A number of factors might be supposed to affect the SEC’s exercise of its judgment in deciding which firms to investigate. Some possibilities that immediately come to mind are the nature and seriousness of the suspected problem; the way the problem came to the agency’s attention; and the availability of resources to investigate the problem.
Guest Post: Cybersecurity and Privacy Diligence: Incident Response and Business Continuity Planning
The disclosure of yet another massive cyber breach at yet another company has become a weekly occurrence. These recurring events have a number of implications, which include not only what companies need to do to try to prevent these kinds of events, but also how companies need to prepare in order to be able to
Should There Be More Litigation Against Corporate Officers? (Uh, No.)
Over the past fifteen years, there has been a steady progression of corporate scandals, from Enron to options backdating to the excesses that led to the global financial crisis. These debacles were followed by waves of shareholder litigation. However, according to one legal scholar, the shareholder lawsuits all too often concentrate on enforcing legal duties
NERA Releases Canadian Securities Class Action Litigation Report
The number of securities class action lawsuit filed in Canada during 2014 was consistent with the recent annual average number of filings, and because case filings exceeded case resolutions, the aggregate total of unresolved class actions continued to grow during the year, according to a February 10, 2015 report from NERA Economic Consulting. According to
Corporate Governance Reform in Japan
Japanese companies have not always had set the standard for corporate governance, but a current initiative of the current governmental administration is trying to change that. As part of ongoing efforts to try to revitalize the Japanese economy, an advisory committee to the country’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has introduced a draft proposed corporate governance
Class Action Litigation Developments in Australia
There were a number of key class action litigation developments in Australia during 2014, according to a recent memo from the Jones Day law firm. Among other things, there were significant developments in particular in the securities class action litigation arena, according to the memo. The memo, which is entitled “Class Actions in Australia: 2014
IPO-Related Securities Suit Filings Surge – in State Court?
A probable accompaniment of the increased IPO activity during 2013 and 2014 is an increase in IPO-related litigation, as I have previously noted. There has already been one high-profile IPO-related securities suit filed this year, the securities class action lawsuit filed last week against the Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba. And if the two additional
Management Liability Insurance: Who is a “Non-Executive” Director?
Many contemporary management liability insurance policies draw distinctions between types of directors. For example, many private company D&O insurance policies provide additional excess defense expense coverage for the benefit of “non-executive directors.” However, these kinds of provisions beg the question of who exactly is a “non-executive director”? A recent decision by an appellate court in
Winter Poems for the PLUS D&O Symposium
Like many of this site’s regular readers, I am at the PLUS D&O Symposium this week. Because the activities at the Symposium have disrupted my normal opportunities to blog, I thought I would fill the gap with some poetry.
These two winter poems come to us from Lucy Griffiths, Age 9, of Arlington, Virginia. Lucy
Guest Post: Give Notice on Your D&O Claim…Yesterday
A frequently recurring management liability insurance coverage issue involves the question of whether or not the policyholder has given timely notice as required under the policy, as I have discussed in prior posts on this blog (most recently here). Among the many kinds of notice issues that can arise are questions involving multiple or