The financial crisis generated a great deal of litigation, much involving the directors and officers of companies affected by the crisis. As the crisis recedes further into the past and as the litigation it generated winds down, it is worth taking a look at what happened to determine what can be learned from the litigation. In the following guest post, Dennis Klein of the Hughes Hubbard & Reed law firm provides an overview of what he views as the takeaways for corporate directors and officers from the financial crisis D&O litigation. A longer version of this article will appear in the April 2016 issue of The Review of Banking and Financial Services. I would like to thank Dennis for his willingness to publish his article as a guest post on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to readers of this site. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Dennis’s guest post. Continue Reading Guest Post: Seven Lessons Learned from D&O Litigation During the Financial Crisis
Everyone involved with D&O insurance knows that it is important to keep up with case law developments, in order to appreciate how courts are interpreting and applying various policy terms and conditions. But sometimes there is an additional reason why it is a good to keep up with court decisions – sometimes the cases provide practical lessons in the form of cautionary tales. That was certainly the case in a recent decision in which the Sixth Circuit, applying Kentucky law, affirmed a lower court ruling that late notice of claim precluded coverage under an excess D&O insurance policy. The policyholder had provided timely notice of claim to the primary carrier, but failed to provide notice to the excess carrier until six months after the policy had expired. The court’s conclusion that the late notice precluded coverage under the excess policy may not be surprising, but nevertheless the practical lesson – that is, that notice of claim should be provided to all of the carriers in the D&O insurance program – is an important one, as discussed further below. A copy of the Sixth Circuit’s February 29, 2016 opinion can be found 
In the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s March 24, 2015 opinion in Omnicare, Inc. v. Laborers District Council Construction Industry Pension Fund (
In what is by far the largest investor settlement ever under the Dutch collective settlement procedures, several shareholder foundations have reached an agreement to settle the Fortis shareholder claims for a total of €1.204 billion ($1.3 billion). The shareholder foundations’ settlement with Ageas, as Fortis is now known, relates to Fortis’s ill-fated October 2007 participation in the 
The D&O Diary was on assignment in London last week for meetings, a conference, and a reception. The itinerary allowed for some time abroad in the city, and included a weekend stopover in Paris. The main event for the London visit was the annual C5 D&O Liability conference, in which I participated as a panelist. In the picture below, I am standing with my good friends and fellow panelists, Nilam Sharma, of Nilam Sharma Limited; Stephen Reilly of Beale & Company; and Chris Warrior of Hiscox. 
Insurance to protect against breaches of the representations and warranties provisions of mergers and acquisitions purchase agreements is 
, we regularly monitor new lawsuit filings and try to identify trends and patterns. Over the years, we have noted and commented on this blog about many of the trends and patterns we have identified. More than once we have noted the incidence of director and officer liability litigation arising out of environmental issues. We have also noted that D&O litigation often follows after the announcement of FCPA investigations. As discussed below, there has been a flurry of recent filings involving environmental issues. I have also noted below an interesting variant on the FCPA follow-on civil lawsuit pattern. 
This past year was an eventful one in the corporate and securities litigation arena, with the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in the Omnicare case, important rulings in the lower courts applying the Supreme Court’s Halliburton II decision, and a host of other important decision on critical securities law issues. In the following memorandum from the Haynes and Boone law firm, attorneys from the firm’s Securities and Shareholder Litigation group take a look at the important securities litigation developments during 2015. I would like to thank the firm and the group for their willingness to publish their memorandum on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to readers of this site. Please contact me directly if you are interested in submitting a guest post. Here is the Haynes and Boone firm’s memorandum.