litigation trends

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Commentators (including me) have long speculated about the possible future direction of data breach-related litigation. There have of course been a number of very high profile data breach-related consumer class action suits, but so far relatively few data breach related D&O lawsuits. Of course, more recently investors filed a securities class action lawsuit involving the high-profile data breach at Equifax. Now investors have filed another data breach securities class action lawsuit, in this case involving PayPal Holdings.
Continue Reading Investors File Data Breach-Related Securities Suit Against PayPal

According to the latest update on the Coinschedule website (here), there have been a total of 228 initial coin offerings so far this year through mid-October, raising a total of over $3.6 billion. At least five of this year’s ICOs have raised over $100 million. This burgeoning activity notwithstanding, ICOs are at the center of controversy. Among other things, China and South Korea have banned ICOs. The SEC has already shown its willingness to pursue enforcement actions against ICO sponsors, as discussed further here. And now a high-profile statement by one of the country’s leading securities regulation experts suggests even greater scrutiny may lie ahead. In the meantime, as discussed below, ICO and cryptocurrency-related litigation appears to be proliferating.
Continue Reading ICO Enforcement Actions Threatened, ICO Lawsuits Proliferate

As I noted in a post last week discussing the derivative lawsuit and settlement involving 21st Century Fox, allegations of failure to prevent alleged misconduct within company operations or at company facilities can translate into potential liability exposure for the company and its senior management. Another example of this phenomenon has emerged. In the weeks just after RYB Education completed its late September 2017 IPO, news reports began circulating of alleged child abuse at company preschool education facilities in China. Now a shareholder has filed a securities class action lawsuit in the U.S. against the company and certain of its executives. As discussed below, this new lawsuit represents the latest example of several different securities class action lawsuit filing trends.
Continue Reading Chinese Preschools’ Child Abuse Reports Lead to U.S. Securities Suit Against Recent IPO Company

Andrew G. Lipton
Laura Schmidt

Although a number of high-profile data breaches have led to D&O claims, so far the plaintiffs’ track record in these kinds of cases has been poor. However, as a result of a number of recent developments, there may be good reason for corporate directors and officers to be concerned about these kinds of claims going forward, as discussed in the following guest post by Andrew G. Lipton and Laura Schmidt, both associates at the White & Williams law firm. I would like to thank Andrew and Laura for submitting their article for publication as a guest post. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Andrew and Laura’s guest post.  
Continue Reading Guest Post: Breaching the Firewall: D&O Exposure from Cybersecurity Incidents

Shareholder derivative lawsuits are notoriously difficult for claimants. In order to pursue a derivative suit, a shareholder plaintiff must overcome numerous procedural and pleading hurdles. Even when cases survive the initial obstacles, the ultimate outcome often consists of little more than the payment of the plaintiff’s attorney’s fees with slight benefit to the company in whose name the claim was ostensibly was pursued. In light of these considerations, UCLA law professor Stephen Bainbridge has a modest proposal: Eliminate derivative litigation altogether. In a brief October 3, 2017 post on his ProfessorBainbridge.com blog (here), Bainbridge suggests that we just do away with the whole inefficient process. Bainbridge raises a number of interesting points, but, as discussed below, while I agree with some of his concerns, I am not sure I agree with his proposed solution.
Continue Reading Should Shareholder Derivative Litigation Be Eliminated?

Third-party litigation funding has its critics and detractors (refer, for example, here and here). The fact is that third-party litigation funding is now well-established and is here to stay. A recent survey by one of the leading funding firms, discussed below, confirms that the acceptance and use of litigation funding is growing rapidly. The more interesting question at this point is — what are the implications?
Continue Reading Thinking About the Growth of Third-Party Litigation Financing

In the wake of credit monitoring and reporting firm Equifax’s announcement last week that it had sustained a data breach involving 143 million U.S. customers, a wave of consumer class action lawsuits has followed. In addition, the litigation wave now also includes at least one securities class action lawsuit; more securities suits are likely to follow. Although data breach-related D&O claims have not fared particularly well in the past, there are features of the Equifax situation that may put the securities suits against Equifax in a different category. An even more interesting question is the extent to which the new lawsuit portends further data breach-related securities litigation going forward.  
Continue Reading Equifax Data Breach Litigation Now Includes Securities Suit

As has been well-documented, the United States in the middle of an “epidemic” involving the abuse of prescription and non-prescription opioids. The companies that manufacture and distribute these drugs have been hit with a “barrage” of lawsuits, filed by states, counties, and cities. Just last week, the state of Arizona filed a lawsuit against a drug company alleging that the company had fraudulently marketed a powerful opioid painkiller.  As this lawsuit wave has grown, shareholders and others have also climbed on the litigation bandwagon. In recent days, shareholders have filed a series of lawsuits against opioid manufacturers and distributors and their directors and officers. Just as the number of lawsuits filed by governmental entities seems likely to continue to grow, the number of investor suits against opioid drug companies seems likely to grow as well.
Continue Reading Securities Suits Hit Opioid Drug Companies

In the wake of President Donald Trump’s June 1, 2017 announcement that the United States will withdraw from the Paris Climate Accord, one of the things I predicted was that the administration’s action likely would trigger a host of reactions on the state, national and international stage. Among other things, I conjectured that activists facing setbacks on the political stage might try to use judicial processes to advance their agenda. Though it lacks a direct connection to the U.S.’s actions on the Paris Climate Accords, a recent Australian lawsuit confirms my suggestion that activists are increasingly likely to try to use the courts as a way to promote their objectives.
Continue Reading Shareholders File Climate Change Disclosure Lawsuit in Australian Court