Manhattan Institute Finds La. Pension Funds Most Active Lead Plaintiffs in Securities Cases

The Manhattan Institute’s Center for Legal Policy has a new report out about litigation in the state of Louisiana, and as usual it pulls no punches. According to an updated report in the CLP’s Trial Lawyers Inc. series entitled “Louisiana Litigators: While People Leave the Pelican State, Attorneys Thrive,” while Louisiana continues to lose residents, “one segment of the population—trial lawyers—is finding the state to be an excellent place to hang out and do business.”

The portion of the report related to securities class actions found that plaintiffs’ counsel in securities class action lawsuits have found Louisiana’s public-employee pension funds to be their most accommodating and enthusiastic plaintiffs. Three Louisiana pension funds are among the five most active lead plaintiffs nationally (see box below), with the Teachers’ Retirement System of Louisiana first on the list. The report states that in denying the TRSL’s efforts to head a class action before his court, an Ohio judge in 2004 chastised it for being a “professional plaintiff.” The judge remarked that the fund was already leading eight other cases and had wastefully chosen four separate plaintiffs’ firms to handle the Ohio case.