LAW 697 - Securities Litigation

Spring 3 Kevin Haeberle

This course examines the federal law and policies governing the purchase and sale of securities. The goal of the course is to provide students with a survey of the landscape of securities litigation under the federal securities laws as well as the tools necessary to work in the area. In particular, the course focuses on the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 as well as the regulations and caselaw connected to it. It begins by discussing securities disclosure law (the focus of the related Securities Regulation course) in broad terms. It then moves on to focus on the types of legal instruments and transactions that trigger the application of the core federal securities laws. The main part of the course then takes an in-depth look at public and private litigation under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, with a special focus on corporate-mistatement litigation as well as public and private insider trading actions. In so doing, the class will touch on a number of other aspects of securities litigation (including Securities Act of 1933 provisions, judicial overlays on the statutory regime, congressional reform to securities-fraud litigation, and class action litigation more generally.)