PUBLISHED:April 16, 2008

Duke Law scholar has "Top 10" corporate and securities article of 2007

April 16, 2008 —An article co-authored by James D. Cox, Brainerd Currie Professor of Law, has been selected as one of the “Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles of 2007” by Corporate Practice Commentator. Cox wrote “Does the Plaintiff Matter? An Empirical Analysis of Lead Plaintiffs in Securities Class Actions,” originally published in the Columbia Law Review, with Randall S. Thomas, John S. Beasley II Professor of Law and Business at Vanderbilt School of Law.

“Top 10” articles are peer selected through a poll conducted by the faculty editor of Corporate Practice Commentator, a bound, 30-plus-volume set of journals consisting of articles written on all aspects of corporate law.

This is the second Commentator honor for Cox and Thomas, who collaborate frequently. An article published in the Stanford Law Review, “Letting Billions Slip Through Your Fingers: Empirical Evidence and Legal Implications of the Failure of Financial Institutions to Participate in Securities Class Action Settlements,” was selected as one of the “Top 10 Corporate and Securities Articles of 2006.”

A third paper co-authored by the pair is currently one of the Social Science Research Network’s most downloaded papers in its category. “An Empirical Analysis of Institutional Investors’ Impact as Lead Plaintiffs in Securities Fraud Class Actions” is forthcoming in the Vanderbilt Law Review.

“While it is terrifically gratifying to think your colleagues in the field think well of your work, the real pleasure of successive awards is not the awards Randall and I have received for our work, but the joy that two people who genuinely like each other find in working together to unravel some mysteries of our field,” Cox said. “This is the sixth empirical study of securities litigation settlements we have published. With each study the challenges increase while at the same time our excitement for the journey grows as well.

“When we started down this path five years ago we thought we would carry out a couple of projects,” Cox said. “Now, six published papers later, we have four in different stages of completion, a couple of more on the drawing board, and are contemplating a book project as well. I'm not sure we see the end of this.”