And the envelope please

Earlier today we released our first-ever Securities Class Action Services (SCAS) 50 Power Rankings Report, which highlights the top 50 plaintiffs law firms by dollar value of securities class action settlements and number of securities class action settlements from 2003 to 2006 in which the law firms served as lead or co-lead counsel.

The report is based on SCAS 50 data from the past four years, since we began publishing the SCAS 50 reports on an annual basis, but introduces the SCAS 50 Power Rankings, which are based on the position of each firm for each SCAS 50 survey year. The top five firms in the SCAS 50 Power Rankings were:

1. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman
2. Milberg Weiss
3. Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins
4. Barrack, Rodos & Bacine
5. Grant & Eisenhofer

Bernstein Litowitz also has the distinction of having placed first or second in each of the previous four surveys.

We also looked at the cumulative dollar value of securities class action settlements from 2003 to 2006. The top five law firms by settlement value were:

1. Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins
2. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman
3. Barrack, Rodos & Bacine
4. Millberg Weiss
5. Heins Mills & Olson

Of interest, Heins Mills & Olson made the list largely on the strength of a single settlement - the $2.5 Billion AOL Time Warner settlement in 2006. That settlement is one of the five largest securities class action settlements since the PSLRA was enacted.

The top ten firms in terms of number of settlements accounted for more than sixty percent of the securities class action settlements during 2003 to 2006. The top five law firms in terms of number of securities class action settlements were:

1. Millberg Weiss
2. Coughlin Stoia Geller Rudman & Robbins.
3. Schiffrin, Barroway, Topaz & Kessler
4. Berger & Montague
5. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossman

The full report is available here.

Thanks to the entire SCAS research team for the assistance and a special thanks to Brad Horgos for pulling the laboring oar on this report.