Companies frequently defend themselves against shareholder lawsuits, and naturally that money would otherwise provide value for the shareholders. Also, if the SEC fines them the (current) investors will basically be punished!

Oh fascinating, I hadn't thought about this before. So if the plaintiffs win a shareholder lawsuit, they're winning money at the expense of all of the other shareholders? And what about a class-action by all of the shareholders (is that even possible)? That'd just be the shareholders suing themselves? I guess that'd just be a forced liquidation/dividend in effect, right?