The following post comes to us from Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, P.C. and is based on a WSGR alert by Douglas Clark and Ignacio Salceda. The Supreme Court’s reconsideration of Basic and related legal questions are analyzed in detail in a Harvard Law School Discussion Paper by Professors Lucian Bebchuk and Allen Ferrell, Rethinking Basic, that has been published in the May 2014 issue of The Business Lawyer, and discussed earlier on the Forum here and here.
On June 23, 2014, the United States Supreme Court issued its much-anticipated decision in Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc. Halliburton called into question the very foundation of a securities class action—the presumption of class-wide reliance. A unanimous Court answered the question today, and the presumption of reliance lives. The Court’s decision may, however, have given defendants new opportunities to rebut the presumption in the earlier stages of a case.