Top 50 Plaintiff Securities Firms for 2011

Securities Class Action Services has released its annual list of the top 50 securities firms (the “SCAS 50”).  The top 10 firms for 2011 are as follows: 

1. Bernstein Litowitz Berger & Grossmann
2. Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd
3. Labaton Sucharow
4. Kessler Topaz Meltzer & Check
5. Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro
6. Grant & Eisenhofer
7. Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll
8. Lovell Stewart Halebian Jacobson
9. Milberg
10. Wolf Haldenstein Adler Freeman & Herz

The full list is available here. The Bernstein Litowitz firm claimed the top spot with over $1.3 billion in total settlement proceeds from 13 settlements (the third-highest number overall), including a $208.5 million settlement with Washington Mutual. The firm’s average of nearly $106 million per settlement was one of only three per-settlement averages of $100 million or more, and is second only to Lovell Stewart’s nearly $119 million average (based on a single settlement with PIMCO). The three firms topping the SCAS 50 — Bernstein Litowitz, Robbins Geller and Labaton Sucharow — accounted for more than half of all securities settlements in 2011.