The Securities Class Battlefield Circa 1998

By Boris Feldman

Two years ago, the repeat players in the world of shareholder class action litigation -- plaintiffs' and defendants' lawyers, D&O carriers and their coverage counsel -- consulted fortune tellers (or worse, each other) to foresee how the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act would change their professional lives. Would honest businesses be hit with fewer frivolous claims? Would companies purchase less D&O liability insurance? Would securities litigators have to retool and learn to read patents? The revolutionary changes that some hoped, and others feared, would occur have not -- yet. With any major legal reform, it takes time for the new rules to become part of the legal system and begin altering behavior. The number of district court decisions construing the Reform Act is still small. The volume of appellate decisions is minuscule. But while it's too early to draw longterm conclusions as to the efficacy of the Reform Act, various tactical battles during the