In the course of my various foreign travels, I have had occasion to speak to many underwriters and brokers who place D&O insurance for non-U.S. companies whose American Depository Receipts (ADRs) trade in the U.S. There is a pervasive, inexplicable, and mistaken belief among some underwriters and brokers that companies whose Level I ADRs trade in the U.S cannot be subject to a U.S. securities suit. These individuals persist in this error despite the Toshiba case, in which the Ninth Circuit reversed a district court’s dismissal of the securities suit brought by investors in Toshiba’s unsponsored Level I ADRs. Because of the persistence of the error about the potential liability of companies with ADRs trading in the U.S., it is mandatory for every single underwriter or broker who places D&O insurance for a non-U.S. ADR company to read the latest court ruling in the Toshiba case. As discussed below, the U.S. securities lawsuit brought against Toshiba brought by purchasers of the company’s unsponsored Level I ADRs is going forward.  Continue Reading U.S. Securities Suit of Toshiba’s Unsponsored ADR Investors to Proceed – Including Even Their Japanese Law Claims

Before the ice age, before the flood, before some of the people reading this were even born, the big D&O insurance coverage issue was allocation – that is, the division of loss between covered and non-covered claims or between covered and non-covered parties. After a flurry of judicial decisions in the mid-‘90s, after the addition of entity coverage to the standard D&O insurance policy (also in the mid-‘90s), and after policy allocation language became more or less standardized, litigated allocation disputes became much less frequent. Indeed, the last time I had occasion to write about an allocation coverage decision on this blog was in 2007. (Although, to be sure, allocation is still very much an issue in many D&O insurance claims.) It was with some surprise and interest that I read a recent Delaware Superior Court decision in the long-running Dole Foods insurance coverage dispute dealing with the question of allocating the underlying settlements between covered and non-covered amounts. The decision itself contains some surprises, as discussed below. Continue Reading Delaware Court Rules “Larger Settlement Rule” Governs D&O Insurance Allocation

As I have been wrapping up my various year-end activities, including publishing a list of my own top ten 2019 travel pictures, I have also been publishing pictures that readers have submitted of their own 2019 travels. My first installment of readers’ 2019 travel pictures can be found here, and the second installment can be found here. In this post, I am publishing the latest round of readers’ travel pictures, including an interesting assortment of readers’ pictures take in various U.S. National Parks.  Continue Reading Even More Readers’ Travel Pictures

In my recent year-end summary of corporate and securities liability trends (here), I identified privacy as an important area of growing area of corporate risk and specifically mentioned biometric privacy issues of particular concern. Almost as if to prove my point, on January 29, 2020, in its SEC filing on Form 10-K, Facebook announced that it had agreed to pay $550 million dollars to settle a biometric data privacy class action lawsuit that had been filed on behalf Illinois users in connection with the company’s use of facial recognition software.  According to plaintiffs’ lawyers involved in the case, the settlement represents the largest-ever cash settlement to resolve a privacy-related lawsuit. This massive settlement shows the significance of privacy issues and underscores the likelihood that privacy issues – particularly biometric privacy issues – are likely to be an important corporate liability battleground concern. Continue Reading Facebook to Pay $550 Million in Largest-Ever Privacy Settlement

If you have not yet seen it, you will want to be sure to read the January 29, 2020 Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance post entitled “Challenging Times: The Hardening D&O Insurance Market” by Carl Metzger and Brian Mukherjee of the Godwin Proctor law firm (here). Continue Reading The Current D&O Insurance Market Turmoil: Causes, Effects, and What to Do

Cornerstone Research has released its annual survey of securities class action lawsuit filings for 2019. The year’s version of the report introduces some notable innovations. In prior years, the annual report focused exclusively on federal court securities suit filings. In last year’s report, the survey also incorporated significant state court securities litigation data. This year for the first time the report fully incorporates the state court data in the presentation and analysis. The updated report also includes several new interesting perspectives on the past year’s securities litigation filings, particularly with respect to state court lawsuit filings. As the report details, the state court filings “helped push filing activity to record levels.” Continue Reading Cornerstone Research: Combined Federal and State Data Shows Securities Filings at “Record Levels”

One of the areas of significant concern in the global insurance underwriting community is the potential exposures insurers face from “silent cyber” – that is, the coverage of cybersecurity-related losses under traditional insurance policies that are not expressly designed to cover cyber losses. In a recent ruling in an insurance coverage dispute in which a small business sought insurance coverage for its losses following a ransomware attack, a Maryland federal court judge, applying Maryland law, held that the company’s business owner’s policy (BOP) covered the damages the company incurred.   The ruling highlights the potential coverage available for companies experiencing cyber-security losses under their traditional insurance policies. As discussed below, there are a number of interesting features to this ruling. Continue Reading Court Holds Business Owner’s Policy Covers Ransomware Caused Losses

Berlin Cathedral

The D&O Diary was on assignment in northern Europe last week, with stops in Berlin, Hamburg, and Paris. I know from past experience that traveling in northern Europe in January can be a formidable experience. On this trip, however, mild and dry weather conditions generally prevailed, allowing for some really pretty enjoyable travel experiences. Continue Reading January in Northern Europe

As I noted in my recent analysis of the 2019 securities class action litigation filings, one of the significant factors driving the near-historical levels of securities suit filings during the year was the elevated levels of securities litigation against life sciences companies. A January 21, 2020 report from the Dechert law firm, entitled “Dechert Survey: Developments in Securities Fraud Class Actions Against U.S. Life Sciences Companies: 2019 Edition” (here), details the 2019 securities lawsuit filings against life sciences companies, and reports that once again life sciences companies were “popular targets” for securities litigation claims. Continue Reading A Closer Look at 2019 Securities Litigation against Life Sciences Companies

Nessim Mezrahi

In the following guest post, Nessim Mezrahi, takes a look at event analysis, price impact, and damages in securities class action lawsuits. Mezrahi is cofounder and CEO of SAR, a securities class action data analytics and software company.  A version of this article previously was published on Law 360. I would like to thank Nessim for allowing me to publish his 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 Nessim’s article. Continue Reading Assessing Securities Class Action Risk with Event Analysis