Securities class actions are supposed to vindicate the rights of investors injured by corporate fraud. Yet, despite multimillion or even multibillion dollar settlements, many injured investors never receive a dime in compensation. To receive money from a settlement in a securities class action,...

Corporate litigation has changed dramatically over the past twenty-five years. In 1995, Congress adopted the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, which made it much harder for shareholders to file securities class actions. Delaware courts recently announced that they will review settlements...

Using a sample of all companies named as defendants in securities class actions between July 1, 2005 and December 31, 2008, we study parallel suits relying on state corporate law arising out of the same allegations as the securities class actions. We test several ways that parallel suits may add...

Conventional wisdom has long held that leadership decisions in corporate litigation are best left to the lawyers. Even as the world of corporate litigation has changed dramatically, courts have consistently relied on the lawyers themselves to decide who among them will control litigation...

In this paper, we study attorneys' fees awarded in the largest securities class actions: “mega-settlements.” Consistent with prior work, we find larger fee awards but lower percentages in these cases. We also find that courts are more likely to reject or modify fee requests made in...

The discovery process in the United States receives more criticism than all other stages of civil litigation combined. Critics complain that discovery in complex cases is too expensive and that its costs are too often disproportionate to the amount at stake in litigation. Yet contracting parties...

Corporate litigation is in crisis. At the state level, shareholder lawsuits challenging mergers and other corporate decisions are ubiquitous but rarely end with meaningful relief for shareholders. At the federal level, securities class actions are rife with ethical challenges and low-value...

Plaintiffs’ lawyers in the United States play a key role in combating corporate fraud. Shareholders who lose money as a result of fraud can file securities class actions to recover their losses, but most shareholders do not have enough money at stake to justify overseeing the cases filed on...

Merger litigation has changed dramatically. Today, nearly every announcement of a significant merger sparks litigation, and these cases look quite different from merger cases in the past. These cases are now filed primarily outside of Delaware, they typically settle without shareholders...