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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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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 Earlier this week, it emerged that SBF has withdrawn his insurance coverage lawsuit.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Continue Reading FTX Legal Drama Includes D&O Coverage Fight (Now Withdrawn, but Not Forgotten)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

I have long thought that there was more than just a kernel of truth to Bloomberg columnist Matt Levine’s oft-quoted quip that “everything everywhere is securities fraud.” Just the same, there are certain circumstances that I have had a hard time seeing as leading to a securities fraud lawsuit. Like, for instance, the migrant crisis at the U.S.-Mexican border. The massive influx of migrants into the U.S. is a serious humanitarian and political emergency. But how on earth could the migrant crisis lead to a securities suit? Well, as it turns out, a securities suit filed last week in the federal court in Manhattan may just answer that question.

Continue Reading Migrant Crisis Circumstances Lead to Securities Lawsuit Filing

It is no secret that I am skeptical of the usefulness of ESG as an analytic tool and even as an intellectual concept. As I have contended, there are fundamental disagreements about what ESG actually means, and the idea that it can be objectively measured and quantified is illusory, at best. Now, in an October 21, 2023, Financial Times op-ed column (here), NYU Business School Professor Aswath Damodaran argues that ESG is “beyond redemption” and it may be time to administer last rites.

Continue Reading Time to Say RIP to ESG?

One of the characteristics of “opt-out” class actions in the U.S. is that class members retain the option of opting out of the class settlements. A new study shows that in recent years, opt-outs are becoming an increasingly common phenomenon in securities class action settlements, particularly in connection with securities cases having certain traits. The Cornerstone Research study, entitled “Opt-Outs in Securities Class Action Settlements: 2019-H1 2022” can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s October 25, 2023, press release about the report can be found here.

Continue Reading Cornerstone Research: Securities Suit Opt-Outs Increasingly Frequent in Large, Complex Cases
Jane Njavro

One of the continuing issues in the world of directors’ and officers’ liability insurance in recent years has been the question of when a U.S.  company should obtain a separate locally admitted D&O insurance policy for its foreign subsidiaries. In the following guest post, Jane Njavro, Senior Vice President and Partner at Woodruff Sawyer, examines the issues surrounding this perennial question. This article was originally published on Woodruff Sawyer’s D&O Notebook, here. I would like to thank Jane for allowing me to publish her article 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 Jane’s article.

Continue Reading Guest Post: Foreign Subsidiaries and D&O Insurance: Are You Prepared to Place?