Jason Halper is partner and Chair of the Global Litigation Group, Kyle DeYoung is partner, and Adam Magid is Special Counsel at Cadwalader, Wickersham and Taft LLP. This post is based on a Cadwalader publication by Mr. Halper, Mr. DeYoung, Mr. Magid, Jared Stanisci, James Orth and Aaron Buchman.
The securities litigation and regulatory landscape in 2017 defies simple categorization. Plaintiffs filed 226 new federal class actions in the first half of 2017, more than double the average rate over the last 20 years, and an additional 99 federal class actions in the third quarter of 2017. In contrast, new SEC enforcement proceedings declined. After staying on pace with the prior two years with 45 new enforcement actions against public company-related defendants in the first half of fiscal year 2017, the SEC filed only 17 new enforcement actions against public company-related defendants in the second half of the year. The apparent decrease in initiation of enforcement proceedings coincides with the arrival at the SEC of Chairman Walter J. Clayton, who has expressed the view that enforcement actions against issuers rather than individual wrongdoers too often punish the very investors they seek to protect.
