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| 2001 News and Press Releases |
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HEADLINE ARCHIVED:
IPO Litigation Arguments See Trial Run
By: Colleen Marie O'Connor
The IPO Reporter. December 10, 2001
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Excerpt: The bevy of litigation claims filed in recent months against IPO issuers and Wall Street underwriters may produce legal arguments that cut to the core of how such allocations work. Several attorneys familiar with initial public offerings weighed in on the merits of recent class action shareholder lawsuits during the "New Developments in Shareholder Litigation" conference hosted by PricewaterhouseCoopers in New York. The panel discussion hinted at legal arguments likely to arise in the courtroom including which party is specifically liable for the prospectus, compensation stakes, and the latitude of exogenous facts related to IPO cases. Attorney Laurie B. Smilan, with Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati in New York, noted the mountain of cookie-cutter suits that followed the publication of the first Wall Street Journal article to outline possible abuses in the IPO arena. The WSJ article "related to specific investment banks in specific offerings," Smilan said. However, "over 40 other issuer suits are filed on a virtually identical basis," she said. Smilan is currently representing VA Linux Systems (NNM:LNUX), one of the first "high-flying" companies to price in the IPO boom and, subsequently, an issuer currently involved in litigation.
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