I started the D&O Discourse blog in October 2012 to generate discussion among the repeat players in securities and corporate governance litigation:  insurers, brokers, mediators, economists, plaintiffs’ counsel, and defense counsel.  While I share opinions from a defense-counsel perspective, I call it like I see it.  

Here are five of my favorite posts – well

Over the years, I’ve bemoaned the lack of “litigation” in “securities litigation.”  In this post, I discuss the same problem in “derivative litigation:” why don’t we litigate derivative cases anymore? 

Derivative litigation – in which a stockholder asserts claims that belong to the company – takes multiple forms: tag-along cases to securities class actions

The history of securities litigation is marked by waves: from the IPO laddering cases, to the Sarbanes-Oxley era corporate scandal cases, to stock options backdating, to the credit crisis, to the Chinese reverse-merger cases, to event-driven/lawsuit blueprint cases, certain types of cases have predominated at different times.

Are we entering a wave of COVID-19

One of my “5 Wishes for Securities Litigation Defense” (April 30, 2016 post) is greater involvement by boards of directors in decisions concerning D&O insurance and the defense of securities litigation, including defense-counsel selection. Far too often, directors cede these critical strategic decisions to management.

For most directors, securities litigation is a mysterious

I am committed to helping shape a system for securities litigation defense that helps directors and officers get through securities litigation safely and efficiently, without losing their serenity or dignity, and without facing any real risk of paying any personal funds.

But we are actually moving in the opposite direction of this goal, and unless

Following is an article we wrote for Law360, which gave us permission to republish it here:

The coming year promises to be a pivotal one in the world of securities and corporate governance litigation.  In particular, there are five developing issues we are watching that have the greatest potential to significantly increase or decrease the

Over the past three years, I’ve been outspoken about the need for better board oversight of cyber security, as well as the need for better cyber security disclosure.  The severity of the cyber threat is so significant to companies, as well as to the nation’s economy and security, that boards have no choice but to

In the world of securities and corporate governance litigation, we are always in the middle of a reform discussion of some variety.  For the past several years, there has been great focus on amendment of corporate bylaws to corral and curtail shareholder corporate-governance claims, principally shareholder challenges to mergers.*  Meritless merger litigation is indeed a

One of the foremost uncertainties in securities and corporate governance litigation is the extent to which cybersecurity will become a significant D&O liability issue. Although many D&O practitioners have been bracing for a wave of cybersecurity D&O matters, to date there has been only a trickle. Some have come to believe that at most, there

Last fall, I wrote about board oversight of cybersecurity and derivative litigation in the wake of cybersecurity breaches.  I plan to update my thoughts later this year, after we see developments in the recently filed Target and Wyndham derivative actions, and learn the results of the 2014 installment of Carnegie Mellon’s bi-annual CyLab Governance of