What began as regulatory inquiries involving Los Angeles Dodgers (and until recently Los Angeles Lakers) owner Mark Walter and affiliated insurance companies has now expanded into civil litigation, bringing renewed attention to private credit investments, related-party transactions, and disclosure practices. A proposed class action lawsuit filed in the Southern District of Florida against Walter and various affiliated businesses alleges that annuity holders of Colorado Bankers Life Insurance Company and Bankers Life Insurance Company, both Walter-affiliated companies, purchased products without receiving material information regarding related-party investments and an ongoing federal investigation. A copy of the September 16, 2026, complaint can be found here.

Continue Reading From Investigation to Litigation: Private Credit Scrutiny Fuels New Claims

Episode 9 of The D&O Diary Podcast series is now live.  In this latest episode, we are joined by Geoff Fehling, a partner with Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP whose practice focuses on policyholder advocacy, management liability insurance, D&O coverage, and complex insurance disputes.

Continue Reading The D&O Diary Podcast, Episode 9: Geoff Fehling and Key D&O Insurance Coverage Issues

The recent $25 billion data privacy judgment in New Mexico state court against Meta was attention-grabbing, if for no other reason than for the sheer size of the award. The award also highlights the fact that privacy-related issues are increasingly important, in ways that can potentially, through subsequent litigation, translate into D&O matters. As discussed below, if for no other reason than the scale of the exposure, privacy risk increasingly is becoming management liability risk. A copy of the New Mexico state court’s October 21, 2026, judgment in the Meta case can be found here.

Continue Reading Thinking About the $25 Billion Meta Privacy-Related Judgment

One of the most distinctive and material securities class action lawsuit filing trends this year has been the massive recent surge of artificial intelligence (AI)-related securities suit filings. Sure, there have been AI-related securities suit filings before, but this year the numbers of these kinds of lawsuits have spiked. In the latest illustration of this developing phenomenon, over the last several days plaintiffs’ attorneys have filed new AI-related securities suits against Google’s parent company Alphabet, and against the Internet language learning company Duolingo. In both cases, the plaintiffs alleged that the companies misrepresented their respective AI-related capabilities, opportunities, or prospects.

Continue Reading AI-Related Securities Suit Filing Surge Continues

The D&O Diary has been closely following the growing D&O risks arising from geopolitical developments and the increasing number of securities suits that have followed in their wake. The latest lawsuit in this developing line of cases was filed on October 8, 2026, against Webull Corporation, a digital brokerage platform that became publicly traded following a SPAC merger in April 2025. The complaint alleges that the company misrepresented the extent of its operational ties to China and understated the regulatory and geopolitical risks associated with those connections.

The complaint against Webull comes amid continuing scrutiny of U.S.-China commercial and technological ties. For companies with operations, personnel, technology infrastructure, supply-chain dependencies, or other business connections to China, evolving geopolitical tensions have created both operational and disclosure challenges. The following discussion reviews the allegations against Webull and potential implications for D&O underwriters.

Continue Reading Continuing Geopolitical Disclosure Risk Underscored in New Securities Suit

On September 14, 2026, the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced that Accenture agreed to pay $25 million to settle allegations that its hiring, promotion, and workplace-development practices discriminated on the basis of race or sex. The settlement resolves allegations that Accenture Federal Services (AFS) falsely certified compliance with federal anti-discrimination requirements applicable to government contractors. It comes just weeks after the DOJ’s settlement with Deloitte and follows the government’s April settlement with IBM over similar allegations. According to the settlement agreement, Accenture denied the government’s allegations without admitting liability.

The Accenture settlement is the latest example of the Trump Administration’s effort to use the False Claims Act (FCA) to challenge what it characterizes as unlawful DEI-related employment practices by federal contractors, an approach advanced through the DOJ’s Civil Rights Fraud Initiative launched in 2025. Together with the two earlier FCA settlements involving major federal contractors accused of similar conduct, the resolution suggests a broader enforcement trend may be emerging, one that could have significant implications for companies, their directors and officers, and D&O insurers.

Continue Reading Latest FCA Settlement Highlights Developing Anti-DEI Enforcement Trends

When I first heard the news last week that the U.S. Department of Treasury and other federal agencies had imposed penalties and settlements against Bank of America totaling more than $1.2 billion for anti-money laundering and trade sanctions violations, I told colleagues that we would not have to wait long for a follow-on D&O lawsuit. Sure enough, just days after the Treasury Department announcement, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against the Bank and certain of its executives based on the defendants’ alleged misrepresentations concerning the bank’s compliance and internal controls. This type of lawsuit following in the wake of regulatory enforcement actions raises important and interesting issues, as discussed further below.

Continue Reading AML Penalties-Related Securities Suit Hits Bank of America

A new securities class action lawsuit filed against Endava plc, a technology consulting and digital transformation company that has promoted its transition to an “AI-native” business model, represents the 28th AI-related securities class action lawsuit filed in 2026. The lawsuit also raises an increasingly important question in the evolving AI-related litigation landscape: what makes a securities suit “AI-related”?

Continue Reading Endava Hit with Latest AI-Related Securities Suit
Tokyo, viewed from our hotel room

My Asian assignment for The D&O Diary continued last week with a long-weekend visit to Tokyo, which is both one of the world’s largest cities and one of the world’s great places, as well. The city stretches beyond the horizon in every direction, a seemingly limitless urban expanse that is vast and orderly, efficient, and culturally rich.

Continue Reading Tokyo

The number of large corporate bankruptcy filings during the twelve-month period ending June 30, 2026, was down compared to the preceding twelve months, but remained elevated compared to long-term historical averages, according to a new report from Cornerstone Research. In the firm’s press release about the report, the report’s co-author is quoted as saying that the elevated bankruptcy rate reflects “persistent challenges of the broader economic environment for companies that rely on debt financing.” The report, which is entitled “Trends in Large Corporate Bankruptcy and Financial Distress: Midyear 2026 Update,” can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s press release about the report can be found here.

Continue Reading Large Corporate Bankruptcy Filings Down, But Still Above Historic Levels