Plaintiffs achieve a big win in the first-ever securities class action trial involving U.S. and foreign shareholders who held shares in a foreign company on foreign exchanges. The one bright spot for the defense: The jury found no liability for former Vivendi CEO Jean-Marie Messier or former CFO Guillaume Hannezo.

A FINRA review panel dismissed all claims against Kenneth Pasternak, the former CEO and chairman of Knight Trading, and John Leighton, the former head of the firm's institutional sales desk. This decision reversed a 2007 ruling by a FINRA hearing panel, which had found that the two were guilty of supervisory lapses that led to alleged fraudulent sales to institutional customers. Their lawyers are pleased, but at the same time upset over the ordeal that their clients went through.

A long-running ERISA class action against Bear Stearns ended with a whimper this week when employees who claimed to have lost $215 million when their retirement savings were invested in Bear Stearns stock agreed to settle for $10 million.

Cite as: In Re: Enron Creditors Recovery Corp. v. Alfa, 09-5122-bk(L), NYLJ 1202499017169, at *1 (2d Cir., Decided June 28, 2011)Before: Walker, Cabranes, C.JJ.

We were pretty excited that Judge Rakoff sent us his opinion explaining why he upheld a $20.6 million FINRA arbitration award against Goldman Sachs. Reading the ruling--in which Rakoff takes subtle digs at the arbitration process and those who choose it as an alternative to court proceedings--was also fun.

Thanks to the Madoff meltdown, the term "feeder fund" has officially become part of our vocabulary. In this context, it refers to funds that poured billions of dollars into the mysterious black hole known as Bernard L. Madoff Securities. And, not surprisingly, those funds have been sued by their investors for allegedly abdicating their responsibilities.