Top-court nominee has long record in business cases

(Reuters) - Sonia Sotomayor, nominated by President Barack Obama for the U.S. Supreme Court, has a lengthy record of rulings in business cases as a federal judge in New York.

But legal experts said Sotomayor does not appear to be either particularly liberal or conservative on business issues -- resulting in a patchwork of decisions based more on the merits and facts of the cases than an ideological approach to the law.

"If you look through the decisions she has written while on the Second Circuit (U.S. Court of Appeals), there seems to be a surprisingly small number of cases that involve securities laws," said Roger Kirby, a partner at class-action law firm Kirby McInerney LLP in New York.

Experts say it can be difficult to predict how a federal appeals court judge like Sotomayor will rule on business cases as a member of the Supreme Court.

Following are some of Sotomayor's more notable business-related decisions. Four of the rulings were later overturned by the Supreme Court.

CONCERN FOR INVESTOR RIGHTS ADVOCATES

* One case Kirby cited as potentially of concern for investor rights advocates is a 2007 decision in an investor lawsuit accusing the New York Stock Exchange of violating securities laws by allowing improper trading by floor traders.

Sotomayor, writing for a three-judge panel of the appeals court, partially revived the case, which was brought by the California Public Employees' Retirement System and another plaintiff.

But the court also said the stock exchange had absolute immunity from the specialists' activities because of its self-regulatory role in the securities market -- a position which could make it harder to file such lawsuits in future.