Cavanaugh

On this petition for a writ of mandamus, we consider the authority of the district court to select a lead plaintiff under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (“Reform Act”), 15 U.S.C. § 78u-4.

Facts and Procedural Background

The share price of Copper Mountain Networks, Inc., a Palo Alto supplier of *728 Digital Subscriber Line (DSL) products, fell from $125 to less than $10 in the fourth quarter of 2000. Its most dramatic plunge occurred immediately after management announced that fourth-quarter revenue and earnings per share would, contrary to earlier predictions, decline. Lawsuits followed swiftly. Different plaintiffs filed over twenty separate class action complaints in the Northern District of California, alleging securities fraud by the same defendants over essentially the same period.

The district court announced plans to consolidate the lawsuits and to appoint a lead plaintiff. To this end, it scheduled a ease management conference and ordered each plaintiff interested in serving as lead to answer questions about his knowledge of the case, the extent of his negotiations with law firms and his ability to monitor his counsel’s performance. See In re…

concurring.

I concur in the judgment of the court, but I write separately to express my concern with the treatment of jurisdiction and the scope of the majority opinion.

I turn first to the threshold question of jurisdiction. “Mandamus is an extraordinary remedy that is granted only in the exercise of sound discretion.” Miller v. French, 530 U.S. 327, 339 , 120 S.Ct. 2246 , 147 L.Ed.2d 326 (2000) (internal quotation omitted). In taking jurisdiction of the district court’s appointment of lead plaintiff in this securities class action, the majority refers, without analysis, to but one of the five factors enumerated in Bauman v. United States District Court, 557 F.2d 650, 654-55 (9th Cir.1977), from which we determine the appropriateness of mandamus jurisdiction. Clearly, the majority’s simple statement that “[b]ecause ‘[t]he district court’s order raises new and important problems, [and] issues of law of first impression,’ we conclude that it is appropriate to consider the issues [by exercising our powers of mandamus]” is a failure to *740 follow the law of Bauman . We have specifically stated that we are to weigh the several factors together. Bauman, 557 F.2d at 655 ; Wash. Pub.…