When MF Global filed for bankruptcy yesterday, it not only became the eighth largest corporate bankruptcy in U.S. history. It also became the first U.S. company taken down by the troubles afflicting European sovereign debt. How big of a problem all of this represents depends on whether or not you think the MF Global
FDIC’s Latest Failed Bank Lawsuit Targets Bank’s Lawyers
On October 25, 2011, the FDIC filed its latest failed bank lawsuit, in connection with events surrounding the July 2009 failure of Mutual Bank of Harvey, IL. The FDIC’s complaint, which was filed in the Northern District of Illinois, names as defendants eight former directors and two former officers of the bank. But
Business Bankruptcies: Down, But Not Gone – And Possibly Coming Back?
According to data from the American Bankruptcy Institute, the high water market for business bankruptcies during the financial crisis occurred during the second quarter of 2009, when there were 16,014 business bankruptcies. The number of business bankruptcies has declined each quarter since then. During the second quarter of 2011, there were 12,304 business bankruptcies
Baseball, Crazy, Baseball: We’re Going to Game Seven
Did you go to bed in the Seventh Inning when Adrian Beltre and Nelson Cruz hit back to back jacks for the Rangers and the Rangers also added an additional insurance run to go up 7-4 in the Seventh Inning?
Did you go to bed in the Eighth Inning when Mike Adams of the
Citigroup and the SEC, Judge Rakoff Has a Few Questions for You
After the October 19, 2011 news that Citigroup had reached an agreement to pay $285 million settle SEC charges that it had misled investors in a $1 billion collateralized debt obligation linked to risky mortgages, a number of commentators raised questions about the settlement.
Among other concerns noted was that neither the SEC’s action
The Top 25 Business Law Blogs of 2011
Everyone here at The D&O Diary is very proud that this blog has been named as one of the LexisNexis Top 25 Business Law Blogs for 2011 by the LexisNexis Corporate & Securities Law Community. The complete list of this year’s designees can be found here.
We are flattered and honored that our
Meanwhile, The Number of Failed Banks Continues to Mount
Early on during the current wave of bank failures, there were some pretty reckless predictions about how many banks might fail – indeed, some commentators suggested as many as 1,000 banks might ultimately fail, a prediction that I disputed at the time. But while it continues to seem highly unlikely that as many as
The Hotel Issue
I inhabit a world in which hotels loom unfortunately large. During many work weeks, I spend more nights in hotels than at home. Many of these hotel nights involve nondescript rooms in cookie-cutter chain hotels. These chain hotels are neither good nor bad, merely boring. They are so lacking in distinctiveness that often I am
A Quick Look at Class Action Securities Lawsuit Filings Through 3Q11
Securities class action lawsuit filings continued to accumulate during the third quarter of 2011, and the filing levels remain on pace for an above average year of securities class action litigation. As was the case in earlier quarters this year, the third quarter filing level was significantly buoyed by merger-related litigation and by lawsuits involving
Delaware Chancery Court Enters $1.263 Billion Shareholders’ Derivative Suit Award
In an interesting October 14, 2011 post-trial opinion, Delaware Chancellor Leo Strine entered a $1.263 billion award in the Southern Peru Copper Corporation Shareholder Derivative Litigation. The lawsuit relates to Southern Peru’s April 2005 acquisition of Minerva México, a Mexican mining company, from Groupo México, Southern Peru’s controlling shareholder. Chancellor Strine concluded that as a