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Eric C. Scheiner
Jennifer Quinn Broda

The long-standing and traditional view is that corporations’ objectives should be to maximize shareholder value. More recently, a variety of commentators and observers have argued that corporations have larger social responsibilities. However, as discussed in the following guest post from Eric C. Scheiner and Jennifer Quinn Broda, efforts by companies to fulfil corporate social responsibilities may involve their own risks and even result in D&O claims. By the same token, failing to take action could result in claims as well. These trends have important implications for insurers and for policyholders alike. Eric is a Partner and Jennifer is Of Counsel in the Chicago office of Kennedys. I would like to thank Eric and Jennifer 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 Eric’s and Jennifer’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Potential D&O Risks Arising from Corporate Social Responsibility

The liability environment for directors and officers is always in a state of change, but 2019 was a particularly eventful year in the D&O liability arena, with important consequences for the D&O insurance marketplace. The past year’s many developments have significant implications for what may lie ahead in 2020 – and possibly for years to come, as well.  I have set out below the Top Ten D&O Stories of 2019, with a focus on the future implications.
Continue Reading The Top Ten D&O Stories of 2019

Under the Delaware Chancery Court decision in the Caremark case, directors can be liable for failures in their oversight duties – that is, their duties to monitor the company and its functions. Lawsuits alleging a violation of the duty of oversight are notoriously challenging for plaintiffs. However, in the recent Marchand v. Barnhill case, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Chancery Court’s dismissal of a Caremark liability case and allowed the case to proceed against the board of an ice cream manufacturer that experienced a deadly listeria outbreak. Caremark liability cases remain difficult to plead and prove, but the Marchand decision nevertheless has important implications for director liability for breaches of their duty of oversight.
Continue Reading Recent Delaware Caremark Duty Decision Underscores Board Cyber and Privacy Liability Risks

Francis Kean

In the following guest post, Francis Kean, Executive Director FINEX Willis Towers Watson, take a look at an interesting and arguably surprising recent U.K. judicial decision in which a supermarket chain was held liable for the unauthorized Internet disclosure of its employees’ personal data. Francis has some interesting observations about the decision’s possible implications as well. A version of this article previously was published on the Willis Towers Watson Wire blog (here). I would like to thank Francis for allowing me to publish his article as a guest post. 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 Francis’s article:
Continue Reading Guest Post: Claims Against Directors for Failure to Insure Against Cyber Risk Are More Likely Now

Libby Benet

In the current environment, most people are aware that there are serious pitfalls and problems involved with data security and privacy. However, business leaders may not always be aware of their legal and ethical duties for securing employee, customer, and partner information. In the following guest post, Libby Benet, JD, CIPP US, Principal Benet Consulting, takes a look at these issues, as well as the important differences between information security and privacy. I would like to thank Libby for allowing me to publish her article as a guest post. 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 Libby’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Information Security and Privacy – What Business Leaders Need To Know

Bill Boeck

As most readers undoubtedly are aware, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation went into effect on May 25, 2018. Even though the regulation has only been in effect for a few months, regulators across Europe have already starting levying fines under the regulation’s provisions. In the following guest post, Bill Boeck takes a look at the fines that have been imposed so far and considers their implications. Bill is currently Senior Vice President and Insurance and Claims Counsel with the Lockton Companies.  He is Lockton’s global leader for cyber claims and for the development of proprietary cyber wordings and endorsements.  Bill also leads Lockton’s US financial lines claims practice. A version of this article previously was published on the Lockton Cyber Risk Update Blog. I would like to thank Bill for his willingness to allow me to publish his article on this site. 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 Bill’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: What Can the First GDPR Fines Tell Us?

When the European Union’s updated General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect on May 25, 2018, media reports focused on the potentially massive fines that the regulation authorizes – the regulation authorizes fines of up to €20 million or 4 percent of a company’s annual worldwide revenue, whichever is higher, for noncompliance with the regulation’s strict data collection and use requirements. The possibility of regulatory fines of this magnitude immediately raised the question of whether or not insurance is available to protect companies against the huge financial exposure. The answer to this question, it turns out, is complicated.
Continue Reading Are GDPR Fines and Penalties Insurable?

Last week, the Wall Street Journal reported that this past spring Google had exposed thousands of the Google+ social network users’ private data and then opted to withhold disclosure of the incident because of concerns that doing so would attract regulatory scrutiny and harm the company’s reputation. Following the news reports, questions immediately were asked about a possible SEC investigation of the incident. And now, these developments have drawn two new securities class action lawsuits in which shareholders of Alphabet, Google’s parent company, allege that the company misled investors about the adequacy of the company’s security measures to protect user data from theft and security breaches. As discussed below, the new lawsuits bring together several securities litigation filing trends involving data and privacy-related issues.
Continue Reading Google+ User Data Securities Lawsuits Filed Against Alphabet

As readers of this blog know, data breach, cyber, and privacy-related issues have become a new important area of securities class action litigation in the U.S. In the following guest post, Andrew Miers, Jason Symons, and Shonagh Rasmussen of the HWL Ebsworth law firm review the possibilities or this type of securities lawsuit in Australia. 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 site’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is the authors’ guest post.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Cyber and Privacy Risks: The Next Australian Securities Litigation Frontier?