The pandemic’s disruption has had divergent effects on different population segments. In the following guest post Sarah Abrams, Esq., Director, Management Liability Markel, takes a look at the implication of this divergent population impact upon organizations’ diversity and inclusion efforts. The viewpoints expressed in the article are the authors alone and that not that of Markel. I would like to thank Sarah for allowing me to publish her 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 Sarah’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Achieving Organizational Diversity in the Wake of the Pandemic
In the latest sign that coronavirus-related securities lawsuits are continuing to be filed, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities suit against a biotechnology company and two if its executives, alleging that the company drove up its share price by promoting its HIV-focused drug candidate as a treatment for COVID-19. Although the new complaint is similar in many respects to prior COVID-19-related securities lawsuits, it has several distinct features as well. A copy of the plaintiff’s complaint can be found 
It was over a year ago – March 11, 2020, to be exact – that the World Health Organization declared the COVID-19 outbreak to be a pandemic. And it was also over a year ago – March 12, 2020, in fact – that the first of the coronavirus outbreak-related securities class action lawsuits were filed. Since that time, more than two dozen other coronavirus-related securities suits have also been filed. But while the pandemic related litigation has been an interesting phenomenon, a year into the development there are some interesting questions about the litigation. Such as, for example, why hasn’t there been more securities litigation related to the pandemic? In this post, I take a look at the litigation (so far) and try to answer a few of the questions.
As the lawsuits have been coming in, we have been tracking the coronavirus outbreak-related litigation, with more than two dozen securities suits accounted for so far. But while the plaintiffs’ lawyers have proven willing to pursue pandemic-related securities suits, the track record so far for these kinds of suits has been decidedly mixed. In the latest sign of the mixed bag of results for plaintiffs’ lawyers on these kinds of suits, on February 25, 2021, the plaintiffs’ lawyers who initiated the coronavirus outbreak-related securities suit against Royal Caribbean Cruises entered a voluntary dismissal without prejudice with the court (
As I have detailed in a series of post on this blog (most recently 
It has been nearly a year since the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. first led to widespread closures and disruptions. Throughout that time, plaintiffs’ lawyers have continued to file securities class actions and other claims against companies affected by the pandemic. On February 12, 2021, in the latest of these COVID-19-related securities lawsuits, a plaintiff shareholder filed a securities class action lawsuit against the biotechnology firm bluebird bio alleging that the company misrepresented the pandemic’s foreseeable impact on the company’s FDA application plans. A copy of the complaint can be found 
In the latest sign that COVID-19 related securities litigation is on track to continue into 2021, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities class action lawsuit against Tyson Foods, Inc. relating to the company’s disclosures and actions in its facilities pertaining to the coronavirus outbreak. The plaintiff’s February 2, 2021 complaint can be found 
In what is the third coronavirus-related securities class action lawsuit filed so far in 2021, a plaintiff shareholder has filed a securities class action lawsuit against the U.K.-based biopharma firm AstraZeneca plc relating to the setbacks the company encountered late last year in connection with the company’s efforts to develop a COVID-19 vaccine. The complaint also relies heavily on the way that the company communicated to investors and the general public concerning anomalies in the vaccine’s interim clinical trial results. A copy of the January 26, 2021 complaint against the company can be found 
As I have noted on this site as the cases have accumulated (most recently 
In the latest sign that coronavirus-related securities class action lawsuit filings will continue into the New Year, on January 20, 2021, a plaintiff shareholder filed a COVID-19-related securities suit against the Chinese Internet social media company Lizhi, Inc. The lawsuit relates to the coronavirus outbreak now more than a year ago in China, and to the company’s January 2020 U.S. IPO. A copy of the plaintiff’s complaint can be found