With the addition of four more bank closures this past Friday night, the YTD number of bank failures now stands at 29, which already exceeds 2008’s total of 25 and is the highest annual total since 1993, at the end of the last era of failed banks. All signs are that the number of bank
Ken Lewis, BofA and the Fed Strong-Arm: Ten Questions
Bank of America’s acquisition of Merrill Lynch went through, so we will (fortunately) never know what would have happened if the deal had collapsed. But as detailed in the April 23, 2009 letter (here) from New York AG Andrew Cuomo to Sen. Chris Dodd, Rep. Barney Frank and others, if it had been
Earth Day Essay: Climate Change and Corporate Risk Assessments
The recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) proposal to find that greenhouse gases "contribute to air pollution that may endanger public health or welfare" is just the latest in a series of actions and events suggesting that climate change related issues could affect a large number of companies, in a variety of ways, including most specifically
SEC Updates Rule 10b5-1 Guidance
As reflected in the most recent dismissal motion rulings in the Countrywide subprime securities lawsuit, the proper use of a Rule 10b5-1 trading plan can provide a substantial defense to allegations of securities law violations. In her April 6, 2009 opinion (here), Central District of California Mariana Pfaelzer dismissed the insider trading allegations
A New Auction Rate Securities Litigation Variant
The collapse of the market for auction rate securities (ARS) has generated a flood of litigation, mostly brought by angry ARS investors against the broker dealers who sold them the securities or against the mutual funds that allegedly failed to disclose that their assets were invested in these kinds of securities. More recently (refer for
D&O Insurance: Knowledge, Renewal and Rescission
In an interesting decision that raises a host of important issues, a federal district court applying Arkansas law held that due to renewal application misrepresentations, a hospital’s D&O insurance policy is void ab initio, and therefore that the hospital must refund amounts the insurer previously paid as defense costs. The April 17, 2009 opinion
Madoff: The Britney Spears Connection?
Although a wide variety of surprising details have come to light as the Madoff scandal has been exposed, there has as yet been no reported connection between the scandal and Britney Spears—that is, until now. A handwritten complaint filed in the Eastern District of Michigan on March 16, 2009 raises a number of, well
Judge Calls Plaintiffs’ Firm’s “Monitoring” Services “Shocking Conflict of Interest”
One of the recurring issues in securities litigation is the way the erstwhile class counsel and their clients, the prospective class representatives, come together. In what one federal judge described as a "blatant, shocking conflict of interest," it appears, from testimony at a recent lead plaintiff selection hearing, that the leading plaintiffs’ firms are providing
More About Life Sciences Companies and Securities Litigation
In prior posts (most recently here), I discussed the fact that while litigation against the financial sector has predominated recent securities lawsuit filings, plaintiffs’ attorneys also have targeted other sectors, including in particularly the life sciences sector. An April 2009 memorandum by David Kotler of the Dechert law firm entitled "Dechert Survey of Securities
Corporate Governance: Separating the CEO and the Chairman Roles
A growing chorus of voices is calling for public companies to make the separation of the Chairman and CEO functions the default governance structure. This movement, which may have the support of the new SEC Chair, appears likely to lead to some type of "adapt or explain" approach. Increasing evidence that the companies where the