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ARTICLE · 11 NOVEMBER 2009

Securities Options Litigation

Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP
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Recently, there has been a spate of letters forwarded to corporations, by plaintiffs' counsel, impugning the stock option practices of various corporations.

CanadaFinance and Banking
Dalton McGrath, K.C.
Dalton McGrath, K.C.
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Copyright 2009, Blake, Cassels & Graydon LLP

Originally published in Blakes Bulletin on Litigation/Securities Regulation, November 2009

Recently, there has been a spate of letters forwarded to corporations, by plaintiffs' counsel, impugning the stock option practices of various corporations. As described below, the settlement involving Savanna Energy Services Corp. (Savanna) relating to such allegations has resulted in what was described by plaintiffs' counsel as the first such application to be brought in Alberta, and only the second in Canada (following the Research In Motion settlement in Ontario). Based upon the settlements involving both of those corporations, and the sizable monetary reward potential accruing to plaintiffs' counsel, it can be expected that those settlements are a harbinger of things to come.

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