Today, RiskMetrics Group’s Securities Class Action Services (SCAS) released its sixth annual “SCAS 50” report that lists the top 50 plaintiffs’ law firms ranked by the total dollar amount of securities class action settlements that become final that year and in which the law firm served as lead or co-lead counsel.
SCAS’ Securities Litigation Watch blog reports that for 2008, the top five firms in each of the three categories it tracks are as follows:
Top 5 – Total settlement value:
1. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann ($711 million)
2. Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check ($536 million)
3. Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins ($484 million)
4. Labaton Sucharow ($380 million)
5. Grant & Eisenhofer ($326 million)
Top 5 – Average settlement value:
1. Grant & Eisenhofer ($108.9 million)
2. Nix, Patterson, & Roach ($108.6 million)
3. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann ($64 million)
4. Chitwood Harley Harnes ($38 million)
5. Glancy Binkow & Goldberg ($37 million)
Top 5 – Number of settlements:
1. Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins (29)
2. Barroway Topaz Kessler Meltzer & Check (15)
3. Milberg (13)
4. Labaton Sucharow (12)
5. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann (11)
Securities Litigation Watch notes that 2008 is the first year since SCAS started compiling the SCAS 50 that no single firm had more than $1 billion in total settlements.
Can you please tell me when the SCAS 2009 will be published? Thank you.