M&A Shareholder Litigation

Shareholder litigation involving mergers and acquisitions (M&A) has received much attention by courts and commentators. Notwithstanding the increasing scrutiny, especially regarding the propriety and amount of plaintiffs' attorney fee awards, it remains almost inevitable that an entrepreneurial member of the plaintiff's bar will initiate litigation immediately following announcement of a proposed merger or going private transaction by a corporation. See Olga Koumrian, Shareholder Litigation Involving Mergers and Acquisitions, Cornerstone Research 1 (March 2014) (“For the fourth consecutive year, shareholders filed suit in more than 90 percent of M&A deals valued over $100 million.”), available at http://bit.ly/1nqvwS4 (Cornerstone 2014 Report). Indeed, notwithstanding calls for reform, in some respects transaction-related litigation has increasingly, although begrudgingly, become accepted by companies as part of the cost of doing a public company M&A deal.