Saturday, September 6, 2008

Money & Business

The Collar by Luke Mullins

2008 Could Be Busy for Securities Lawyers

April 11, 2008 04:06 PM ET | Luke Mullins | Permanent Link

Grace Lamont, a partner at PricewaterhouseCoopers, predicts the number of federal class action securities lawsuits filed will increase this year, according to the ABA Journal. The number of federal securities class actions totaled 163 in 2007, up from 109 in 2006, the publication says.

From the ABA Journal:

"I think in 2008 what we're going to see is a further increase," Lamont told an audience made up largely of lawyers, accountants and insurance company executives, predicting that the subprime mortgage crisis is surely going to bump up the number of filings. Already, halfway through 2007, the number of federal subprime-related securities class action filings rose sharply, she said.

The growing role being played by unions and pension funds as plaintiffs in securities class actions is apparently driving up damages awards, Lamont said, probably because of the fact that these institutional plaintiffs are well-funded and can afford to pursue cases aggressively.

Full article.

Tags: subprime mortgages | law | housing

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Reader Comments

File This Under "Duh"

The Big 4 audit firms themselves will also be targets of even more litigation than they already face. Fortunately, Ms. Lamont and PwC can make tons of money anyway form litigation support and investigations engagements when her firm is not the auditor being sued. Or do they even have to make that distinction? See my posts on Deloitte, KPMG and Siemens at http://www.retheauditors.com/2007/12/kpmg-covers-its-tush-at-siemens.html

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Luke Mullins is an associate editor at U.S. News, covering banking, real estate, and white-collar crime. He came to the magazine from the American Banker, a financial services daily newspaper, after a stint in the Peace Corps in West Africa and 18 months coaching baseball in the Dominican Republic. Mullins earned a master's degree in journalism from Syracuse University in 2005 and now lives in Washington, D.C., where he grew up. He has written about white-collar criminals for the American magazine, and his work was included in 20 Something Essays by 20 Something Writers: The Best New Voices of 2006, a Random House anthology that appeared on the Boston Globe's bestseller list.

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