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Kevin LaCroix

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Kevin M. LaCroix is an attorney and Executive Vice President, RT ProExec, a division of RT Specialty. RT ProExec is an insurance intermediary focused exclusively on management liability issues.

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As I have chronicled on this blog (most recently, here), a wave of litigation has followed in the wake of the SPAC boom in late 2020 and early 2021. Since January 1, 2021, over 60 SPAC-related securities class actions have been filed, and there has also been a number of Delaware state court breach of fiduciary duty lawsuits, as well. Although many of these suits have only just been filed and therefore have not yet been subjected to judicial scrutiny, there have been several dismissal motion rulings in a number of these cases. A May 2023 memo from the Jones Day law firm entitled “SPAC Litigation: A Review of Recent Developments” (here) reviews the state of play in the various judicial rulings so far in the SPAC-related cases.  As the memo notes, “many high-profile suits have recently survived motions to dismiss (at least in part), and at least one has been resolved through a significant settlement.”…

Continue Reading Key SPAC-Related Litigation Developments

ESG has for some time now been a hot button issue for companies. More recently, an anti-ESG backlash has emerged, further complicating the ESG environment for companies and sometimes putting them in a “damned-if-you-do-and damned-if-you-don’t” dilemma. How are companies to navigate these complicated conditions? In a May 23, 2023 post on the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance entitled “Navigating the Current ESG Landscape: Recommendations for the Board and Management” (here), veteran and respected corporate attorney Martin Lipton of the Wachtell, Lipton law firm provides guidance for companies as they navigate these difficult circumstances and describes the principles companies should follow in trying to make their way on these issues.…

Continue Reading Navigating the Challenging ESG Landscape

After California’s legislature enacted legislation requiring greater diversity on corporations with corporate offices in California in 2020, the legislation was almost immediately the subject of a court challenge. Now, in a May 15, 2023, ruling, a California federal district court has held that the statute is facially unconstitutional under the Equal Protection Clause and in light of precedent of the U.S. Supreme Court. As discussed below, the court’s decision follows an earlier ruling by a California State court that previously struck down the statute. A copy of the court’s May 15, 2023, opinion can be found here.…

Continue Reading Federal Court Strikes Down California Board Diversity Statute

In the latest edition of its annual report, the Sidley Austin law firm takes a detailed look at important securities litigation developments in 2022 relating to life sciences companies. The report includes not only a review of life sciences companies’ securities litigation class action filings trends but also examines life sciences companies’ track record in the courts, both with respect to motions to dismiss in the district courts and on appeal. The law firm’s report, entitled “Securities Class Actions in the Life Sciences Sector: 2022 Annual Survey” can be found here. A May 17, 2023 blog post summarizing the report can be found here.…

Continue Reading A Detailed Look at the 2022 Securities Litigation Against Life Sciences Companies

One of the significant contributing factors to the total number of securities class action lawsuit filings in 2022 was the number of SPAC-related securities suits filed during the year. However, while there were a significant number of SPAC-related suits filed in 2022, the number of SPAC-related suit filings declined as the year progressed, to the point that it was not clear whether the phenomenon would continue into 2023. As it has turned out, the plaintiffs’ lawyers have continued to file SPAC-related suits this year. In the latest example, on May 12, 2023, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities suit against energy storage services provider Stem, Inc., which merged with a SPAC in April 2021. This latest filing shows that the SPAC-related suits continue to be filed and that the suits continue to be a factor in the total overall number of securities suit filings.…

Continue Reading Energy Services Company Hit with SPAC-Related Securities Suit

John Orr, Lawrence Fine, and Angus Duncan

In the following guest post, John Orr, Lawrence Fine, and Angus Duncan summarize the findings from the latest WTW Directors’ and Officers’ Liability Survey. John is WTW’s D&O Liability Product Leader; Larry is WTW’s Management Liability Coverage Leader; and Angus Duncan is a Global D&O Coverage Specialist for WTW. I would like to thank the authors 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 the author’s article.…

Continue Reading Guest Post: What has You Worried? Notes from WTW’s 2023 D&O Survey

Mark Sutton
Leah Barratt

In the following guest post, Mark Sutton and Leah Barratt take a look at the proposed Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill, a piece of legislation currently pending in the U.K. Mark is a Partner and Leah is a Senior Associate in the Clyde & Co. law firm. A version of the article previously was published on the Clyde & Co. website. I would like to thank Mark and Leah for allowing me to publish their article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to readers of this blog. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Mark and Leah’s article.…

Continue Reading Guest Post: Failure to Prevent Fraud – the New Company Exposure

Earlier this month, the U.S. Center for Disease Control announced the end in the U.S. of the COVID-19-related public health emergency that began in March 2020. Yet even though the public health emergency has now officially ended, the pandemic’s effects still continue to affect company’s financial results, and still continue to result in COVID-19-related securities class action lawsuits. In the latest litigation example, late last week a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against The Walt Disney Company related to the fallout from the company’s early pandemic-related success with and commitment to its Disney+ streaming services, a bet that soured as the pandemic progressed. The new filing shows that though the public health emergency may have ended, the pandemic-related securities litigation risk continues.…

Continue Reading Disney Hit With Securities Suit with COVID-Related Allegations

In a ruling last week, Delaware Vice Chancellor Travis Laster denied motions to dismiss in the shareholder derivative suit against Facebook executives for failing over the course of several years to protect users’ data privacy. The alleged privacy violations to which the lawsuit relates were the subject of a massive $5 billion penalty that Facebook agreed to pay to the FTC to settle charges that the company had violated a 2012 consent order relating to protecting users’ privacy. As discussed in a May 10, 2023, Law360 article (here), Vice Chancellor Laster made his ruling from the bench in a telephonic hearing. Vice Chancellor Laster’s ruling is also discussed in a May 10, 2023, Associated Press article (here). As discussed below, Vice Chancellor Laster’s ruling underscores the extent to which privacy-related issues represent an area of significant corporate liability exposure.…

Continue Reading Court Denies Dismissal Motion in Facebook User Data Privacy Derivative Suit