Household Securities Fraud Litigation $1.58 Billion Settlement

Compass Lexecon’s President Professor Daniel R. Fischel was retained by the Plaintiff class to analyze the economic evidence in connection with their allegations of securities fraud against Household International. In an earlier trial, a federal court jury in Chicago adopted Professor Fischel’s analysis and a $2.46 billion judgment was entered for the Plaintiff class. On appeal, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment in substantial part but ordered a retrial on causation and damages. After extensive pretrial proceedings, the parties entered into a $1.58 billion settlement on the eve of the retrial, the largest settlement ever following a securities fraud class action trial and the seventh-largest settlement ever in a post-PSLRA securities fraud case.

Commentators reported that this historic settlement “hinged” on Professor Fischel’s “gravitas” and the strength of his expert reports and testimony. Professor Fischel was supported by Michael Keable, Jessica Mandel, Peter Clayburgh, Jerry Lumer, Clifford Ang, David Strahlberg, Shawn Chen and many others in our Chicago and Pasadena offices. We worked with Mike Dowd, Spence Burkholz, Dan Drosman and Luke Brooks of Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP who successfully represented the Plaintiff class.