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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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One of the important ways that a U.S. President can maintain influence long after his or her term of office has ended is through exercise of the judicial appointment power. Because federal judges enjoy lifetime tenure, the judges he or she appoints determine legal outcomes for decades after the end of the President’s administration.

When President Trump took office again in January, he arrived with a judicial appointment track record from his first administration. He had appointed generally well-pedigreed judges that enjoyed the support and even the backing of the conservative Federalist Society. Now, in his second administration, where many of his Presidential initiatives are facing judicial challenges, Trump has soured on his first term appointments and turned on the Federalist Society. He has also adopted a transparently political approach to judicial appointments. Trump’s changed approach to judicial appointments could have significant implications for legal developments for decades to come.Continue Reading Trump 2.0 and the Judicial Appointment Power

Nir Kossovsky

In the following guest post, Nir Kossovksy examines the issue of corporate governance for reputational risk, through the lens of the recently settled Meta derivative suit. Nir is the CEO of Steel City Re. I would like to thank Nir 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 Nir’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Meta Derivative Litigation Hits Reputation Risk Governance

In a recent study about securities class action lawsuit filings in the first six months of 2025, NERA reports that first half filings represented a tale of two quarters, with the first quarter filings representing the highest quarterly number in five years, and the second quarter filings represented the lowest quarterly filing number in five years. The report, which is entitled “Recent Trends in Securities Class Action Litigation: H1 2025 Update,” and which can be found here, includes a number of other interesting observations, as discussed below.Continue Reading NERA Reports on 1H25 Federal Court Securities Class Action Lawsuit Filings

Regular readers may recall my recent post in which I discussed the possibility of an emerging trend of D&O claims related to GLP-1 drugs. GLP-1 drugs are sold under manufacturers’ brand names as weight loss and obesity treatments – such as, for example Ozempic for treatment of diabetes, and Wegovy for weight loss treatment. In my prior post, I discussed a recent example of a GLP-1-related D&O claim, a securities class action lawsuit against the telehealth platform Hims & Hers Health.

In a new lawsuit that represents yet another example of a GLP-1-related D&O claim, a plaintiff shareholder has launched a securities suit against the Danish drug company, Novo Nordisk, based on the company’s alleged misrepresentations concerning its ability to capitalize on the overall GLP-1 market. As also discussed further below, in the course of my research for this post, I also uncovered yet another GLP-1 D&O claims as well.Continue Reading More About GLP-1 Drugs and D&O Risk

Sarah Abrams

Over recent years, many companies have pursued paths for going public as an alternative to a traditional IPO, including, for example, through a reverse merger, and or a SPAC transaction. In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, takes a look at these alternatives, and considers what these kinds of transactions may mean in terms of potential D&O liability exposure. 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 this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Backing Into an IPO

Recent securities class action lawsuit filing analyses have noted (as discussed, for example here), that the number of COVID-related securities suit filings has declined so far this year relative to last year. Arguably the more interesting observation is that these lawsuits are being filed at all in 2025, now well over five years since the initial outbreak of COVID-19 in the United States. In the latest example of the continued filing of these kinds of suits, late last week, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against Lineage, a cold storage focused real estate investment trust (REIT). The complaint alleges that in the run-up to the company’s July 2024 IPO, the company soft-pedaled the impact of the downturn of pandemic-driven demand. The new complaint against Lineage can be found here.Continue Reading REIT Hit With COVID-Related Securities Suit

One issue courts often confront is the question of what they may properly consider in determining whether or not an insurer has a duty to defend an insured in a given set of circumstances. In many jurisdictions, the courts may consider only the underlying complaint and the terms and conditions of the policy, and nothing else. In a recent decision, an Illinois intermediate appellate court, applying Illinois law, held that the trial court properly considered extrinsic matter – in this case, the insured’s description of events in his notice of claim to the insurer—in holding that the policy’s Cyber Events exclusion precluded coverage, even though the underlying complaint did not refer to the cybersecurity incident. The court’s decision raises some interesting questions, as discussed below.Continue Reading May a Court Consider Extrinsic Matter in Determining an Insurer’s Duty to Defend?

The number of securities class action lawsuits filed in the first six months of 2025 was roughly level with the number of securities suits filed in the second half of 2024, according to a new report from Cornerstone Research. The number of suits filed in the first half of 2025 is also roughly level with the historical semiannual average number of filings. The July 30, 2025, report, which Cornerstone Research produced in conjunction with the Stanford Law School Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, is entitled “Securities Class Action Filings: 2025 Midyear Assessment,” can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s July 30, 2025, press release regarding the report can be found here.Continue Reading Cornerstone Research: Securities Suit Filings Steady in Year’s First Half

Sarah Abrams

In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, takes a look at the D&O underwriting issues associated with Real Estate Investment Trusts (REITs), in the context of a pending securities class action lawsuit involving a cannabis-focused REIT. 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 this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Sarah’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: High on REITs

One of the signature features of the Dodd-Frank Act was its creation of the SEC whistleblower program, which includes the possibility for whistleblowers to receive generous bounties. The program has grown substantially since its inception. However, there are signs that the program may be undergoing a significant change in direction, as the SEC is “denying a record percentage of whistleblower claims,” according to a July 22, 2025, Bloomberg article, here. According to the article, the recent number of denials suggests that “the agency is enforcing rules and scrutinizing claims more strictly than in past years.”Continue Reading SEC Rejects Record Percentage of Whistleblower Award Claims