UK – Local authority pension schemes could be losing up to £125m (€136m) by not participating in class actions, a report from the Goal Group has claimed.

The firm, which provides specialist class action services, calculated that between 2007 and 2008 UK local authority pension schemes lost almost £8.5bn on their investments, of which around £140m could be recovered through legal action.
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Between 2008 and 2009, however, it revealed the losses by UK local government pension schemes (LGPS) increased to £22.5bn while the potentially recoverable funds from class actions more than doubled to £370m, because the financial crisis is likely to create a "far more sustainable stream of cases, albeit at less inflated settlement values".

In total, this means LGPS' lost around £31bn between 2007 and 2009 but have the potential to recover £500m. Goal Group claims, however, that £125m, or 25% of potentially recoverable funds, could be left unclaimed if local authorities do not start to increase their participation in legal actions.

Goal Group quoted statistics from Nera Economic Consulting stating the number of federal class action filings in US courts, the main location for these cases, peaked at 258 in 2008. This was the highest level since 2002, but the report noted the first half of 2009 has already seen 127 cases filed, of which 67% named at least one financial company as the primary or co-defendant.

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What will a new administration mean to the practice of antitrust lawand how will it affect Congress, the agencies and the courts in comingyears?  What changes can be expected at the Federal Trade Commissionand Department of Justice?  How will enforcement activity in the U.S.affect the international arena? How will the current state of theeconomy affect competition policy going forward?

The Fall Forumof the American Bar Association Section of Antitrust Law will addressthese and other issues relating to the impact of antitrust policy andenforcement on the national and global economy.  Antitrust officialsand practitioners will gather at the National Press Club in Washington,D.C., Nov. 13-14 for sessions exploring the full spectrum of recent andexpected developments in antitrust law and policy.  Section Chair JamesA. Wilson, conference chair Lynda K. Marshall and vice-chair David AHigbee will preside over the meeting.

Highlighting theconference will be keynote addresses on Nov. 13 by FTC Chair William E.Kovacic and U.S. Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Thomas O.Barnett.  Other noteworthy speakers at the annual forum include FTCCommissioner J. Thomas Rosch; Vinod Dhall, retired acting chair of theCompetition Commission of India; Anant Raut, majority counsel,Committee on the Judiciary; U.S. House of Representatives; HouseJudiciary Committee Minority Counsel E. Stewart Jeffries; Melinda ReidHatton, senior vice president and general counsel, American HospitalAssociation; Mark D. Whitener, General Electric Company; Deputy U.S.Assistant Attorneys General Deborah A. Garza and James J. O’ConnellJr.; Randolph W. Tritell, director, Office of International Affairs,FTC; and Robert L. Hubbard, director of litigation, Antitrust Bureau,New York State Attorney General. 

Programs on Nov.13 include:

• Past is Prologue: Taking a Hard Look at the Last Administration’s Agenda and Accomplishments
• The Substantive Scope of Section 5 of the FTC Act: Where are the Boundaries and Where Should They Be?
• International Cooperation – Where Do We Go From Here?
• Healthcare Reform – Lessons and Guidance From the Antitrust Front

Programs on Nov. 14 include:

• Transitioning to the Next Administration – What to Expect From the Agencies, the Hill and the States
• Grading the Agencies on Merger Process Reform
• The Rise of Antitrust in the Far East – A Changing Landscape
• The Litigious FTC: FTC Litigation and Administrative Process

For more information about the fall forum visit the section’s Web site at http://www.abanet.org/antitrust.

TheABA Section of Antitrust Law, with more than 9,000 members, is theleading forum for ongoing analysis of policies and developmentsaffecting competition and consumer protection law.

With morethan 400,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largestvoluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As thenational voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve theadministration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers andjudges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legaleducation, and works to build public understanding around the world ofthe importance of the rule of law.

Geoffrey C. Hazard Jr., a professor at Hastings College of Law in San Francisco, has been selected to receive the 2008 Michael Franck Professional Responsibility Award conferred by the American Bar Association Center for Professional Responsibility.

“Geoffrey Hazard has rightly been described as the most distinguished ethicist in the country, in recognition of his many and substantial contributions to the development of standards for lawyer and judicial conduct and to fostering awareness and understanding of those standards throughout the American legal profession and the world.  His judgment and scholarship were instrumental in refining the ABA’s model ethics standards for lawyers into a consistent and dynamic compilation, the Model Rules of Professional Conduct.  His leadership has influenced generations of law students, practicing lawyers and judges, and his clarity of thought has brought consensus in the profession to resolving difficult questions of propriety and professionalism,” said Donald B. Hilliker of Chicago, chair of the center’s Coordinating Council. 

Justice Samuel Alito of the Supreme Court of the United States supported Hazard’s nomination for the award, saying “I cannot think of anyone who, during my professional career, has done more to advance the highest professional standards in this country.”

The award, created in 1994, is named for a former executive director of the State Bar of Michigan and long-time champion of improvements in lawyer regulation in the public interest.  It will be presented to Hazard May 29 during the 34th National Conference on Professional Responsibility in Boston.

Hazard has been on the Hastings faculty since 2005, and also has been a professor of law for the University of Pennsylvania since 1994.  He formerly taught law at Yale University; the University of California, Berkeley; the University of Michigan; the University of Chicago; Stanford University; Harvard University; the University of Arizona; and the Universite d’Aix-Marseille, and he is a former acting and deputy dean of the Yale School of Organization and Management.  He has served on boards and committees for a range of organizations from the Friends of the Library for the Supreme Court of Israel to the Legal Advisory Committee of the New York Stock Exchange.  He is a past director of the American Law Institute and executive director of the American Bar Foundation, and has served on numerous committees and projects of those organizations and of the American Bar Association, as well as other legal professional groups.  He has written leading texts on legal ethics, and many articles for professional publications, and has practiced law in Oregon, California, Connecticut and Pennsylvania

The ABA Center for Professional Responsibility is marking its 30th anniversary as a national leader in developing and interpreting standards and scholarly resources in legal and judicial ethics, professional regulation, professionalism and client protection mechanisms.

With more than 413,000 members, the American Bar Association is the largest voluntary professional membership organization in the world.  As the national voice of the legal profession, the ABA works to improve the administration of justice, promotes programs that assist lawyers and judges in their work, accredits law schools, provides continuing legal education, and works to build public understanding around the world of the importance of the rule of law.