On my beat here at The D&O Diary, I cover the liabilities of corporate directors and officers. One objection I frequently hear is that I focus too much public companies and not enough on private companies. The reason I write about public company issues more than private company concerns is that the public company world usually is more eventful. However, every now and then, something comes up involving a privately-held company that reminds all of us that plenty happens in the private company D&O world, too. The most recent example is the shareholder derivative and class action lawsuit filed last week against executives of the electronic cigarette company, Juul Labs. As discussed below, this new lawsuit highlights the exposures that private company directors and officers can face and underscores the fact that even private companies can get hit with shareholder class action lawsuits.
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Kevin LaCroix
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.
More of Readers’ 2019 Travel Pictures
As one of my year-end features on this site, I published in late December a post with my Top Ten favorite pictures from my travels during 2019. In the same post, I also invited readers to send in their favorite pictures from their own 2019 travels, with the idea that I would post the readers’ pictures here, on this blog. Last week, I published the first installment of readers’ travel pictures. Today, I am very happy to publish the second set of readers’ pictures. There are some great pictures in this set.
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Guest Post: Ransomware’s Year-End Thank You Note to Bitcoin

In the following guest post, John Reed Stark takes a look at the troubling rise of ransomware attacks, and the disturbing relationship between ransomware attacks and bitcoin. John is the President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement. I would like to thank John 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 blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is John’s article.
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First Solar Settles Long-Running Securities Class Action Lawsuit for $350 Million
On January 6, 2020, solar panel company First Solar announced that it had settled the securities class action lawsuit pending against the company and certain of its executive officers for a payment of $350 million. During the long course of this matter, the case made its way to the Ninth Circuit a couple of times; the case even involved an unsuccessful petition to the U.S. Supreme Court for a writ of certiorari. In addition to its sheer size, there are a number of other interesting aspects to this settlement, as discussed below. The settlement is subject to court approval. The company’s January 6, 2020 press release can be found here.
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Few Banks Failed Last Year – Is That a Problem?
After a run of several years where numerous banks failed each year, no banks failed in 2018, and only four failed in 2019. The low number of bank failures last year, and the absence of any bank failures the year before, clearly are signs that the economy is strong and the banking industry generally is profitable. But the banking sector is notoriously volatile and historically registers all of the economy’s ups and downs vividly. Is it possible that the current banking sector calm itself foreshadows trouble ahead? That is the question asked in a January 6, 2020 Wall Street Journal article entitled “Few Bank Failures Could Be a Warning Sign for U.S. Financial System” (here).
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Fair is Fair: Securities Suit Against Burford Capital Voluntarily Dismissed
Last August, when prominent litigation funding firm Burford Capital Ltd. was hit with as securities class action lawsuit, I published a post highlighting the new suit. In a post in which I arguably had some fun at Burford’s expense – the post was entitled “Isn’t It Ironic? Litigation Funding Firm Hit With Securities Suit” – I detailed the shareholder plaintiff’s allegations. Having drawn readers’ attention to the lawsuit, it seems only fair for me now to point out to readers what subsequently happened in the lawsuit. The fact is, the plaintiff has voluntarily dismissed the lawsuit, albeit without prejudice.
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The Top Ten D&O Stories of 2019
The liability environment for directors and officers is always in a state of change, but 2019 was a particularly eventful year in the D&O liability arena, with important consequences for the D&O insurance marketplace. The past year’s many developments have significant implications for what may lie ahead in 2020 – and possibly for years to come, as well. I have set out below the Top Ten D&O Stories of 2019, with a focus on the future implications.
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A Sampling of Readers’ 2019 Travel Pictures

Early next week, I will be publishing my annual Top Ten Stories in D&O survey. Last week, in anticipation of the upcoming publication of my annual survey, I published a list of my own Top Ten Travel Pictures of 2019. In my travel pics post, I also invited readers to submit for their favorite pictures of their own travel in 2019. I am pleased to report that many readers have submitted pictures for consideration. I have published a sampling of readers’ submissions below.
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Federal Court Securities Suit Filings Remain at Elevated Levels
The number of federal court securities class action lawsuit filings during 2019 was consistent with the heightened number of filings in each of the two prior years. The total number of suits during 2019 was significantly increased by the number of federal court merger objection lawsuit filings, but even just with respect to the traditional suit filings, the number of securities suit filings in 2019 was well above historical levels. The 2019 federal court securities litigation rate (that is, the number of lawsuits relative to the number of listed companies) was at an all-time high.
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Guest Post: Silent Cyber – Is it Deafening?

As many insurance industry observers know, one of the great concerns within the industry now is the possible impact of “silent cyber” – that is, the potential for cybersecurity-related coverage outside of purpose-built cyber insurance policies. In the following guest post, Umesh Pratapa takes a look at the silent cyber phenomenon. A version of this article previously was published on Umesh’s website (here). Umesh is an independent insurance consultant based in India. I would like to thank Umesh 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 Umesh’s article.
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