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| 2001 News and Press Releases |
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HEADLINE ARCHIVED:
Report Will Make Judges Wary of Auctions, Veteran Securities Attorney Says
By: Frank Reynolds
Corporate Officers & Directors Liability Litigation Reporter: Special Coverage: Third Circuit Task Force Report
December 13, 2001
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Excerpt: After hearing the heated debate on class counsel selection methods at the Third Circuit Judicial Conference, H. Robert Fiebach of Cozen & O'Connor, a veteran Philadelphia lawyer who defends companies in securities fraud cases, agreed with plaintiff attorneys on at least one thing: the Task Force got it right on the use of bidding contests. Its report will make judges wary of using auctions to select class counsel and set attorneys' fees, he predicted. Although Task Force members said they would rethink their warning against the use of bidding contests, Fiebach said he would advise his partners that judges will be cautious about using the procedure to select lead plaintiffs in big securities fraud class actions. Fiebach, the co-chairman of his firm's Commercial Litigation Unit, said the Task Force's final report this spring is not likely to be substantively different from the current draft report. "I think that they'll probably tweak it to indicate that they are not quite as inflexible as they may have appeared," but the recommendation will remain the same," i.e., auctions are justified only in the rare exception case, he said.
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