For many years, the U.S. was the only country actively seeking to use its laws to fight corruption. However, more recently, a number of other countries have enacted their own anti-bribery laws while other countries have become more active in pursuing anti-bribery enforcement – including not only Germany, South Korea and Britain, but also Brazil
D&O Insurance: The Major Shareholder Exclusion
An exclusion sometimes found in D&O insurance policies precludes coverage for claims made by shareholders who have a specified percentage of ownership in the insured company. This type of exclusion is called a Major Shareholder Exclusion (or, sometimes, the Principal Shareholder Exclusion). An interesting May 6, 2015 decision (here) by the Supreme Court
Delaware Supreme Court Trims Independent Directors’ Potential Liabilities in M&A Transactions
On May 14, 2015, in a landmark ruling with important implications for the potential liabilities of independent directors of companies involved in M&A transactions, the Delaware Supreme Court held that in order to state a claim for damages against directors of a company that has an exculpatory provision in its corporate charter, a plaintiff must
Guest Post: One “Giant Leap” to a Secure Cloud Platform for U.S. Corporations
Among the many concerns arising in the current cybersecurity environment is the question of the security of data housed in “the Cloud.” In the following guest post Paul Ferrillo and Jeffrey Osterman of the Weil, Gotshal & Manges law firm and Grady Summers , SVP, Cloud Analytics at Mandiant/FireEye, take a look at the questions
Thinking About Excess D&O Insurance
In many cases, companies’ D&O insurance programs are structured in several layers, with one or more policies of excess of insurance written over top of a primary layer. The excess insurance is often said to be written on a “follow form” basis, meaning that the primary policy’s terms govern the operation of the excess policies.
Creditors’ Rights to Pursue Derivative Claims against Company Directors Under Delaware Law
In a detailed May 4, 2015 opinion (here), Vice Chancellor Travis Laster of the Delaware Chancery Court extensively reviewed the rights of an insolvent company’s creditors to pursue derivative claims against the company’s directors. As Francis Pileggi put it in a May 6, 2015 post on his Delaware Corporate and Commercial Litigation blog
U.S. Trade Sanctions and D&O Insurance
As part of its conduct of foreign affairs and of its national security program, the U.S. government has instituted a series of economic and trade sanctions against a number of countries and a long list of designated individuals. The various sanctions programs are administered by the Office of Foreign Asset Control (OFAC) within the
Guest Post: Wham, Bam, Thank You Spam! Don’t Click on the Link!
By now, everyone knows that the Internet can be a dangerous place. But while just about everyone knows about the pervasiveness of Internet scams, many users still fall prey to the tricksters’ latest ploys. In this guest post, Paul Ferrillo and Randi Singer of the Weil, Gotshal & Manges law firm take a look at
Guest Post: D&O Insurance on the Agenda of Shareholders’ Meetings in Germany
In the following guest post, Dr. Burkhard Fassbach and Dr. Niklas Rahlmeyer imagine a possible shareholder presentation about D&O insurance at an annual meeting of shareholders in Germany. Fassbach is an Of Counsel with the Dusseldorf based D&O-Specialist Law Firm Hendricks. Rahlmeyer is an attorney in the corporate practice group of the Dusseldorf office of
Yet Another Shareholder Suit Alleging Misrepresentation of Environmental Liabilities
At a time when cyber liability and other hot topics dominate the discussion, potential corporate liability arising from environmental disclosures often does not receive the attention it should. However, as I have previously noted on this blog, environmental issues have been and remain an area on which plaintiffs’ lawyer have been focused. A recently