I think it’s useful for prospective students to be aware that research conducted by Mason school professors is timely and relevant to current, important issues arising in business, as evidenced by media recognition of research by a number of our faculty members.

Personally, in addition to focusing on research targeted towards academic publications, I co-author an annual professional publication with Cornerstone Research on trends in securities litigation settlements.  Each year the report is anticipated by members of the legal community as well as the media.   Although the material is targeted towards attorneys, it is also widely used by individuals in the financial industry, as I often receive inquiries regarding the report from research analysts, parties to M&A negotiations, insurers, and others.

Historically the report has received widespread media coverage, including the Wall Street Journal, Fortune, the Washington Post, American Lawyer and numerous other business and legal media outlets.  On two occasions I have discussed findings from the reports on CNBC.

The latest report, “Securities Class Action Settlements, 2008 Review and Analysis” was just released last week.   With Enron, WorldCom, Tyco and a number of other very large settlements behind us, this was the first in several years that no single settlement exceeded a billion dollars, and, overall, settlement values were down significantly.  To some extent, I view 2008 as the “lull before the storm,” as cases involving sub-prime and other financial industry issues are likely to drive settlement numbers up in the future.

However, it’s a challenging time to be predicting where securities settlements will head in the future.  Potentially large investor losses could be offset by the fact that in the current economic environment, the resources available to fund settlements may be reduced.

I’ve been researching securities litigation for about fourteen years and it is an extremely interesting topic.  It also fits well with Dean Larry Pulley’s objective of “bringing business into the business school,” since securities litigation and critical business issues are closely intertwined.

Recently in one of my Masters of Accounting classes, students gave formal presentations arguing for and against expanding required financial statement disclosures regarding litigation contingencies—an issue that is growing in importance given recent economic conditions.