Director and Officer Liability

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September is here. Labor Day has come and gone. Time to put away the swim trunks, parasols, flip flops, bungee cords, ukuleles, sun screen, boomerangs, bongos, snorkels, vorpal blades, and unicycles, and get back to work. Yes, it is time to answer all those emails and return all of those phone messages. And most importantly of all, it is time to catch up on what has been happening in the world of directors’ and officers’ liability and insurance. Here is what happened while you were out.
Continue Reading While You Were Out

I spend the better part of most days – both in my day job and in writing this blog – thinking about the liabilities of directors and officers. Most of the time I am focused on their civil liabilities. However, even though it is not something I think about all the time, the fact is that the potential liabilities of corporate executives also include criminal liabilities as well. I thought about this recently in reviewing a July 3, 2018 Bloomberg article entitled “From Executive Suit to Jail: One German CEO’s Tales of Prison” (here). The article tells the story of Thomas Middlehoff, a German executive who was convicted criminally and who served time in prison.
Continue Reading Potential Liabilities for Corporate Executives Includes Criminal Liability

More recent data breach-related D&O lawsuits have been filed in the form of securities class actions, one of which, the Yahoo securities class action lawsuit, recently resulted in a sizable settlement. Before that though, during the period 2014 to 2016, there was a series of data breach related suits filed in the form of shareholder derivative actions. By and large, these cases did not fare particularly well, largely resulting in dismissals. The last of these data breach-related derivative lawsuits that remained pending is the one filed against fast-food company Wendy’s. Now the Wendy’s case has also settled, albeit for a combination of cybersecurity and governance therapeutics and agreement to pay the plaintiffs’ attorneys fees. The resolution of this last remaining shareholder derivative suit again raises a question that has been much discussed, of the extent to which data breach-related issues will lead to more D&O litigation.
Continue Reading Wendy’s Settles Data Breach-Related Derivative Lawsuit

Mark Sutton
Karen Boto

Among other things, the media clamor about claims of sexual misconduct involving high profile politicians and business executives has in some instances led to D&O claims, as I recently noted. In the following guest post, Mark Sutton and Karen Boto of the Clyde & Co. law firm take a look at this phenomenon, with particular attention to the specific circumstances at two prominent U.K. charities. I would like to thank Mark and Karen for allowing me to publish their article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Mark and Karen’s guest post.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Sexual Misconduct Claims: How Charitable is Your D&O Policy?

The fallout from the current wave of revelations sexual misconduct involving media figures, politicians, and corporate executives has included, among other things, a rash of D&O claims – including, for example, claims against the boards of 21st Century Fox and Wynn Resorts. An interesting recent scholarly paper takes a detailed look at D&O claims arising out of allegations of sexual misconduct, examines the potential bases of liability, and considers the relative social utility of this kind of litigation, as well as the practical implications for corporate boards and their organizations. The March 22, 2018 paper by Daniel Hemel and Dorothy Lund of the University of Chicago Law School and entitled “Sexual Harassment and Corporate Law” can be found here. The authors summarize their paper in an April 9, 2018 post on the CLS Blue Sky Law Blog (here).
Continue Reading Sexual Misconduct and D&O Claims

Amidst the fallout following the latest high-profile set of revelations of sexual misconduct at the highest levels of business, the media, and politics, Steve Wynn has resigned his position as Chairman and CEO of Wynn Resorts. However, as we have seen with in other instances of this type of high profile sexual misconduct, the accountability process at Wynn Resorts will not be limited to attempting to hold Wynn himself to account, but may include other senior company officials as well. According to a lawsuit filed today in Nevada state court,  officials at Wynn’s company allegedly knew for years of his sexual misconduct and failed to investigate.
Continue Reading Investor Files Sexual Misconduct-Related D&O Claim Against Wynn Resorts Board

As I have previously noted (most recently here), the SEC recently has stepped up its regulatory efforts to police the burgeoning Initial Coin Offering (ICO) market, as well as cryptocurrencies generally. Now it appears that the federal regulators are not going to be the only ones to get in on the act. U.S. state regulators have recently stepped forward to assert their concerns and their authority as well, and at least one state regulator is backing the words up with action.
Continue Reading State Securities Regulators Step Up on ICO and Cryptocurrency Enforcement

For a time a few years ago, litigation management bylaws were all the rage. Driven by concerns about multi-forum merger-related litigation, commentators proposed company adoption of forum selection bylaws for internal corporate disputes. The debate widened when reformers suggested that companies adopt fee-shifting bylaws. The debate subsided in 2015 when the Delaware legislature adopted legislation authorizing the adopting of bylaws designating Delaware’s courts as the preferred forum for disputes under Delaware, but prohibiting fee-shifting bylaws.

The topic of litigation management bylaws resurfaced in recent months in connection with the debate about plaintiffs lawyers’ resorting to state court (primarily in California) to assert securities class action claims, in reliance on the concurrent jurisdiction provisions under the Section 22 of the Securities Act of 1933. Concerns about this kind of litigation has in turn precipitated various self-help measures companies could adopt to try to avoid getting hauled into state court for these kinds of suits.
Continue Reading Delaware Chancery Court Action Challenges Federal Forum Bylaws

The world of directors’ and officers’ liability is always dynamic, but 2017 was a particularly eventful year in the D&O liability arena. The year’s many developments have significant implications for what may lie ahead in 2018 – and possibly for years to come. I have set out below the Top Ten D&O stories of 2017, with an eye to these future possibilities.
Continue Reading Top Ten D&O Stories of 2017

As observers have been monitoring the evolving policies and priorities of the Department of Justice in the Trump administration, one of the questions has been what the agency’s approach will be to the guidelines laid out in the so-called Yates Memo. The Yates Memo, named for its author, the former Deputy Attorney General and former Acting Attorney General Sally Yates, reflected a commitment to holding individuals accountable for corporate wrongdoing. In a recent speech, the current Deputy Attorney General Rod J. Rosenstein addressed the question of the current administration’s approach to individual accountability. His October 6, 2017 speech, a copy of which can be found here, appears to suggest that the current administration likely will continue to pursue the policies reflected in the Yates Memo. However, as discussed below, what that may mean in practice remains to be seen.
Continue Reading Deputy AG Emphasizes Continued Individual Accountability for Corporate Misconduct