Plan of Distribution Consulting

The risks to class counsel concerning plans of distribution may be manageable—say, when the size of the net settlement fund is average, when it includes only cash, when it is denominated in U.S. dollars, when the number of authorized claimants is average, and when the plan of allocation is simple. But those risks – both financial and reputational – increase substantially when, as JNL’s principal has successfully done, the net settlement fund to be distributed is in the hundreds of millions or billions of dollars, when it includes securities, and when the plan of allocation is complex, such as when it addresses such matters as different settlement funds provided by different defendants; claims asserted by the purchasers or acquirors of different securities; claims that have different likelihoods of success; securities that traded OTC or were acquired pursuant to a merger or public offering; multiple alleged false and misleading statements; or multiple corrective disclosures. The plan of distribution consulting services that JNL offers to enable class action settlement proceeds to be distributed as expeditiously as possible while effectively managing the risks to class counsel include the following:

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• Designing correspondence, including in languages other than English, to accompany distribution checks to authorized claimants;

• Evaluating objections that claimants may make to the rejection of their claims;

• Evaluating challenges that authorized claimants may make to claims administrator recommendations;

• Establishing reserves to address any issues that may be identified after initial distribution checks are disseminated;

• Identifying, selecting, and supervising independent reviewers of claims administration results; and

• Publishing notice of the dissemination of initial distribution checks.

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