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Kevin LaCroix

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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.

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According to Renaissance Capital (here), in the heady days during the two-year period 2020 and 2021, 618 traditional U.S. IPOs were completed, raising over $220 billion. (These stats do not include SPAC IPOs). By contrast, in the period 2022-2023 YTD, there have only been 171 traditional U.S. IPOs completed, raising just $27 billion. While many market observers yearn for a return of the buoyant IPO market that prevailed two years ago, signs are that it could be a while before the IPO market takes off again. As detailed in a November 14, 2023, Wall Street Journal article about the state of the IPO market, and as discussed below, there are a host of concerns weighing on the IPO market.Continue Reading It Could be a While Before a Buoyant IPO Market Returns

Priya Cherian Huskins

In a recent post in which I discussed the cyber incident-related enforcement action the SEC brought against the software company SolarWinds, I noted that the defendants named in the action included the company’s Chief Information Security Officer(CISO), adding that the SEC’s naming of the CISO as an enforcement action defendants “is sure to send a shiver down the collective spines of the CISO community.” In the following guest post, Priya Cherian Huskins, Senior Vice President and Partner, Woodruff Sawyer, takes a detailed look at the agency’s action against the SolarWinds CISO, and considers the key liability and insurance implications. A version of this article previously published on Woodruff Sawyer’s D&O Notebook here. I would like to thank Priya for allowing me to publish her article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Priya’s article.Continue Reading Guest Post: CISO Liability in Focus: SEC Enforcement, Insurance, and [Personal] Risk Mitigation

One factor that contributed significantly to the total number of securities class action lawsuits filed in 2021 and 2022 was the proliferation of SPAC-related securities suit filings. Although diminished in number this year relative to the two prior years, and while the filing pace has declined as the year has progressed, SPAC-related securities suits continue to be filed in 2023. In the latest example of this continuing trend, last week a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities suit against the executives and sponsor of a SPAC that merged with a health monitoring technology company that later went bankrupt. The named defendants include officers of the bankrupt company. While the suit is interesting as an example of the continuing threat of SPAC-related litigation, it may be even more important as an illustration of the way that geopolitical risk increasingly can translate into securities litigation.Continue Reading SPAC-Related Suit Shows How Geopolitical Risk Can Translate into Securities Litigation

Policyholders and their representatives have long pushed to have the definition of “claim” in professional and management liability insurance policies expanded, to bring an increasingly larger kinds of circumstances within the policies’ coverage. However, there are consequences when more kinds of circumstances constitute a “claim,” such as, for example, with respect to the claims-made date and notice obligations. A recent insurance coverage ruling by a New York state court interpreting a lawyers’ professional liability insurance policy underscores how an expanded definition of the term “claim” — in this case, pertaining to a request to toll the statute – can affect the availability of coverage. The court, applying New York law, determined that a tolling request prior to the policy period met the applicable policy’s definition of claim, and therefore, because the claim was first made before the policy incepted, the subsequent claim during the policy period was not covered.Continue Reading Tolling Agreement Prior to the Policy Period Precludes Coverage for Later Claim

The drama surrounding former crypto mogul Samuel Bankman-Fried’s criminal prosecution and conviction has dominated the business pages for weeks. In addition, and as the news reports noted at the time, just before the criminal trial began, SBF sued one of FTX’s excess D&O insurers, alleging the insurer was refusing to pay his legal bills. Earlier this week, it emerged that SBF has withdrawn his insurance coverage lawsuit. But while the coverage lawsuit apparently now will not go forward, the interesting questions the situation presented are still worth asking. And the short-lived coverage litigation also unearthed some interesting stuff, as discussed below. Daphne Zhang’s November 7, 2023, Bloomberg article about the coverage litigation, which contains a comprehensive overview of the coverage dispute, can be found here.Continue Reading FTX Legal Drama Includes D&O Coverage Fight (Now Withdrawn, but Not Forgotten)

Earlier this year, three of the largest banks failed in a sequence of events that was dubbed the Banking Crisis of 2023. With the passage of time, fears that the three failures could foreshadow further failures and deeper woes seemingly subsided, though a wave of banking institution downgrades in August 2023 briefly rekindled concerns. More recently, things have been quiet. Does that mean it is time to sound the all-clear signal? Perhaps, but there are signs out there suggesting continued vigilance may be in order.Continue Reading Checking in on the 2023 Banking Crisis

Whenever the discussion turns to the question of emerging risks, among the first topics to come up these days is artificial intelligence (AI). But just as AI technology itself is still taking shape, the legal risks that the emergence of AI may present are still forming as well. On October 30, 2023, in what is unquestionably a key step in the development of a regulatory and legal framework for the administration of AI, the White House issued an Executive Order on the development and use of AI. The Order, which is entitled “Executive Order on the Safe, Secure, and Trustworthy Development and Use of Artificial Intelligence,” can be found here. At a minimum, the Executive Order has important implications for AI-related corporate risk management. The order may also point toward the future development of regulatory and legal standards pertaining to AI, as well as the litigation risks that AI may present.Continue Reading Thinking About Emerging AI Risks

Jeffrey Epstein’s life, misdeeds, and death make for a sordid and scandalous tale. Epstein’s story is the backdrop of a new securities class action lawsuit that has been filed against Barclays, its former CEO, James “Jes” Staley, and certain other company executives, in which the plaintiff alleges that Staley and Barclays misled investors about…

In what the Wall Street Journal called a “milestone” in the SEC’s efforts to address public companies’ cybersecurity disclosures, the SEC has filed a civil enforcement action against software company SolarWinds and its Chief Information Security Officer, Timothy Brown. The agency alleges that the company repeatedly misled investors by understating the company’s cyber vulnerabilities and the ability of hackers to penetrate the company’s systems. According to statements from agency officials, the action is intended to send a message about cybersecurity disclosures and disclosure controls. A copy of the SEC’s complaint can be found here. A copy of the SEC’s October 30, 2023, press release about the action can be found here.Continue Reading SEC Files Cybersecurity Disclosure Suit Against SolarWinds and Exec