NERA Associate Director Robert Patton has contributed a chapter to the 5th edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to Class & Group Actions 2013, a collection of articles on class and group actions worldwide published by Global Legal Group in association with Commercial Dispute Resolution (CDR). Mr. Patton’s chapter, “Recent Trends in US Securities Class Actions against Non-US Companies,” draws from more than 20 years of NERA research on case filings and settlements in US securities class actions. Mr. Patton notes that the volume of US securities class action litigation targeting companies outside the US has recently reached record levels, despite a 2010 decision by the US Supreme Court, in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, which substantially restricted the extraterritorial reach of many such cases. This increase, he explains, is attributable in large part to a wave of suits filed against Chinese companies listed on US stock markets. Even excluding Chinese company litigation, however, the pace of US securities class actions against non-US companies has not fallen below the levels observed prior to the Morrison decision. Mr. Patton then discusses trends in settlements and concludes by reviewing the outlook for such litigation going forward.

This article appeared in the 2013 edition of The International Comparative Legal Guide to: Class & Group Actions; published by Global Legal Group Ltd, London. www.iclg.co.uk