Corporate & Securities Law

ABA Stoneridge Panel

By Stephen Bainbridge

This Friday at the ABA mid-year meeting here in Los Angeles, there will be a panel on the Stoneridge case, in which yours truly will be participating. The program is free to area law students and mine are encouraged to attend. The program registration form is here. The program description follows:

Argued before the Supreme Court on October 9, 2007, by panelist Stanley M. Grossman, the case of Stoneridge Investment Partners v. Scientific-Atlanta is viewed by many securities law experts as a potential watershed that may significantly expand investor rights.

Specifically, the case deals with the question of whether there exists an implied private right of action against third parties for primary liability in connection with a fraud under Sec. 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5. One of the major issues the panel will discuss is the scope of impl! ied private rights of action. These judicially created actions are not limited to securities law. They are found in other substantive areas of administrative law such as Title IX (education), the FCC, and various civil rights statutes. Whether courts should continue to imply private rights of action at all is something one of the Justices commented on during the Stoneridge oral argument. The plaintiffs in Stoneridge have argued that the law permits it to sue actors who participate in a fraudulent scheme, not as aiders or abettors, but as “primary violators” who are ultimately tied to market movements. The defendants have countered that the law reaches only those who make deceptive communications to shareholders or engage in fraudulent trading on the market.

All of the panelists below have either written, or participated in, the writing of the briefs filed with the Supreme Court in this case.

Panelists:

Stephen Bainbridge, Professor, UCLA Law School, Los Angeles, CA

Robert R. Gasaway, Partner, Kirkland & Ellis LLP, Washington, D.C.

Stanley M. Grossman, Partner, Pomerantz Haudek, New York, NY

Thomas Karr, Assistant General Counsel, Securities and Exchange Commission,
Washington, D.C.

Full post as published by BusinessAssociationsBlog.com on February 05, 2008 (boomark / email).