Conservative Approach
How often do corporate scandals affect investors? More than 200 securities fraud class actions are filed each year by investors seeking to recover monies they lost. Of course, not all of these actions are meritorious. Investors lose money in the securities markets for many reasons, oftentimes having nothing to do with corporate fraud. But circumstances do arise when a company and certain of its officers and directors seek to artificially inflate the market price of a security by disseminating false and misleading statements (including financial statements) to securities analysts, brokers and investors at large. At times, a company’s auditors and underwriters may play an active role in the wrongdoing. Investors who purchase shares at artificially inflated prices are hurt once the fraud is revealed, and the stock price drops, often dramatically.
We place a premium on careful pre-litigation investigation and analysis. Our clients look to us to determine where corporate fraud or wrongdoing has caused their losses, including which of the 200+ securities class actions filed each year are meritorious and fit their particular litigation criteria. We use the experience of our securities litigation team, as well as investment bankers, forensic accountants and others to apply our conservative standards in evaluating shareholder actions. This means also identifying the risks of litigation as well as the likely range of outcomes.