William Kahn Quoted in Les Echos
“The Supreme Court Limits the Scope of Securities Class Actions in the United States"

The firm was cited and William Kahn was quoted in the Monday, June 28, 2010 edition of Les Echos, the French business and finance newspaper, in the article “The Supreme Court Limits the Scope of Securities Class Actions in the United States." 

William was interviewed in connection with the June 24 decision of the United States Supreme Court in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, in which the Court held that Section 10(b) of the Exchange Act does not provide a cause of action to foreign plaintiffs suing foreign and American defendants for misconduct in connection with securities traded on foreign exchanges.  Several very large French companies had been sued in the U.S. for 10b violations by European plaintiffs who had bought shares on European exchanges (so-called "foreign cubed" cases). 

In its decision, the Supreme Court clearly rejected the idea that the U.S. securities laws' anti-fraud provisions have any extraterritorial reach when it comes to private lawsuits. William was quoted with respect to recent bills in Congress that had considered expressly addressing the extraterritorial reach of these provisions. He noted, “The political climate still maintains the risk of a legislative intervention.” He further observed that the Supreme Court decision does not "preclude the SEC and the Department of Justice from taking the position that they can sue foreign companies for securities fraud.”