Law Students Pursue Securities Cases for Small Investors
With an expected surge in civil and criminal fraud cases on the horizon over questions about the conduct of those involved in making mortgage loans blamed for a worldwide credit crisis, several law schools will soon be graduating a new crop of students who already have trial experience in the practice area.
Matching students seeking a chance to gain actual trial experience with small investors whose losses aren’t big enough to justify hiring seasoned litigators to handle their cases, at least 14 law schools in California, Illinois, New York and Pennsylvania are providing representation to senior citizens and others who have lost perhaps $3,000 to $25,000 in dubious investments, according to the National Law Journal.
“We’ve seen churning, quite a bit of misrepresentation and unauthorized transactions and a number of unsuitability claims,” says Alice Stewart, who directs a clinic at Duquesne University School of Law in Pittsburgh. Her students represent investors in arbitrations before FINRA, as the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority is commonly known.
