Those trying to gauge what Trump 2.0 means for directors’ and officers’ liability will want to read the Wall Street Journal’s April 13, 2025, article entitled “Trump Administration Retreats from White-Collar Criminal Enforcement” (here). The article contains statements of large law firm partners expressing their anxiety that the administration’s approach to white-collar crime prosecution will mean “significant slowdown” in law firm revenue from criminal defense work. But what may be bad news for law firms could be good news for corporate executives, because the Trump administration’s approach may mean corporate executives could face a reduced risk of criminal prosecution, at least for certain kinds of criminal allegations.Continue Reading Do Trump Admin Policies Mean Reduced Risk of White-Collar Prosecutions?

Readers of this blog know well that the current administration has been issuing a significant number and wide variety of memos and orders, including a March 22, 2025 memo pertaining to alleged law firm misconduct and Executive Orders focused on specific law firms. The law firm memo and the Executive Orders potentially represent a significant concern for affected firms. The following guest post – written by E. Theresa Panensky, West Region Leader, Claims Advocate of the Claims & Legal Group – WTW FINEX; Scott M. Lupiani, Partner, Litigation, Pierson Ferdinand, LLP; and Larry Fine, Management Liability Coverage Leader, WTW FINEX – examines the law firm-related memorandum and orders and considers the insurance implications for affected firms. A version of this article previously was published as a WTW client alert. 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’ article.Continue Reading Guest Post: Insurance Issues Related to Executive Orders

In prior posts (most recently here), I have noted the ways the new Trump administration’s policies and actions could affect the D&O liability and insurance arena. In the current rapid-fire environment, with daily developments that threaten to overturn established practices and norms, just trying to keep up – much less understand the significance of events – can be a challenge. In an effort to try to keep the scoreboard up to date, I have noted below some of the most recent key developments and tried to describe their significance for the D&O environment.Continue Reading Trump 2.0: The Latest D&O Update

As D&O insurance professionals try to assess the potential impact on the industry from Donald Trump’s return to the White House next month, one area of focus has been on the Trump’s appointment powers. This includes, obviously, the President’s authority to appoint judges to the federal judiciary, but in addition involves his power to make appointments to the Presidential cabinet and to the federal agencies. As Trump’s appointments have unfolded over the last few weeks, none looms larger (for now at least) for the D&O arena than the announcement last Wednesday that Trump will nominate former SEC Commissioner Paul Atkins as SEC Chair. This appointment, if confirmed, could result in a significant change of direction at the SEC, which in turn could have important implications for the world of D&O.Continue Reading Trump Selects “Anti-Gensler” for SEC Chair