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The world of directors’ and officers’ liability is always dynamic, but 2018 was a particularly eventful year in the D&O liability arena. The past year’s many developments have significant implications for what may lie ahead in 2019 – and possibly for years to come. I have set out below the Top Ten D&O Stories of 2018, with an eye toward future possibilities.
Continue Reading The Top Ten D&O Stories of 2018

The heightened pace of securities class action lawsuit filings continued in 2018, as filing levels remained well above historical patterns, even though the total number of suits dipped very slightly compared to 2017. The total number of filings during 2018 was significantly inflated by the number of federal court merger objection lawsuit filings during the year. However, even disregarding the M&A-related lawsuits, the number of traditional lawsuit filings during 2018 was well above long-term averages. Even more significantly, the litigation rate (that is, the number of suits relative to the number of listed companies) arguably was at all-time record high levels in 2018 compared to prior years, as discussed further below.
Continue Reading Securities Suit Filings Continued at Heightened Pace in 2018

The SEC Whistleblower Program had a “record-breaking year” during the 2018 fiscal year that ended on September 30, 2018, according the latest annual report from the agency’s Office of the Whistleblower. During the fiscal year, the agency not only made total awards exceeding the aggregate amount awarded in the entire prior history of the program, but it also made the largest separate awards in the program’s existence. The number of whistleblower reports during the fiscal year also increased over 20 percent, the largest annual increase in the number of reports in the program’s history. The SEC’s Office of the Whistleblower’s 2018 Annual Report can be found here.
Continue Reading SEC Whistleblower Program Has Record-Breaking Year

As I have detailed in prior posts on this blog, securities class action litigation is well-established in Australia. According to a recent report from ISS Securities Class Action Services, securities class action litigation has grown “markedly” in the last ten years, to the point that outside North America, Australia “is the jurisdiction in which a corporation is most likely to find itself defending against a class action,” and indeed other than the U.S., Australia “is pulling ahead of almost all other countries in terms of active securities class action cases before the courts.” There are however important differences between the Australian and U.S. class action systems, and some of these difference post important challenges for both the courts and for litigants – and indeed have led to calls for reform. The October 23, 2018 report, entitled “Navigating the Australian Securities Class Action Landscape,” can be found here.
Continue Reading The Challenging Securities Litigation Landscape in Australia

In 1995, Congress passed the Private Securities Class Action Reform Act (PLSRA) over President Clinton’s veto in order to try to address perceived securities class action litigation abuses. According to a new report from the U.S. Chamber Institute for Legal Reform entitled “A Rising Threat: The New Class Actions Racket That Harms Investors and the Economy,” despite the PSLRA’s reforms, many of the same abuses that led to the PSLRA’s enactment have returned, and as a result the securities class action system is “spinning out of control.” According to the report, the time has come for Congress to intervene again to curb “abusive practices that enable the filing of unjustified actions.” The Institute’s October 23, 2018 report can be found here. 
Continue Reading Time for Another Round of Securities Class Action Litigation Reform?

One of the most-watched corporate and securities litigation trends in recent years has been the incidence of D&O claims after companies experience data breaches. Although there have been a number of high profile claims along the way, the volume of data breach-related D&O claims has never quite lived up to the hype. Just the same, these kinds of claims have continued to be filed. The most recent case is a securities class action lawsuit that has now been filed against educational services company Chegg, Inc., after its recent announcement of a data breach involving customer data. The Chegg lawsuit, filed on September 27, 2018 in the Northern District of California, can be found here.
Continue Reading Educational Services Company Hit With Data Breach-Related Securities Suit

As I have previously noted on this blog, merger objection litigation imposes significant costs on the defendant companies and their insurers. In the following guest post, Patrick Gallagher of the integrated communications and investor relations firm Dix & Eaton takes a look at recent developments in the merger objection litigation arena. I would like to thank the author for allowing me to publish the article as a guest post on this site. It was originally published on the Dix & Eaton Blog. 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. Pat’s guest post follows below.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Merger Objection Lawsuits Getting Tougher for Plaintiffs’ Attorneys

Securities class action lawsuits were filed at “near record levels” in the first six months of 2018, according to a July 25, 2018 report from Cornerstone Research. According to the report, which is entitled “Securities Class Action Filings – 2018 Midyear Assessment,” more than 750 federal securities class actions have been filed since mid-2016, the highest number of filings in a 24-month period since the passage of the PSLRA. The report can be found here. Cornerstone Research’s July 25, 2018 press release can be found here. My report of the securities suit filings in the year’s first six months can be found here.
Continue Reading Cornerstone Research: Securities Suit Filings at Near Record Level in Year’s First Half

The percentage of M&A transactions valued over $100 million attracting at least one merger objection lawsuit continued to decline in 2017, according to a recent Cornerstone Research study. The July 18, 2018 study, entitled “Shareholder Litigation Involving Acquisitions of Public Companies: Review of 2017 M&A Litigation” (here), also reports that the average number of lawsuits filed per M&A deal and the percentage of M&A deal litigation voluntarily dismissed declined in 2017, as well. Cornerstone Research’s July 18, 2018 press release about the report can be found here.
Continue Reading Percentage of M&A Deals Attracting Litigation Continued to Decline in 2017