Sarah Abrams

The recent news that Warren Buffett is stepping down as Berkshire Hathaway’s CEO has drawn the attention of the business pages around the world. But along with Buffett’s move, there have been other CEO-related developments that have attracted the attention of the corporate and securities world, including with respect to Tesla CEO Elon Musk. In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, examines these CEO moves and considers their implications . I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to the blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah’s article.

Continue Reading Guest Post: CEOs and Board Liability 
Burkhard Fassbach

As this blog’s readers know, DEI as a topic has proven to be a high priority under the new Trump administration. The administration’s approach to DEI is important not only for domestic U.S. companies, but also for multinational companies with U.S. subsidiaries. In the following guest post, Burkhard Fassbach examines the DEI-related issues for multinational companies. Burkhard is a D&O lawyer in private practice in Germany. I would like to thank Burkhard for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Burkhard’s article.

Continue Reading Guest Post: What Multinational Corporations Should Know About DEI Risks in the US
Sarah Abrams

The global private credit market has been growing significantly. The rise of private credit raises interesting D&O insurance underwriting concerns. In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, explores these D&O issues. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to the blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah’s article.

Continue Reading Guest Post: Is Private Credit a Good D&O Risk?
Hagia Sophia (Aya Sofya)

The D&O Diary is on assignment in Europe this week, with an initial stop last weekend for a first-time-ever visit to Istanbul, the historic city where Europe meets Asia. Istanbul, it turns out, is an absolutely fantastic place to visit, although there is far more in the city than I was able to see in my all too brief visit.

Continue Reading Istanbul
Larry Fine

In the following guest post, Larry Fine takes a look at the implications of the U.S. Supreme Court’s April 2025 decision in the Cornell University ERISA fiduciary liability case. Larry is Management Liability Coverage Leader, Willis FINEX. A version of this article previously was published as a WTW client alert. I would like to thank Larry for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Larry’s article.

Continue Reading Guest Post: Why the Supreme Court’s Cornell Decision May Not Have a Major Effect on ERISA Fiduciary Exposure
Sarah Abrams

We are now well into the new Trump administration. The President’s nominee to head the SEC, Paul Atkins, has now been sworn in. At the same time, the SEC is also dealing with the fallout from the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision last term in the Jarkesy case. In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams takes a look at what all this could mean for the SEC. Sarah is Head of Claims, Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her article on my site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah’s article.

Continue Reading The Post-Jarkesy, Atkins SEC

As part of our beat here at The D&O Diary, we read all of the new securities class action lawsuit complaints as they come in. As a result, we have become quite accustomed to the reality that, as Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine famously put it, “everything, everywhere is securities fraud.” But our experience did not quite prepare us for the new complaint filed earlier this week against UnitedHealth Group that works the CEO’s murder into the complaint’s allegations. A copy of the May 7, 2025, complaint filed against UnitedHealth can be found here.

Continue Reading Event-Driven Litigation, Sure, But Even Where the Event is the CEO’s Murder?

In late March, Delaware enacted S.B. 21, legislation calculated to encourage companies to incorporate in the state, and to stay in the stay, rather than incorporating or reincorporating elsewhere. The bill included measures that could affect corporate litigation in Delaware in ways that may undercut litigation efforts of shareholders (and their lawyers). The plaintiffs’ lawyers apparently are prepared to fight back.

Earlier this week, in a new lawsuit involving Acushnet Holdings Corp., plaintiffs’ lawyers filed a Delaware Chancery Court complaint that, among other things, challenges the constitutionality of S.B. 21. This new suit joins earlier litigation previously filed also challenging S.B. 21’s constitutionality, as discussed below.  A copy of the latest complaint, filed in Chancery Court on May 5, 2025, can be found here. (Hat tip to Anthony Rickey, of Margrave Law LLC, who posted the complaint in a LinkedIn post, here.)

Continue Reading Claimants Challenge S.B. 21 Constitutionality

As I noted in a recent post (here), even though we are now more than five years past the initial COVID-19 outbreak in the U.S., companies continue to be hit with securities class action lawsuits alleging that the lingering effects of the pandemic’s disruption continue to affect their operations and financial results. The latest COVID-related securities lawsuit example provides an interesting variant on the typical allegations. The complaint in a new securities suit against pharma supply company West Pharmaceutical Services alleges not that the company failed to disclose the full impact of the pandemic on its operations and financial results, but rather that the company’s reports about the pandemic’s pervasive disruption masked other undisclosed customer losses.  A copy of the complaint against West can be found here.  

Continue Reading Pharma Supply Company Hit with COVID-Related Securities Suit