As chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Banking Committee in the mid-1990s, Giuffra helped draft the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act and hobble stock-drop suits. Since the financial crisis the PSLRA has gotten a vigorous workout; last Friday it gave Giuffra the ammunition he needed to knock out what remained of a class action against UBS over more than $100 billion in losses.

Class action litigation is beginning to take shape over allegations that major banks manipulated Libor, the benchmark rate used to calculate interest on trillions of dollars in securities globally. On Monday the federal district court judge hearing the litigation consolidated 20 class complaints, and appointed interim class counsel.

Bondholders who bought into Washington Mutual Bank's $22 billion note offering never agreed to the proposed deal announced last month. At the time, WaMu Inc. said it didn't matter because the bondholders didn't have standing in its Chapter 11. Well, now they do.

Longtop Financial Technologies, the Chinese company whose fortunes were upended last year by a billion-dollar accounting scandal, has yet to file an appearance in federal multidistrict litigation accusing it of massive securities fraud. After reading the most recent opinion in the case, we can understand why Longtop might be avoiding U.S. courts.