As I have documented on this site, along with the rapid rise of SPAC-related transaction activity has come a surge in SPAC-related litigation. In the following guest post, Paul R. Bessette and Chris Crawford consider the likelihood for even further litigation relating to SPAC transactions and review the steps that well advised companies involved in SPAC transactions can take to try to reduce their litigation risks. Paul is co-chair of the King & Spalding law firm’s Corporate & Securities Litigation Practice and Chris is a Senior Vice President and Client Executive with Marsh in Los Angeles. A version of this article was previously published in Westlaw Today, 2021 WL 1990398. I would like to thank Paul and Chris for allowing me 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 Paul and Chris’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: SPACs and SPAC-Related Litigation: A Primer on Reducing Litigation and Enforcement Risk
A cybersecurity incident earlier this year at the technology company Ubiquiti has given rise to a securities class action lawsuit against the company and two of its executives. The lawsuit is the latest example of the D&O risk exposure relating to cybersecurity. As discussed below, the lawsuit’s allegation illustrates that the way that a company handles bad news can be an important litigation risk factor. A copy of the May 19, 2021 securities lawsuit complaint against Ubiquiti can be found 
In the latest securities class action lawsuit involving a company that recently became publicly traded through a merger with a SPAC, a biodegradable plastics company and certain of its directors and officers have been hit with securities suit following media reports questioning the company’s claims about the biodegradability of its products. The company, Danimer Scientific, is one of several recently sued companies that completed a SPAC merger in December 2020. A copy of the May 14, 2021 complaint against Danimer can be found 
In the latest example of a company that went public through a recent merger with a SPAC getting hit with a securities class action lawsuit, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities suit against plastics recycler PureCycle Technologies, certain of its executives, and the former chairman of the company’s SPAC merger partner. Like many of the recent SPAC-related securities lawsuit filings, this new lawsuit followed shortly after the publication of a highly critical short-sellers report. A copy of the plaintiff’s complaint can be found 
In the latest SPAC-related securities class action lawsuit filing, a plaintiff shareholder has initiated a securities suit against Skillz, Inc., an online gaming platform that in December 2020 merged with Flying Eagle Acquisition Corp. (FEAC), a publicly traded special purpose acquisition company (SPAC). The share price of the post-merger publicly traded company declined after short sellers issued reports questioning the company’s revenue recognition practices and other financial details. The lawsuit followed after the share price decline. The individual defendants named in the securities complaint include the former President of FEAC, who became a director of Skillz following the merger. A copy of the plaintiff’s May 7, 2021 complaint can be found 
In reporting in prior posts on SPAC-related litigation, I have primarily focused on federal court securities class action litigation (for example, 
A federal district judge has denied the defendants’ motion to dismiss in a securities class action lawsuit arising out of an electric utility’s eight-year involvement in a domestic bribery scheme. The court’s ruling has several interesting features relating to the securities litigation exposures from domestic corruption. Northern District of Illinois Judge Virginia M. Kendall’s April 21, 2021 opinion in the Exelon Corporation securities suit can be found here. An April 28, 2021 memo about the ruling from the Shearman & Sterling law firm can be found 
In what is a notable development in the emerging SPAC-related securities class action litigation scene, the parties to a SPAC-related securities suit involving the streaming media company Akazoo company have reached a partial settlement in the aggregate amount of $35 million. The deal is a partial settlement because claims remain pending against other defendants. As discussed below, the settlement has a number of interesting features. It is, in any event, a noteworthy data point for the discussion about SPAC-related litigation exposures.
After more than a year of lockdowns, social distancing, and sheer disruptions of life, we are all more than ready to be done with the coronavirus outbreak and to move on. Unfortunately, the virus is not done with us yet. In places like Brazil and India, COVID-19 continues to exact a grim toll. Just as I, like all of the rest of you, had assumed in the early stages of the outbreak that we would be done with the coronavirus by now, I also thought we would be done with coronavirus-related litigation by now as well. However like COVID-19 itself, coronavirus-related litigation continues on despite our expectations. As discussed below, in the past week, two more coronavirus-related securities class action lawsuits were filed, as the pandemic-related litigation phenomenon continues.