As long-time readers of this blog know, one of the long-range concerns in the D&O insurance industry is the possible exposures of corporate directors and officers to liability claims arising from climate change (as discussed most recently here). In the following guest post, attorneys from the Legalign Global Alliance member firms take a comprehensive look at the climate change-related risks and exposure that corporate directors and officers may face, as well as at the climate change-related D&O claims developments in a variety of different countries. A version of this article previously was published as a Legalign Global client alert. I would like to thank the authors for allowing me to publish their 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 the authors’ article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: D&O Exposures to Climate Change Risk
As I have noted on this site (most recently 
In an opinion written in unusually direct language, a federal district court has denied the motion to dismiss in a coronavirus-related securities class action lawsuit filed against a vaccine development company. However, the motion to dismiss was granted with leave to amend as to the vaccine company’s major outside shareholder. The significant context of the pandemic itself and the swirl of media coverage surrounding it proved to be a significant factor in the court’s denial of the motion to dismiss as to the company defendants. The court’s December 22, 2021 opinion in the Vaxart securities litigation can be found 
In the latest securities class action lawsuit to be filed against a post-SPAC-merger electric vehicle company, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities suit against the EV company Arrival SA, following the company’s announcement in November 2021 of a slowdown in its production schedule and of the company’s need to raise additional capital. As discussed below, the new lawsuit against Arrival has several characteristics in common with other SPAC-related securities suits that have been filed this year. A copy of the complaint that was filed against Arrival on December 22, 2021 can be found 
As I monitored the coronavirus-related securities litigation as it has been filed since March 2020, I had observed that the cases generally fell into one of three categories: cases involving companies that had experienced a coronavirus outbreak in their facilities; companies that had claimed that they would be able to profit from the pandemic; and companies whose operations or finances were disrupted by the pandemic. Over the last several weeks, I have observed a new coronavirus-related variant, a fourth category of cases involving companies that had prospered at the outset because of pandemic restrictions, but whose fortunes ebbed as pandemic restrictions eased. Now, two more of these “fourth category” variant cases have been filed, one involving Docusign and one involving Chegg, as detailed below.
Nikola, the electric vehicle company that became a publicly traded company through a June 3, 2020 merger with a SPAC, has reached an agreement to pay $125 million to settle proceedings the SEC brought against the company relating to misrepresentations its former CEO Trevor Milton and the company made about the company’s EV production capabilities. In the settlement, the company neither admitted nor denied the SEC’s allegations. The SEC’s December 21, 2021 press release about the settlement can be found 
Among the significant constraints in the current business and financial environment is the continuing disruption of corporate supply chains. The disruption is a side-effect of the pandemic that has been exacerbated by weather events and other developments. I have been concerned that supply-chain disruption could not only interfere with ongoing business operations but could, for companies experiencing significant setbacks, lead to D&O claims, including securities class action lawsuits. There have in fact been 
In just a few days, when the time comes to tot up the 2021 securities class action lawsuit filings and to mark out the key 2021 filing trends, one of the key stories is going to be the surge during the year in the number of SPAC-related securities suit filings. In the latest example of this 2021 filing trend, late last week a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against a post-SPAC-merger fintech company. The individuals named as defendants in the lawsuit include two former officers of the SPAC. The new lawsuit has many of the features that have characterized the SPAC-related lawsuits that have been filed this year.
In my annual roundup of the issues to watch in the world of D&O that I