BFA Partner Erin Woods Speaks at NCTR’s Annual Conference

BFA Partner Erin Woods was honored to serve as a panelist on the securities litigation panel at the National Council on Teacher Retirement's (NCTR's) 102^nd Annual Conference. The panel covered a wide range of issues, including how public pension funds can retain firms like BFA to monitor their trading portfolio and to participate in various facets of securities litigation to effectively recover investment value that was lost due to fraud. During the panel, Erin highlighted the crucial role institutional investors play in uncovering and prosecuting corporate fraud. In fact, a recent academic study concluded that one third of corporate fraud remains undetected, and that institutional investors serving as lead plaintiffs are known to achieve outsized recoveries when they lead securities class actions as lead plaintiffs. Erin also noted a recent amicus brief submitted by the U.S. Department of Justice (“DOJ”) and the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) in which they emphasized that “[m]eritorious private actions are an essential supplement to criminal prosecutions and civil enforcement actions brought by the [DOJ] and the [SEC].”
 
This panel effectively built upon the topics covered at last year’s inaugural securities litigation panel hosted by NCTR, in which Erin also participated.
 
BFA is proud to be a long-time supporter of NCTR. NCTR is constituted as an independent association dedicated to safeguarding the integrity of public retirement systems in the United States and its territories to which teachers belong and to promoting the rights and benefits of all present and future members of the systems.