One of the most important aspects of class action litigation in the U.S. is the right of individuals to “opt out” of the class. However, as discussed in the following guest post from David Kaplan and Lane Arnold, a series of recent developments has significantly complicated the decision-making framework for prospective opt outs. Kaplan is a Director at Saxena White P.A. and co-head of the firm’s Direct Action practice. Arnold is a Senior Director – Legal at the University of Texas/Texas A&M Investment Management Company (UTIMCO). This article was originally written and published in the April edition of The NAPPA Report. I would like to thank Dave and Lane for allowing me to publish their 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 Dave and Lane’s article. Continue Reading Guest Post: Protecting Securities Fraud Recoveries: Investors Face a Catch-22
In the latest example of a company that went public through a recent merger with a SPAC getting hit with a securities class action lawsuit, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities suit against plastics recycler PureCycle Technologies, certain of its executives, and the former chairman of the company’s SPAC merger partner. Like many of the recent SPAC-related securities lawsuit filings, this new lawsuit followed shortly after the publication of a highly critical short-sellers report. A copy of the plaintiff’s complaint can be found 
In recent years, the SEC has established itself as an active cryptocurrency enforcement agency, according to a new report from Cornerstone Research. The report, entitled “SEC Cryptocurrency Enforcement: Q3 2013 – Q4 2020,” details that between July 2013 and year end 2020, the agency initiated a total of 75 enforcement actions and 19 trading suspension orders against respondents involved with digital assets. The report also shows that the agency’s cryptocurrency activity has steadily increased throughout the 2013-2020 period. A copy of the report can be found 
In the latest SPAC-related securities class action lawsuit filing, a plaintiff shareholder has initiated a securities suit against Skillz, Inc., an online gaming platform that in December 2020 merged with Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp. (FEAC), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The share price of the post-merger publicly traded company declined after short sellers issued reports questioning the company’s revenue recognition practices and other financial details. The lawsuit followed after the share price decline. The individual defendants named in the securities complaint include the former President of FEAC, who became a director of Skillz following the merger. A copy of the plaintiff’s May 7, 2021 complaint can be found 
In reporting in prior posts on SPAC-related litigation, I have primarily focused on federal court securities class action litigation (for example, 
In the following guest post, Angus Duncan of Willis Towers Watson summarizes the result of the 2021 Willis Towers Watson D&O Liability Survey. I would like to thank Angus for allowing me to publish his 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 Angus’s article. 
Readers of this blog are well aware that the D&O insurance in the U.S. and the U.K. has been in a hard market since late 2018. The hard market has apparently affected D&O insurance conditions in other regions as well. According to a May 5, 2021 article on the NewDawnRisk website entitled “Where Next for D&O in the Middle East?” (
In the second in a series of podcasts discussing the impact of the new Biden Administration on the world of directors’ and officers’ liability and insurance, Megan Brown of the Wiley law firm and Rob Yellen of Willis Towers Watson and I recently recorded a session that is now available in a May 3, 2021 post on the PLUS Blog, 
On Tuesday, May 18, 2021, I will be participating as a panelist in a webinar sponsored by the PLUS Singapore Chapter entitled “State of the Market for D&O: The View from Across the Globe.” This free, 90-minute session will take place at 9 am Singapore time/ Monday May 17, 2021 at 9 pm EDT. The session will be moderated by Jessica Schappell of Beazley Group, and the panel will include Jenny Wilhelm of Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty, who will discuss the D&O market in Asia; Carmen Elder of DLA Piper Australia, who will discuss the market for D&O in Australia; and Jason Kelly of AIG, who will discuss the D&O market in the U.K. and Continental Europe. I will be discussing the D&O market in the U.S. With the dynamic and evolving claims environment and the challenging insurance marketplace, there will be much to discuss. Further information about this event, including registration details, can be found 
A federal district judge has denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss in a securities class action lawsuit arising out of an electric utility’s eight-year involvement in a domestic bribery scheme. The court’s ruling has several interesting features relating to the securities litigation exposures from domestic corruption. Northern District of Illinois Judge Virginia M. Kendall’s April 21, 2021 opinion in the Exelon Corporation securities suit can be found here. An April 28, 2021 memo about the ruling from the Shearman & Sterling law firm can be found