June 12, 2014
While plaintiffs’ securities lawyers are often vilified by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, elected officials of the Republican party, and other persons and entities associated with the political right, the use of private attorneys to help enforce the nation’s securities laws is actually in synch with a number of the core beliefs typically advocated by those groups.
This use of private attorneys to protect the public constitutes a classic outsourcing of a traditional government function to the private sector, substituting an entrepreneurial group of businesses (private law firms), both motivated and restricted by their need to generate
enough revenue to cover their costs, for government employees acting as regulatory enforcers. It also gives investors—including Taft-Hartley pension plans—that most American of privileges: the ability to defend themselves and their property without relying on the government to initiate action.