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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.

Francis Kean

Regular readers of this blog know that class action litigation is an important part of the Australian liability environment. Although comparisons between the Australian class action system and the U.S. system are frequent, there are important differences in class action litigation in the two legal systems, particularly with respect to securities class action litigation. In the following guest post, Francis Kean, Executive Director in Willis Towers Watson’s FINEX Global, takes a look at important differences in claims against issuer companies between the two legal systems and the important implications of these differences for purposes of D&O insurance coverage. This guest post is based on Francis’s original post on the Willis Towers Watson Wire blog. I would like to thank Francis for his willingness 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 Francis’s guest post.
Continue Reading Guest Post: How “Pure Entity” Australian Class Actions have Distorted the D&O Market

John Reed Stark

As many readers undoubtedly are aware, the prices for bitcoin has plunged in recent days, from a peak of nearly $20,000 in December to approximately $8,300 more recently, representing a decline of nearly 60%. The prices for other cryptocurrencies have also fallen along the same order of magnitude. This dramatic decline certainly at least raises the question of whether or not the pricing bubble for cryptocurrencies that fueled the recent wave of initial coin offerings (ICOs) has burst – or at least, is about to burst. In the following guest post, John Reed Stark, President of John Reed Stark Consulting and former Chief of the SEC’s Office of Internet Enforcement, suggests that the bursting of the ICO bubble may be exactly what the financial marketplace needs for the long haul. I would like to thank John for his willingness to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest for this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is John’s guest post.
Continue Reading Guest Post: The Benefit of an ICO Bubble Burst

In general, securities litigation filing trends emerge gradually and across long stretches of time. These kinds of long term trends have been the subject of a number of recent reports discussed on this site – including, for example, recent reports from NERA Economic Consulting (about which refer here), Cornerstone Research (here), as well as my own report. Though trends often become apparent only over the course of months and years, sometimes they are apparent in much shorter time frames. As it happens, the securities suit filings on a single day last week managed to neatly encapsulate all of the important current securities litigation filing trends.
Continue Reading The Sum of All Securities Litigation Filing Trends

As has been well-documented on this site, 2017 was an extraordinary year for securities class action lawsuit filings, with a record number of new lawsuits filed at a record rate. Among the important contributing factors to the significant volume of securities suit filings during the year was the volume of lawsuits filed against life sciences companies. The significance of the litigation activity against biopharma companies, a subset of the overall life sciences sector, was the subject of a detailed and precise analysis in a guest post earlier this week.

There is still the question of the meaning of large volume of litigation involving life sciences companies generally.  According to the latest annual analysis from the Dechert law firm, the number of securities lawsuits filed against life sciences companies in 2017 increased 30% from the previous year, and increased more than 225% from only five years earlier. The law firm’s February 8, 2018 report entitled “Developments in Securities Fraud Class Actions Against U.S. Life Sciences Companies: 2017 Edition” can be found here.
Continue Reading A Detailed Look at 2017 Securities Litigation Involving Life Sciences Companies

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

 The astonishing bitcoin bubble may have burst over the last several days. From its intraday peak in December 2017 of $19,783, the price for bitcoin had fallen as of Saturday to $8,524, a decline of over 60%. (Price declines continued on Monday.) Bitcoin’s price has fallen before and it has generally proven to be volatile. The price may yet escalate again. But if it has always been hard to specify a reason for the phenomenal price movements of bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies, there certainly have been recent developments aplenty to undermine the price for these digital assets.
Continue Reading A Multitude of Cryptocurrency Developments

It is now a commonplace observation in the D&O arena that life sciences companies – and in particular small biopharma companies – are frequent targets of securities class action lawsuits. As a result of these observations about claims frequency, biopharma companies often pay more than other kinds of companies for their D&O insurance. But do these companies really face a heightened securities litigation exposure sufficient to warrant these higher rates? The following guest post examines this question. This post was written by Michael Klausner, Professor of Law, Stanford Law School, Jason Hegland, Executive Director, Stanford Securities Litigation Analytics, and SSLA researchers Carin LeVine, Julia Laurence and Quito Mali Tin-Hung Tsui. I would like to thank the authors for their willingness to allow me to publish their guest 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 authors’ guest post.

Continue Reading Guest Post: Do Small Biopharma Firms Really Face Disproportionate Risk from Securities Class Actions?

In the following guest post, Boris Feldman of the Wilson Sonsini law firm takes a look at important current developments in California shareholder litigation. Boris’s article previously was published as an AIG whitepaper. I would like to thank Boris and AIG for allowing me to publish this article as a guest post. 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 Boris’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Current Developments in Shareholder Litigation in California

Hamburg: Jungfernsteig at dusk, viewed from Lombardsbrücke

The D&O Diary was on assignment this past week in Hamburg, Germany’s second largest city and Europe’s second-largest seaport. January may not be the best time to visit; at 53 degrees northern latitude, Hamburg is chilly and dark this time of the year. Fortunately for me, the weather was not nearly so unkind as had been forecast, and other than a few periods of rain, I most enjoyed chilly sunshine. My northern Germany visit included a brief stop in the Baltic port city of Lübeck.
Continue Reading Hamburg and Lübeck