Former McAfee General Counsel Kent Roberts, accused of options backdating-related misconduct, was acquitted following a criminal jury trial and the SEC later dropped its separate enforcement action against him. But that apparently is not enough for Roberts – he wants vengeance.
On September 16, 2009, he filed a lawsuit in the Northern District
As the number of failed and troubled banks has surged, one recurring question has been whether the banks woes would lead to a new round of banking-related litigation. While a few lawsuits had emerged in connection with earlier bank failures (refer here), there really has been nowhere near the number of suits as might
On September 9, 2009, Towers Perrin released its report of the firm’s 2008 Survey of Directors and Officers Liability Insurance Purchasing Trends, which can be accessed here. Towers Perrin’s anticipated annual report again this year will undoubtedly be widely read throughout the D&O insurance industry. The report is a good resource and it
It is now over two and a half years since the first subprime-related securities class action lawsuit was filed in February 2007, yet many of the cases filed as part of the ensuing litigation wave are still only in their earliest stages. But there have been some important developments recently – for example, the Eighth Circuit’s
Each fall for the last three years I have taken a look at the current trends and hot topics in the world of D&O. There are of course the perennial topics that always remain important. However, this overview is intended to address the most significant concerns of current interest for D&O insurance professionals and their
Among the causes many cite for the subprime meltdown is the willingness of the rating agencies to assign investment grade rating to securities backed by subprime mortgages. For that reason, in many of the lawsuits filed as part of the subprime litigation wave, plaintiffs have named rating agencies as defendants, seeking to hold them
In the first appellate court decision related to the subprime and credit crisis litigation wave, the United States Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit on September 1, 2009 affirmed the dismissal of the NovaStar Financial subprime related securities class action lawsuit. A copy of the Eighth Circuit’s opinion can be found here. The
After a year of heightened securities litigation activity during 2008, the number of securities lawsuit filings declined in the first-half of 2009, largely due to a drop in filings during the second quarter. In this latest issue of InSights (here), I take a detailed look at the 2009 securities lawsuit filings and explain
In what is one of the largest ever shareholders’ derivative lawsuit settlements, the parties to the consolidated federal options backdating related derivative lawsuit involving Broadcom Corp. have agreed to settle the case for $118 million, to be funded entirely by the company’s D&O insurance carriers. The settlement does not include the company’s co-founders, Henry Samuels
Finacial Downturn, Not Fraud, Caused Plaintiffs’ Losses: In a ruling that is interesting for what it says about the relevance of the overall economic downturn to the wave of subprime lawsuits, on August 20, 2009, Eastern District of Pennsylvania Judge R. Barclay Surrick, Jr. granted the motion to dismiss the securities fraud lawsuit that Luminent