Securities Law Litigation & Arbitration

2 units

Enrollment limit: 24. Pre/Co-requisite: Securities Regulation or Corporations (exceptions possible with permission of professor who can be emailed at jsoraghan@DMFIRM.com) This two unit course will be both academic and practical. It will require students to analyze the elements of and policies underlying the most common securities fraud claims, including Rule 10b-5 and its case law, related statutes and typical arbitration claims, and to apply that analysis to pleading cases in both court and arbitration. We will compare the often highly technical pleading requirements in court under the Federal Rules, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act, and the conflicting cases thereunder, with the rather amorphous pleading and hearing practice under the rules of the securities regulatory organizations, primarily the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority. There will be three drafting exercises designed to prepare students for securities litigation and arbitration. We will study the shift of most securities industry disputes to arbitration, what claims are typically found in arbitration and the procedures for their resolution. We will also analyze the growing role of the courts in shaping the structure of the arbitration process. Regular attendance and participation will be required (just as participation in court and in chambers is crucial to a client's result), and will constitute 20% of the grade. The remainder of the grade will be based on the assignments. The assignments will be graded anonymously. 2 units.