The parties to the long-running Twitter securities class action lawsuit have agreed to settle the suit for a payment of $809.5 million, one of the largest securities class action settlements of all time. The settlement is subject to court approval. A copy of the company’s September 20, 2021 press release announcing the settlement can be found here. The plaintiffs’ lawyers’ statement about the settlement can be found here.
Continue Reading Twitter Settles Securities Suit for $809.5 Million
Guest Post: 5th Circ.: D&O Insurer Must Cover Firm for Social Engineering Losses Despite Professional Services Exclusion
In the following guest post, Geoffrey B. Fehling and Michael S. Levine review and analyze a September 2, 2021 Fifth Circuit decision in which the appellate court reversed a lower court ruling and held that a D&O insurance policy must cover a settlement related to a social engineering loss. Geoffrey is a counsel in Hunton Andrews Kurth’s Boston office and Michael is a partner in the firm’s Washington, D.C. office. 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: 5th Circ.: D&O Insurer Must Cover Firm for Social Engineering Losses Despite Professional Services Exclusion
Guest Post: Improving Securities Class Action Outcomes Through Early Damages Analysis
In the following guest post, Doug Greene and John McCarrick take a look at the way that securities class action lawsuits settle and make a suggestion of a way for D&O insurers and defense counsel to try to improve settlement outcomes. Doug is the leader of BakerHostetler’s firmwide Securities and Governance Litigation Team. John is the chair of White and Williams’ firmwide Financial Lines Group. A version of this article previously appeared on Law 360. I would like to thank Doug and John for their willingness to allow me to publish their 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 Doug and John’s article.
Continue Reading Guest Post: Improving Securities Class Action Outcomes Through Early Damages Analysis
More About the D&O Insurance Implications of the SEC’s New Admissions Wrongdoing Requirements
Numerous questions surround the SEC’s new policy requiring enforcement action defendants in “egregious” cases to admit to wrongdoing in order to settle with the agency, rather than simply agreeing to neither admit nor deny the agency’s allegations. As I discussed in a prior post (here), among the questions is the issue of what
D&O Insurers Fund Massive, Complicated Bankruptcy Settlement
The bankruptcy context is particularly ripe for D&O claims, and it also represents a particularly difficult claims context for D&O insurers. Anyone with any doubts about just how complicated bankruptcy claims can be will want to take a look at the settlement that the various concerned parties recently reached in the bankruptcy of defunct Florida
Second Circuit Rebuffs Rakoff, Grants Stay to Hear Appeal on Settlement Ruling
In a sharply worded March 15, 2012 per curiam opinion (here), a three-judge panel of the Second Circuit granted the motions of Citigroup and the SEC to stay district court proceedings in the SEC’s enforcement action against the company, so that the appellate court could consider the merits of the question of
Though Case Previously Dismissed , Wells Fargo Settles Wachovia Investor Suit for $75 Million
In an interesting twist on a long –running credit-crisis related securities suit, Wells Fargo has agreed to pay $75 million to settle the Wachovia equity investor securities class action lawsuit, even though their suit had been dismissed at the district court level and was on appeal at the time of the settlement. The parties’ November
Failed Bank Battles: Is D&O Insurance Coverage the Real Frontline?
A recent negotiated resolution of an FDIC failed bank lawsuit suggests disputes over D&O insurance coverage may represent the real frontline in the failed bank litigation wars. The compromise was reached in the lawsuit the FDIC only recently filed in the District of Arizona involving the failed First National Bank of Nevada. As discussed below
Oppenheimer Settles Subprime-Related Fund Securities Suits for $100 Million
The parties to two of the consolidated subprime-related securities lawsuits pending against Oppenheimer Funds have settled the case for a total of $100 million. This settlement has a number of interesting features, as discussed further below, including in particular aspects of the allocation of the total settlement amount between the two consolidated fund actions. The
Satyam Agrees to Pay $125 Million to Settle Securities Suit
In a settlement that has a number of interesting features, Satyam Computer Services, an Indian technology outsourcing company, has agreed to pay $125 million to settle the consolidated securities class action litigation pending against the company in Southern District of New York.
The only settling defendant is the company itself, which is now known