Law Blog

While obtaining a solid understanding of the theories of legal liability and issues tied to the recent broad credit market collapse is hard, these blogs may help. In writing these blogs, I draw upon my prior experience as a federal prosecutor who faced similar issues in handling and supervising bank fraud cases in Texas (where not only did the vast majority of savings institutions fail, but some did multiple times).... Read More

This is part one of a series of related blogs that examines the credit market problems now being experienced in part because of the implosion of the subprime markets.  It builds upon and adds to my prior blogs which focused on the subprime market problems and related issues. In upcoming blogs, I plan to refocus on some of the theories being asserted for damages by private plaintiffs and government entities in suits and actions against various party defendants, address some of the defenses b... Read More

This part (Part Four) of the series provides links to and summarizes some of the more interesting observations made by made by leading commenators about various aspects of the subprime market collapse and related issues.... Read More

Part Three addresses the heightened pleading requirements for falsity and scienter imposed by the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PLSRA) and the impact of caselaw interpreting these provisions that make it very hard for class action plaintiffs to successfully establish secondary liability of defendants.... Read More

Part Two of this series examines some cases, issues, and theories of liability that plaintiffs and regulators are relying upon to establish the civil and criminal liability of the defendants in various suits for damages sustained in connection with the implosion of the subprime mortgage market.... Read More

This is Part One of a series in which I will examine the various issues, theories, and contours of the subprime mortgage scandal that has led to more than 100 securities fraud class actions being filed, and mounting financial losses that have spread into other segments of the marketplace, causing major lenders and brokers to suffer billions in losses.... Read More

This short article explains why safe harbors need to be made specifically available to the FCPA through regulation so that businesses can modify their conduct to avoid inadvertently violating the provisions of this far reaching statute.... Read More

This entry discusses how FCPA issues oftentimes appear in parallel civil litigation and how plaintiffs' counsel are successfully leveraging FCPA enforcement activities to obtain financial settlements for their clients.... Read More