Because private equity firms often place representatives on the boards of their portfolio companies, questions can sometimes arise about the interplay between the private equity firms’ and the portfolio companies’ D&O insurance when claims are asserted against portfolio companies’ boards. All too often, these questions are considered only after claims have emerged. However, the better

Private equity firms and the funds they organize frequently place individuals on their portfolio companies’ boards. However, all too frequently, it is not until a claim has arisen that the various entities consider how the potentially implicated indemnities and insurance will interact. Unanticipated interactions sometimes can produce unintended consequences, particularly from the perspective of the

A November 18, 2007 New York Times article entitled "If Buyout Firms Are So Smart, Why Are They So Wrong?" (here) takes a critical look at many buyout firms’ sudden haste to walk away from deals that were much ballyhooed only a short time ago. Clearly the bloom has gone off the buyout

In prior posts, I have discussed how conflicts of interest in management-led buyouts can give rise to litigation (refer here), and I have examined the ways the recent credit market turmoil is not only undermining leveraged buyouts but also engendering lawsuits (refer here). I have also extensively reviewed options backdating litigation (most recently

As credit market disruption has reached the leveraged buyout world, a number of deals announced earlier this year to great fanfare have been unceremoniously snuffed, while others are on life support. Not too surprisingly, one direct result from this deal derailment has been a spate of lawsuits, as jilted partners and disappointed investors cast blame

As the number of securities fraud lawsuits has declined (refer here), an alternative means that plaintiffs lawyers are finding to amuse and enrich themselves are lawsuits filed in connection with “going private” transactions. An April 24, 2007 National Law Journal article entitled “New Legal Battles Over Going Private” (here) takes a look

The D & O Diary has previously commented (most recently here) on the increasing risk of D & O claims arising from “going private” transactions in which incumbent management teams up with outside investors to buy out the interests of public shareholders. The most recent high-profile “going private” transaction to be announced – the