O'Rourke Katten & Moody said it filed a lawsuit against McGraw-Hill Cos.'s chief financial officer Robert J. Bahash on behalf of shareholders who bought the company's common stock between July 25, 2006 and Aug. 15. The law firm alleged that Bahash violated federal securities laws and that his misleading statements or omissions concerning the company's business and operations, particularly that its Standard & Poor's unit assigned "excessively high" ratings to bonds backed by subprime mortgages, artificially inflated its stock.

McGraw-Hill is a New York-based financial and education information services company. McGraw-Hill had no immediate comment because it said it wasn't aware of the suit.