We sincerely wish that every state pension fund would follow Florida’s lead in picking a panel of plaintiffs firms for securities class actions. As we’ve previously reported, the Florida selection process has been conducted with unprecedented transparency, with even an anonymous letter accusing one contestant, Bernstein Liebhard, of financial impropriety made public. (Bernstein Liebhard will offer an equally public defense at a hearing scheduled for Thursday.)
Now we’ve got our hands on the complete responses of 11 leading plaintiffs firms to Florida’s detailed request for proposals, thanks to those good folks at the Florida State Board of Administration. They’re filled with interesting tidbits about the firms’ history and records — Grant & Eisenhofer’s response (pdf), for instance, reports that only two cases initiated by the firm have been dismissed. We hadn’t previously known, as Berman DeValerio’s proposal (pdf) indicates, that the firm actively lobbied California state legislature on behalf of pension fund clients, or that Richard Kilsheimer is not an equity partner at the firm that bears his name, according to Kaplan Fox & Kilsheimer’s submission (pdf) .
