to husbands or wives who don't get along well but who are thinking of committing a crime together
• eliminates need for conjugal visits

I'm sure there are many other reasons that this qualifies as a Brilliant Idea--please share them with me if any occur to you. 

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Friday, July 22, 2005

And Slim Just Left Town

Postings next week will be between slim and none.  We'll be back in action on August 1.

p.s. Please cast a vote in the poll regarding the PSLRA--it is in the upper right-hand corner of this page.

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Friday, April 2, 2004

SLW Signing Off Through April 9

SLW is signing off briefly, through April 9, 2004. Please check back then!

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