News

As the Litigation Daily has chronicled over the years, the credit rating agencies have until recently enjoyed a rather charmed passage through our courts, with various judges deciding they deserve First Amendment protection against claims that they issued defective ratings.

I want to emphasize that the deal is a landmark. It is apparently the first time that S&P and Moody's have settled accusations that investors were misled by their ratings. That's unquestionably a great result for the CDO purchasers in the case and for their lawyers at Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd, who have battled since 2008 to keep $700 million in fraud and negligence claims alive. Unlike investors in more than three dozen other cases claiming the credit rating agencies facilitated the issue of toxic mortgage-backed securities, Abu Dhabi Bank, the Kings County pension fund and their fellow CDO purchasers survived preliminary motions, beating back the agencies' argument that their ratings were opinions protected by the First Amendment. Then, through discovery, Robbins Geller uncovered hot documents - even more than the rating agencies produced to Congress - that helped investors withstand defense requests for summary judgment.

(Reuters) - The U.S. Supreme Court made it easier on Wednesday for shareholders to bring class-action lawsuits, breaking a recent line of decisions that had made it harder to sue corporate defendants collectively and perhaps obtain greater recoveries.

(Reuters) - Standard & Poor's said it expects to be the target of a U.S. Department of Justice civil lawsuit over its mortgage bond ratings, the first federal enforcement action against a credit rating agency over alleged illegal behavior tied to the recent financial crisis.

In an Order issued on December 17, 2012, Judge Campbell denied defendants’ motion to dismiss in Smilovits v. First Solar, Inc., No. CV-12-00555-PHX-DGC (D. Ariz.), holding that lead plaintiff adequately pled violations of §10(b) and §20(a).

Law360, New York (November 07, 2012, 9:21 PM ET) -- A New York federal judge said Wednesday she would reconsider fraud claims brought by SEI Investment Strategies and Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son against Morgan Stanley over a failed $9 billion structured investment vehicle, saying she overlooked evidence giving them a right to sue.

Law360, New York (October 23, 2012, 9:43 PM ET) --Northwest Pipe Co. agreed Tuesday to pay $12.5 million to settle a putative class action alleging the pipe manufacturer and two former top executives perpetrated a massive accounting fraud that artificially inflated its earnings and stock price.

Attorney Sanford “Sandy” Svetcov, a partner in the San Francisco office of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP, will be honored next month at the 2012 Ninth Circuit Judicial Conference in Hawaii. Mr. Svetcov has been selected to receive the 2012 John Frank Award, recognizing an outstanding lawyer practicing in the federal courts of the western states.

Law360, New York (June 14, 2012, 5:04 PM ET) -- An Alabama federal judge on Thursday certified a class of shareholders suing Regions Financial Corp. over alleged misrepresentations related to its 2006 acquisition of AmSouth Bancorp.

SAN FRANCISCO — Sandy Svetcov is arguing like his life depends on it.