Voting 5-0, the trustees chose Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP to do the portfolio monitoring.
Under the leadership of then chairman Philip Mendiola-Long, MPLT issued a request for proposal — MPLT RFP No. 11-01 — for portfolio and securities monitoring services with significant experience in evaluating, monitoring, and carrying out securities fraud litigation for public or private trust and/or pension plans. The RFP stated that the monitoring services would be offered at no cost to the MPLT.
During the board meeting on Feb. 25, the MPLT trustees acted on proposals received as of Jan. 31.
Prior to making the motion to decide on having a portfolio monitoring firm and approving a proposal, trustee Pedro Deleon Guerrero commended Bruce M. McMillan, board consultant, on his review of the proposals for the said RFP for portfolio monitoring services.
“I would like to congratulate Bruce [McMillan] for a good review and reporting of this,” said Deleon Guerrero.
McMillan explained to the board the nature of the job of the portfolio monitoring firms.
He reported that basically it’s a law firm that will monitor the transaction of institutional investors.
“They have a client database of institutional investors showing what each investor owns — their portfolio. They monitor that in case there are security litigation claims,” the MPLT consultant said.
In the event something came up, like the Enron case, McMillan said institutional investors would be notified by money managers as they move to gather all clients to form a class action.
“There may be a multitude of trial lawyers with different groups. When they go to court to file their class action, the judges usually consolidate this. They’ll consolidate all [for example] Enron shareholders that are party to this security fraud litigation. Generally, the attorney with the biggest class will be the lead attorney,” McMillan explained.
He added that the lead attorney is important as he controls the whole litigation process but it does not mean the other attorneys get thrown out. He said the lead attorney shares all information with the other attorneys across the nation.
“Lead attorney is responsible in coordinating the filings, preparing the briefs and filing them in court. The lead attorney is in charge of settlements and decide what settlements can be done,” said McMillan.
In the lead attorney rest power, McMillan said, as he gets the biggest share of the pie in case they are successful.
Trustee Deleon Guerrero inquired if MPLT would lose out without having a portfolio monitoring, McMillan said, “I don’t think it is critical for us but I don’t see any down side for us.”
MPLT Chairman Alvaro A. Santos said it helps to have another safeguard for the fund’s investments. The chairman agreed with the board consultant that there’s nothing negative for MPLT to avail of the service.
Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd LLP is a 180-lawyer firm with offices in San Diego, San Francisco, New York, Boca Raton, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia and Atlanta. The firm, according to its website, is actively engaged in complex litigation, emphasizing securities, consumer, insurance, healthcare, human rights, employment discrimination and antitrust class actions. It further stated that the firm is the sole lead counsel to represent investors and successfully obtained a $7.3 billion settlement in the Enron case — the largest in securities class action history.
