Even though the swaps, based on Volkswagen's share price, involved U.S. participants and were signed in New York, they're precluded by the Supreme Court's ruling in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, Judge Harold Baer ruled. For securities defendants, Morrison is the gift that keeps on giving.

On Tuesday the U.S. Supreme Court's Morrison v. NAB ruling claimed its biggest victim yet, when Manhattan federal district court judge Richard Sullivan wiped out claims against UBS by foreign and U.S. investors who bought their shares on foreign exchanges.

Last year a Manhattan federal district court judge complained that the law compelled him to dismiss shareholder claims against the law firm and former partner Joseph Collins. The Second Circuit, with fewer qualms, has confirmed his analysis, offering secondary actors in fraud schemes broad protection from investor suits.

It was inevitable that News Corp would be plagued by shareholder litigation after the hacking scandal that rocked the company two years ago. The surprise about Monday's record-breaking $139 million settlement is that the ensuing jurisdictional tug-of-war between Delaware and New York seems to have been so easily resolved.

Poor Michigan. As the economy there tanks, plaintiffs lawyers who sued hometown giant General Motors for securities fraud were awarded $45 million in fees on Monday. Ouch. And here's the punch line: It's less than what they'd sought.

When antitrust lawyer Joseph Saveri left Lieff Cabraser earlier this year to found his own small firm, he held onto a price-fixing case against a group of leading chemical companies. He must be glad he did, because the litigation has now survived a key test and is moving toward trial.

With a new class action filing against the ratings agencies, Cordray is strengthening the case that he's the Midwest's answer to Andrew Cuomo.

Medtronic's lawyers at Kirkland failed to convince a St. Paul, Minn., federal district court judge to deny class certification on the grounds that shareholder plaintiffs in a stock-drop suit had fudged the testimony of 13 confidential witnesses. Ruling that it was "premature" to determine whether the plaintiffs had accurately represented witnesses' testimony, Judge Paul Magnuson certified the class on Monday.