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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.

In the following guest post, Sarah Abrams, Head of Claims Baleen Specialty, a division of Bowhead Specialty, Anne Ray, Lead Counsel of D&O and EPL Claims, Bowhead Specialty Underwriters, Inc., Elan Kandel, Member, Bailey Cavalieri LLC, and James Talbert, Associate, Bailey Cavalieri LLC, take a look at the top professional liability insurance coverage decisions from 2024. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their 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 the authors’ article.

Continue Reading Guest Post: Lessons from 2024: A Review of Key Insurance Coverage Decisions

As readers of this blog undoubtedly are aware, one of the provocative topics that has emerged in recent months is whether companies incorporated under the laws of Delaware should redomesticate under another state’s law, with Texas and Nevada as the alternative states typically under discussion. This ongoing debate has gained momentum in recent days, as additional firms have signaled an intent to move on from Delaware. There have also been a number of other key developments, including the introduction of legislative initiatives and an important court decision, providing further context for the ongoing discussion. Because the discussion of this topic is unlikely to end any time soon, it is important to recognize and understand the recent developments.

Continue Reading The Delaware Redomestication Debate Heats Up

Last month, when I assembled my list of the Top D&O Stories of 2024, I not only designated the November 2024 election of Donald Trump to a second Presidential term as last year’s top story but I also suggested that the advent of his second administration would likely be the top story of 2025 as well. We are now just four weeks into the Trump’s second term, and it is clear that my prognostication about the impact of the new Trump administration is truer than I ever imagined and in ways that I never foresaw.

The purpose of this post is to try to compile in one place a list of the ways in which – at least so far and at least as far as we know – the early actions of the new Trump administration has already impacted or will impact the world of D&O liability and insurance.

Continue Reading Trump 2.0 and D&O (So Far)

The global economy is still adapting to the advent of the Artificial Intelligence (AI) era. It remains unclear what AI ultimately will mean for economies and businesses, and many businesses are struggling to adjust in real time. The firms experiencing these struggles also include companies in the business of providing AI products and services. In many cases, these companies’ struggles can translate into securities litigation. A lawsuit filed earlier this week against Netherland-domiciled AI services company Elastic illustrates the ways securities litigation can arise from AI companies’ business struggles. A copy of the February 11, 2025, complaint filed against Elastic can be found here.

Continue Reading AI Search Company Hit with Securities Suit   

According to the latest annual report from ISS Securities Class Action Services, there were four court-approved securities class action settlements in 2024 large enough to make the firm’s list of the Top 100 U.S. Securities Class Action settlements. These settlements took place in a year in which there were 136 court-approved monetary securities class action lawsuit settlements totaling over $4.7 billion. The details of the 2024 court approved settlements, including with respect to the four largest during the year, can be found in the ISS Securities Class Action Services report entitled “The Top 100 U.S. Class Action Settlements of All-Time” (as of December 31, 2024), here.

Continue Reading ISS Releases Top 100 Securities Suit Settlements List

As I have noted on this site (most recently here), plaintiffs’ lawyers have launched a plethora of lawsuits against companies whose prospects soared during the initial government shut-down phase of the pandemic, but whose fortunes waned as the pandemic moved into the return-to-work phase. While plaintiffs’ lawyers have been quick to file these kinds of pandemic-related suits, the cases have not always fared particularly well.

Last week, in the latest example of one of these kinds of suits stalling at the initial pleading stage, a federal district court granted the defendants’ motion to dismiss – albeit without prejudice – in a pandemic-related lawsuits that had been filed against the portable energy generation company, Generac Holdings. The court’s February 7, 2025, decision, which can be found here, makes for interesting reading and arguably has important implications for other lawsuits of this type.

Continue Reading Court Dismisses COVID-19-Related Securities Suit Against Energy Generator Company

In a closely watched case, the Delaware Supreme Court has reversed a lower court holding that a prior SEC subpoena and a later securities class action lawsuit were not interrelated. The Supreme Court held, contrary to the lower court, that the allegations in the subsequent securities suit were “meaningfully linked” to the alleged wrongful acts referenced in the insured’s prior notice of the subpoena. While the Supreme Court’s opinion provides clarification on important recurring “interrelatedness” issues, its ultimate holding may in the end provide relatively little guidance for other future wrestling with “interrelatedness” disputes. A copy of the Delaware Supreme Court’s February 4, 2025, opinion can be found here.

Continue Reading In Reversal, Del. Sup. Ct. Holds Subpoena and Securities Suit Interrelated

The filing of Opioid-related securities litigation is not a new development; indeed, more than six years ago, I published a post in which I noted the outbreak at the time of a number of opioid-related securities suits against opioid drug companies. Now, in the latest opioid-related securities suits to be filed, and in the wake of the U.S. Department of Justice’s filing of a False Claims Act complaint against the company, a plaintiff shareholder has filed an opioid-related securities class action lawsuit against Walgreens Boots Alliance. A copy of the January 30, 2025, complaint can be found here.

Continue Reading Walgreens Boots Alliance Hit with Opioid-Related Securities Suit

The D&O Diary is on assignment in Europe, with first stops last week and over the weekend in Dublin and London. Neither late January nor early February are ideal times to visit Ireland or England. However, though the weather was chilly and darkness gathered early in the afternoon, it turned out not to be a bad time to visit after all.

Continue Reading Dublin and London