In a letter endorsement today, Judge Baer granted the class plaintiffs’ request to stay proceedings pending a motion to approve settlement in an ongoing securities fraud class action against Goldman Sachs, which we’ve reported on before. Presumably, if the settlement is approved, it will moot Goldman’s motion for an interlocutory appeal of Judge Baer’s class certification decision last month. In the endorsement, Judge Baer also asked the parties to give his regards to the mediator presiding over the settlement, retired Judge Daniel Weinstein, who Judge Baer credited with teaching him “what little I know about mediation”:
I’ll stay all proceedings up to the filing of the motion for preliminary approval NOT thru the ruling on preliminary approval we can talk as to any further stay on August 2 – 3 call Chambers. Judge Weinstein who I gather was your mediator taught me what little I know about mediation when I opened the JAMS office – He was great – may well not remember me but give him my regards anyway.