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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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Artificial intelligence (AI) is an increasingly important part of business strategy for many companies. As AI has become increasingly important in the corporate world, some commentators suggest that corporate boards not only need AI fluency but in fact need a specialized AI expert.  These suggestions about board expertise may present challenges for many boards, as boards seek to balance a host of competing objectives and interests. An April 15, 2026, memo from the Debevoise & Plimpton law firm (here) takes a pragmantic approach, proposing that the appropriate AI governance framework “will differ for each company and should align with the company’s strategic needs and relationship to technology.”

Continue Reading AI and Corporate Governance: Do Boards Need an AI Expert?

In recent months, securities class action litigation patterns involving AI-related disclosures have emerged and developed, as has been documented on this site (most recently, for example, here). There has of course been a great deal of other kinds of AI-related litigation, including lawsuits involving intellectual property issues, privacy and data-collection concerns, discrimination and bias claims, and a variety of different kinds of tort allegations.

In a shareholder derivative lawsuit recently filed against the board of software firm Adobe, these two lines of AI-related litigation crossed; the plaintiff shareholder alleges that the defendants violated their board duties by knowingly permitting the company to train its artificial intelligence tools using material copyrighted by others and in a way that subjected the company to IP-related litigation. As discussed below, the new lawsuit illustrates how the broader range of AI-related litigation can translate into follow-on D&O claims, representing yet another area of AI-related D&O risk.

Continue Reading AI-Related IP Litigation Triggers Follow-On D&O Lawsuit
Tirana

The D&O Diary’s European travels continued earlier this week with a first-time ever visit to Albania, the rugged country on the Adriatic and Ionian coasts of the Balkan Peninsula, tucked between Montenegro and Greece. The country still retains many vestiges of its 20th century communist era, but it is modernizing quickly, and it remains a topographically diverse, naturally beautiful country.

Continue Reading Albania
The Bay of Kotor

The D&O Diary’s European assignment continued last week with a long weekend visit to Montenegro. Montenegro is a small country with rugged mountains and an interesting history, tucked along the Adriatic coast on the Balkan peninsula. It was my first time in the country, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. What I discovered was a pleasant surprise. It turns out, Montenegro is an absolute gem.

Continue Reading Montenegro

The following guest post examines the resolution of class certification motions in securities class action lawsuits during 2025; considers the parties’ economic arguments in support of or in opposition to class certification; and analyzes the courts evaluation of those arguments. The article is written by Andrew Roper, Mame Maloney, Brendan Rudolph, and Ravi Sinha, Principals at The Brattle Group, and Aidan Kutner, an Associate at The Brattle Group. We would like to thank the authors for allowing us to publish their article as a guest post on our site. Here is the authors’ article.

Continue Reading Guest Post: Key Trends in 2025 Class Certification Decisions: Fraud-on-the-Market Under Fire

The D&O Diary is on assignment this week in Europe, with the first stop in the German city of Frankfurt. Frankfurt is the premier financial hub of continental Europe, serving as the seat of the European Central Bank and the heart of the German banking industry. I always enjoy visiting Frankfurt, but there was something about this visit in particular that made me reflect on how much my views about Germany have changed over the years — and how much I enjoy visiting Germany — as discussed below.

Continue Reading Frankfurt

One of the perennial management liability insurance coverage issues is whether a policy’s contractual liability exclusion precludes coverage for related tort claims filed alongside claims for breach of contract. Often, these issues turn on the specific wording of the exclusion involved. A recent insurance coverage decision from the Northern District of Illinois addressed these issues in the context of an underlying lawsuit involving both a breach of contract claim and a claim for tortious interference with contract. As discussed below, the court concluded, based on the specific language involved, that the exclusion did not preclude coverage for the tortious interference claim.

The Court’s March 31, 2026, opinion can be found here. An April 9, 2026 LinkedIn post about the court’s decision by Paul Curley of the Kaufman, Borgeest & Ryan law firm can be found here.

Continue Reading Contract Exclusion Does Not Bar Coverage for Tortious Interference Claim
Stephen Hourigan

In the following guest post, Stephen Hourigan presents his view that Delaware’s courts have reimagined the role of Corporate Boards’ Audit Committees, yet the D&O insurance underwriting approach has yet to catch up to these changes. Stephen is the Founder and CEO of Penguin AI. We would like to thank Stephen for allowing us to publish his article as a guest post on this site. Here is Stephen’s article.

Continue Reading Guest Post: The Audit Committee: D&O Underwriting is Behind Delaware Law

One of the interesting features of the rise of AI has been the advent of “AI-and” businesses – that is, businesses whose strategy is to apply AI tools to traditional business models. When “AI-and” business results fall short, securities litigation has sometimes followed. In the latest example of this kind of litigation, earlier this week a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities suit against Upstart Holdings, a company whose business model involves applying AI tools to traditional credit rating and lending services, after the results from the company’s AI-updated credit rating tool disappointed investors. A copy of the new Upstart Holdings complaint can be found here.

Continue Reading Lending Platform Hit with AI-Related Securities Suit

One of the more interesting recent developments in the world of directors’ and officers’ liability and insurance has been the rise of collective actions and mass actions outside the U.S. Class actions are of course a well-established part of the litigation scene in the U.S., but at least traditionally class, mass, or collective actions have been rare outside the U.S. However, as discussed in a December 29, 2025, memo from the Labaton Keller Sucharow law firm entitled “Global Class Action Litigation: Causes, Effects and What’s Next” (here) a variety of changes in a number of jurisdictions has led to an increase in collective litigation outside the U.S., a development that could have important future implications for potential D&O liability.

Continue Reading The Continuing Rise of Collective and Mass Actions Outside the U.S.