Meiring de Villiers’ consulting practice is focused on the law/finance interface. He is an expert on causation and damages in securities fraud litigation. He brings a unique interdisciplinary approach to analyzing and solving legal issues. Meiring holds a PhD in mathematical economics, a Master’s in economics, and a JD in law, all from Stanford University. He also holds a BSc in electrical engineering from the University of Pretoria, in South Africa. As a faculty member at Stanford University and later the University of New South Wales, he developed an interdisciplinary teaching and research agenda, including a course he created on the “Quantitative Analysis of Law.” Meiring often distinguishes himself from the typical expert by investigating the science and technology behind the corrective disclosure that triggered the stock price decline on which a securities fraud plaintiff’s claim is predicated. His interdisciplinary approach has had an impact in academia, consulting, and the judiciary. He co-authored an award-winning article on Rule 10b-5 damages that was subsequently quoted and relied on by the US Congress and Senate in formulating the damages clause of the Private Securities Law Reform Act of 1995. Several of his articles have been quoted by the US Supreme Court, the Supreme Court of Iowa, and a number of US appellate courts.*
Selected Publications
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Stock Price Crashes and 10b-5 Damages: A Legal, Economic and Policy Analysis (with Baruch Lev), 47 STANFORD LAW REVIEW 7 (1994).
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The Effect of Transaction Size on Off-the-Run Treasury Prices (with D. Babbel, C. Merrill, and M. Meyer), 39(3) JOURNAL OF FINANCIAL AND QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS (Sept., 2004).
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Computer Viruses and Civil Liability: A Conceptual Framework, 40(1) TORT TRIAL AND INSURANCE PRACTICE LAW JOURNAL (Fall 2004).
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Distributed Denial of Service: Law, Technology & Policy, 39 WORLD JURIST LAW/TECHNOLOGY J. 1 (2006). Reprinted in L. Padmavathi (ed.), DIGITAL CRIMES (Amicus Books 2008).
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Reasonable Foreseeability in Information Security Law: A Forensic Analysis, 30 HASTINGS COMM. & ENT. L. J. 419 (2008).
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Quantitative Proof of Reputational Harm, 15 FORDHAM J. CORP. & FINANCIAL LAW 567 (2010).
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Information Security Standards and Liability, 13 J. INTERNET LAW 24 (2010).
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Enabling Technologies of Cyber Crime: Why lawyers need to understand it, 11 PITTSBURGH J. TECH. LAW & POLICY (2011). Reprinted in THE LAWYER CHRONICLE (Nov. 7, 2011).
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Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome: a Forensic Perspective, 37 J. LEGAL MEDICINE 389 (2018).
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Attack of the Superbugs The Law & Medicine of Antibiotic Resistance, 29(3) ALBANY J. L. SCI. & TECH. 267 (2019).
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Rule 10b-5 Meets Wagon Mound: A New Perspective on Loss Causation, 23(2) MINN. J. L. SCI. & TECH. 447 (2022).
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Loss Causation Decoded, 33(1) S. CAL. INTERDISC. L.J. 1 (Winter, 2023).
* de Villiers’ research has been quoted by the judiciary in, inter alia, the following cases:
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Halliburton Co. v. Erica P. John Fund, Inc., 134 S.Ct. 2398, 2409, 2421 (2014).
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In re Polymedica Corp. Securities Litigation, 432 F.3d 1, 15 (1st Cir. 2005).