Welcome to what is surely the most international issue of Legal Week yet. We are committed to producing a global edition of this magazine, with a significantly boosted international circulation, in the last week of each month. It is an ambitious project weaving together the many developments that impact on the working lives of all business lawyers across the globe.
This week, we report on the continuing battle of US big business to stifle class actions, at a time when non-US companies with listings in the US are increasingly being targeted in shareholder actions. According to PricewaterhouseCoopers, there have been 21 cases of non-US firms being targeted so far this year, compared with 15 in the whole of 2003. Meanwhile, corporate counsel in the US are increasingly being caught up in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s sustained battle to restore the public’s faith in corporate America, as we report in our Legal Director section.
