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The Rise and (Coming) Fall of “F-Cubed” Securities Litigation

George Conway has an interesting article in the latest issue of Engage:

With increasing frequency, the plaintiffs’ bar has been filing what are being called “f-cubed” securities fraud cases in U.S. courts: cases on behalf of foreign plaintiffs against foreign companies for trading on foreign exchanges. Dozens of such cases have been filed in the past few years, and they have met with some success. Two of the biggest securities class-action settlements in recent years, in fact, have involved foreign companies and classes that included foreign investors in those companies: Nortel Networks, which paid some $2.2 billion, and Royal Ahold, which settled for $1.1 billion. To be sure, many of the recent f-cubed cases have been dismissed. But enough have survived to make plaintiffs’ lawyers’ efforts to recruit foreign clients worthwhile....