The D&O Diary is on assignment in Germany this week, with the first stop for a meeting and a short visit in the Free and Hanseatic City of Hamburg – “Free,” as a free Imperial city under the Holy Roman Empire, and “Hanseatic” for the Hanseatic League, the Northern European trading confederation in the late Middle Ages. Though Hamburg is 60 miles inland from the North Sea on the Elbe River, it is a seaport – the second largest in Europe, in fact. It remains a separate city-state within the present German federation. At 1.7 million people, it is also the second-largest city in Germany.
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The Next Step in Litigation Financing?
In recent years, litigation financing has become an increasingly important –albeit controversial – part of the litigation landscape. The ongoing evolution of litigation financing now appears to have taken a significant next step, in the form of a formal, public partnership between the litigation funding firm and a plaintiffs’ law firm. On October 28, 2015, the litigation funding firm Burford Capital and the plaintiffs’ competition law firm Hausfield issued a joint press release (here) in which the two firms announced their entry into a €30 million agreement to fund claims in Germany and to allow the law firm to open a Berlin office.
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Litigation Funding Firm Announces German Securities Action on Behalf of Volkswagen’s German Shareholders
The recent revelation that Volkswagen had been using a sophisticated software “defeat device” to rig the emissions performance of some of its diesel-engine base vehicles devastated the price of the company’s shares, leading to the filing of a securities class action lawsuit in the U.S. on behalf of purchasers of the company’s ADRs, as well the initiation of efforts to launch procedures in the Netherlands on behalf of VW shareholders who purchased the company’s shares through a Dutch bank or broker.
In my recent post discussing these VW-related securities litigation developments, I raised the question whether investors might also try to file a separate action against VW in Germany, under German law, on behalf of shareholders who purchased their VW shares in Germany. It now appears that a litigation funding firm’s effort to organize a German shareholder action is already underway.
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Guest Post: Marshall Plan for D&O Policies in Germany
This blog’s primary focus is on developments in the directors’ and officers’ liability and insurance in the United States, but we do also try to cover important developments elsewhere. In the following guest post, Burkhard Fassbach, who is Of Counsel with the Dusseldorf based D&O-Specialist Law Firm Hendricks, and Niklas Rahlmeyer, who is an attorney in the corporate practice group of the Dusseldorf office of Field Fisher Waterhouse LLP provide their perspective on the German D&O insurance marketplace and discuss their views on the important insurance coverage issues there.
I would like to thank Burkhard and Niklas for their willingness 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 Burkhard’s and Niklas’s guest post.
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The following post sheds light on some of the latest topics of D&O insurance that keep the German market busy. It depicts the concept of manager liability and D&O insurance in Germany, reprimands the German insurers’ practice of settling claims and outlines a catalogue of important issues the policyholder and insureds should keep a wary eye on when taking out D&O insurance coverage.
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Guest Post: D&O Insurance on the Agenda of Shareholders’ Meetings in Germany
In the following guest post, Dr. Burkhard Fassbach and Dr. Niklas Rahlmeyer imagine a possible shareholder presentation about D&O insurance at an annual meeting of shareholders in Germany. Fassbach is an Of Counsel with the Dusseldorf based D&O-Specialist Law Firm Hendricks. Rahlmeyer is an attorney in the corporate practice group of the Dusseldorf office of
Germany in January
The D&O Diary was on assignment in Germany this past week, with stops for meetings in Cologne and for a conference in Frankfurt. January, it turns out, is a less than optimal month in which to visit Northern Europe. The conditions are generally cold, grey and dark. When composing their timeless folk tales the Brothers
Guest Post: Activist Shareholder: The New Kid on the German D&O-Block
Although I try to include on this blog topics involving issues from outside the United States, because of my background and experience, U.S-related topics tend to predominate. That is why I am always grateful to have the opportunity to publish a guest post from a non-U.S. reader. I have published below an article discussing D&O
Guest Post: Addressing D&O Insurance in German Board Members’ and Managing Directors’ Management Services Agreements
A company’s obligations to its directors and officers with respect to the purchase and maintenance of D&O insurance is a topic of ongoing interest and concern for the individuals involved. In the following Guest Post, Burkhard Fassbach and Thilo Fleck take a look at this topic with a particular focus on the issues involving German