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Any decision that CalPERS seek "lead plaintiff" status under the PSLRA
resides with the Investment Committee of the CalPERS Board. CalPERS in-house
lawyers and investment professionals, however, have the responsibility
to monitor and evaluate lawsuits and take any recommendation to the Investment
Committee. The following is the process the CalPERS Legal Office follows
in deciding whether to recommend action to the Investment Committee.
- The evaluation process begins with a comprehensive database of all
pending class actions in which CalPERS is a class member. The Investor
Responsibility Support Services, Inc. ("IRSS")1 tracks all
securities class actions filed for CalPERS.
- After IRSS initially identifies each class action, IRSS examines
CalPERS' trading activity to determine if the System has any "recognized
damages".2
- The IRSS database identifies the amount of CalPERS' recognized damages
for all securities class actions.
- Legal support staff reviews weekly CalPERS' recognized damages on
the IRSS website and provides a report to a CalPERS staff counsel for
all class actions where CalPERS recognized damages is $2 million or
more. The report would provide the following:
- Copies of all relevant newspaper articles.
- Complaints, if available.
- Losses and damages figures from IRSS.
- Buys and sells during the class period.
- Other information regarding the case available from IRSS including
class period, venue, case number, defendants, and law firms.
- Stock price history.
- Whether there is any interest in the issuer by CalPERS Investment
Staff, specifically the Corporate Governance Unit, Global Equities,
and/or Fixed Income.
- Whether any fixed income securities of the issuer are owned by
CalPERS that may have been affected by the allegations in the securities
action.
- A note whether any complaint or counsel press release mentions
a Section 11 claim or any claims based on fixed income securities.
- Whether the company is in bankruptcy.
- A recommendation whether further action should be taken based
on the three questions from the investment memo discussed earlier
and repeated here:
- Are our potential damages large enough to warrant the expenditure
of staff/counsel time that would be required for active involvement
in the case?
- Who are the other institutional investors in the class? Are
they likely to become actively involved?
- Most importantly: Would CalPERS' active involvement add value
to the potential settlement (or, for cases with questionable merit,
resolve the case in the most efficient manner)?
- CalPERS staff counsel review support staff's analysis and with a
focus on the last three questions as well as a qualitative analysis
of the case and CalPERS' damages makes a recommendation to the General
Counsel whether to take further action.
- If agreed to by the General Counsel, further action would consist
of CalPERS retaining outside counsel to make a recommendation to CalPERS
whether it should pursue lead plaintiff, monitor the case, or take other
action. CalPERS currently contracts with a pool of outside counsel that
may serve as "litigation consultant" in a particular case. To ensure
complete objectivity, outside counsel consulting on a particular case
is ineligible to serve as litigation counsel for the same case.
- In the event in-house counsel and investment staff, with the input
of the litigation consultant, agree that CalPERS should seek lead plaintiff
status or file a separate action, staff shall seek Investment Committee
approval. ( A decision to monitor would not need to be approved by the
Investment Committee.)
- Contemporaneously with seeking Investment Committee approval, or
if time allows, after the Investment Committee's approval, CalPERS staff
will ask for a strategy memorandum and a proposed billing structure
from the pool of securities counsel that has been assembled by CalPERS.
After reviewing the strategy memorandums and the proposed bill structures,
CalPERS General Counsel will select a law firm to represent CalPERS.
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