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April 12, 2013

Allergan: Delaware Supreme Court Reverses & Gives Collateral Estoppel Effect to Federal Court’s Dismissal

Last week, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned the Chancery decision in Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System v. Pyott. Here are some blogs analyzing this result:

Delaware Supreme Court Reverses Chancery and Gives Collateral Estoppel Effect to California Federal Court’s Dismissal of Derivative Claims
Delaware Supreme Court Blasts Chancery Court’s Controversial Refusal to Recognize California Court Judgment
Delaware Supreme Court’s Decision in Allergan Won’t Fix the Problem of Multi-Jurisdictional Shareholder Litigation
Delaware Supreme Court Upholds Federalism, Comity & Finality
Supreme Court Reverses Chancery on Collateral Estoppel/Demand Futility and Section 220 Issues

By the way, this news of third parties funding the plaintiff’s bar is scary given the recent uptick in M&A litigation, etc. Gheesh…

Senator Rockefeller Asks SEC to Step Up Cybersecurity Disclosures

As noted in this article from “The Hill,” Senator Rockefeller has continued his campaign to elicit more cybersecurity disclosures by calling on the new SEC Chair to do something on her first day in office…

Will the New SEC Chair Tackle “Neither Admit Nor Deny” Debate?

This Bloomberg article entitled “‘Neither Admit nor Deny’ Lives on at SEC, Even for Felons” starts off with this paragraph:

The Securities and Exchange Commission made a big fuss last year when it changed the settlement language it uses for defendants convicted of crimes in parallel proceedings. The New York Times called this “a fundamental policy shift.” Looking back, it turns out the changes were purely cosmetic.

Given Mary Jo White’s background, I imagine this controversy is one that she will tackle soon enough – this memo talks about her “bold vision” for Enforcement…

Meanwhile, this Reuters article notes that another federal district court judge has questioned a proposed securities fraud settlement – but unlike the other cases, this one involves a private shareholder lawsuit, not a SEC enforcement action. And this ProPublica blog discusses the opinion that started this trend, Judge Rakoff’s refusal to approve the SEC’s proposed settlement of its lawsuit against Citigroup…

– Broc Romanek