In a development of potentially great significance for climate change disclosure and reporting issues, on August 27, 2008, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo announced (here) that Xcel Energy had entered a “binding and enforceable agreement” requiring the company “to disclose the financial risks that climate change poses to investors.” Xcel’s announcement regarding
Subprime Lawsuits Mount, So What About D&O Pricing?
Observers outside the D&O insurance industry frequently comment to me that with all the subprime-related litigation, D&O pricing must be skyrocketing. These observers are often puzzled when I respond that the D&O marketplace remains generally competitive and pricing advantageous to buyers. This same conversation recurs with sufficient frequency that if may be worth exploring in
Subprime Litigation: A Glimpse of the End Game?
The 2007 settlement of an Ontario securities class action may suggest the eventual direction of many of the lawsuits in the current subprime and credit crisis-related litigation wave. Even though the lawsuit was filed in a Canadian court and involved a company (FMF Capital Group Ltd.) whose shares traded only on a Canadian exchange, the
Eleventh Circuit: Section 11 Settlement Not Covered Loss
In an unpublished August 18, 2008 per curiam opinion (here), the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit has affirmed the district court’s summary judgment ruling in the CNL Resorts case that a Section 11 settlement is not covered "loss" under a D&O insurance policy. The appeals court reversed and remanded
Credit Crisis Litigation Wave Rolls On
The current securities litigation wave first arose out of the collapse of the residential real estate subprime mortgage market. As I have previously noted (here), the wave long ago ceased to be just about subprime mortgages, as the litigation as expanded to encompass the fallout from a more general credit crisis. As demonstrated
Building Better Rule 10b5-1 Trading Plans
As a result of recent academic research (refer here and here) and other recent developments, Rule 10b5-1 trading plans have attracted critical attention, including SEC scrutiny (refer here). Allegations of alleged misuse of Rule 10b5-1 trading plans have even made their way into shareholder litigation. For example, allegations of Andrew Mozillo’s alleged misuse
Corporate Governance for Non-Listed Firms
One of the legacies of the era of corporate scandals earlier in this decade is a heightened awareness of corporate governance issues. This development is most obvious for publicly traded companies in the United States, with the governance requirements embodied in the form of the Sarbanes-Oxley Act. The heightened governance awareness has also had spill-over effects
Subprime Litigation: Something Old, Something New?
As the subprime litigation wave has churned on, many of the more recently filed lawsuits have been similar to previously filed suits. But amidst the repetition, there has also been some innovation, or at least variation, as a result of which the subprime litigation wave has continued to evolve. Two recently filed subprime and credit
Appellate Action: Life Sciences Securities Lawsuits
The heightened susceptibility of life sciences companies to securities class action lawsuits is a phenomenon that I and others have previously noted (refer here). But while life sciences companies may experience greater securities class action claim frequency, many of these lawsuits against life sciences companies are dismissed (as discussed here).
In a case the
The headlines on the business pages have been dominated in recent days by the news of the blockbuster Citigroup and UBS auction rate securities settlements (about which refer