Firm Advice: Your Weekly Update

Weil has published The 10b-5 Guide: A Survey of 2010-2011 Securities Fraud Litigation. The review crosses topics and circuits with updates on pleading standards, liability issues, and class action mechanisms. The survey also includes a preview of the upcoming Supreme Court term, including Amgen, a case considering whether plaintiffs in a securities fraud class action must prove materiality to invoke the fraud-on-the-market presumption.  

Does an employee qualify as a SOX whistleblower if he sends his tip to the SEC via snail mail instead of one of the statutorily prescribed methods? On a motion to dismiss, Trans-Lux argued that he should not. A federal judge in the District of Connecticut disagreed and allowed the employee’s retaliation claim to proceed. Orrick has the details on their blog.

Last week, President Obama blocked a Chinese company’s purchase of a wind farm in Oregon citing national security concerns. The much-criticized decision was the first by a President in over twenty years. Skadden advises companies “to be aware that transactions that may not appear to be sensitive on their faces — such as the sale of a small wind farm — may indeed raise significant concerns within the CFIUS agencies and at the presidential level.” That, and more advice here.