Huge swaths of the securities plaintiffs bar have their time and money tied up in class action suits against major issuers of mortgage-backed securities. But three-plus years after the subprime meltdown, Bernstein, Litowitz, Berger & Grossmann is still the only plaintiffs firm to reach a settlement in any of the cases.

Disclosures by Merrill Lynch that it routinely intervened to place support bids in the market for auction rate securities are sufficient to avoid liability under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Monday.

Convicted insider trader Raj Rajaratnam was hit with a $92.8 million penalty Tuesday as New York federal Judge Jed S. Rakoff granted summary judgment for the Securities and Exchange Commission in the parallel civil case against the Galleon Group hedge fund founder.

A former Nixon Peabody partner caught up in a Securities and Exchange Commission investigation of a former client’s alleged securities fraud has sued the firm, claiming Nixon Peabody made him a scapegoat in the matter and took most of his $1.5 million book of business out from under him.

Former Juniper Networks general counsel Lisa Berry’s backdating settlement with the Securities and Exchange Commission this week may have symbolized the end of an era — but the vigor with which the agency has pursued corporate executives on fraud claims has left a lasting impression on lawyers.