Moreover, since passage of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995, which sought to encourage institutional investors to become more proactive in securities fraud class action litigation, the firm has become one of the nation's leaders in representing institutional investors in securities fraud and derivative litigation. We currently monitor the portfolios and are retained as securities litigation counsel for many of the most significant and respected public pension plans and institutional investors in North America and abroad, more than any other firm in our field.
BLB&G has the distinction of having successfully prosecuted many of the largest and most complex cases in securities law history, including:
- WorldCom Securities Litigation (over $6.15 billion in total recoveries)
- Cendant Securities Litigation (resulted in nearly $3.2 billion settlement for plaintiffs)
- McKesson HBOC Securities Litigation (over $1 billion in recoveries for investors)
- Washington Public Power Supply System Litigation (recovered over $750 million for investor class in 1990 - then the largest settlement ever)
See Our Record of Results to read about the firm's remarkable accomplishments on behalf of investors.
The attorneys in this Practice Group have extensive experience in the laws that regulate the securities markets and in the disclosure requirements of the corporations that issue publicly traded securities. Many of the attorneys in this Practice Group also have accounting backgrounds. The Group has state-of-the-art financial databases which enable them to investigate any potential securities actions involving a public company's securities.
The securities class actions the firm prosecutes primarily involve allegations that a publicly traded corporation and certain of its officers and directors disseminated materially false and misleading statements to investors, broker or securities analysts about the company's financial condition and/or products that served to artificially inflate the price of the company's stock. These statements are dispersed to the financial community by company press releases, prospectuses, annual reports and proxy statements, quarterly and annual financial statements and various SEC filings. In certain actions, plaintiffs must allege and prove that the defendants knowingly or recklessly disseminated materially false and misleading information. In others, such as public offerings, once a material misrepresentation is established, the burden is on the defendants to demonstrate they did not act negligently. Typically, when the truth about the company's financial condition or product is publicly revealed, investors who purchased the company's securities at a time when the prices of those securities were artificially inflated experience a significant drop in the value of their stock, causing investors serious economic losses.
Individual and institutional investors who have suffered losses in the value of their portfolio contact the firm to investigate the nature of the loss. Further, institutional clients often request that the firm proactively monitor the portfolios of their beneficiaries in order to more quickly and efficiently determine the cause of a loss in value. The attorneys carefully research and analyze information gathered from a variety of sources to determine whether a claim may be asserted on behalf of investors. If the attorneys determine that an adequate basis for a claim exists, the firm will file a class action against the corporation and certain officers and directors on behalf of all investors who purchased the securities within a specified trading period. Class action litigation is an economically viable means for allowing investors the opportunity to attain damages for the dissemination of materially false and misleading information. Due to the recent changes in the securities laws, class action litigation is being used by individual as well as institutional investors to recover their damages.
A class action suit is filed by an individual or an institutional investor who agrees to act as a representative on behalf of themselves and all other investors who have been damaged by similar misrepresentations within a finite trading period. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann LLP handles class actions on a contingency fee basis, which means that class representatives are not responsible for the payment of attorneys fees, which are to be paid only out of the recovery for the Class.
If you would like to confidentially discuss a potential securities fraud claim, please contact Gerald Silk at 800-380-8496.
