Ep.25 – Jessica Erickson on Automating Securities Class-Action Settlements

Jessica Erickson, professor of law at the University of Richmond, joins the Business Scholarship Podcast to discuss her article Automating Securities Class Action Settlements. In the article, Erickson explores a contradiction in securities class-action settlements: although Civil Rule 23 defaults to opt-out class membership, the difficulty of identifying securities class members makes settlement administration effectively opt-in. She proposes two solutions for overcoming this problem: a market-based approach involving banks and brokers, and a regulatory approach using the SEC's forthcoming consolidated audit trail. This episode is hosted by Andrew Jennings, a teaching fellow and lecturer in law at Stanford Law School