Earlier this month, I spent a week in the birthplace of D&O insurance, London. In addition to moderating a panel at Advisen’s European Executive Risks Insights Conference, I met with many energetic and talented D&O insurance professionals, both veterans and rising stars, to discuss U.S. securities litigation and regulatory risks. Themes emerged on some key
Supreme Court
5 Wishes for Securities Litigation Defense: Early Damages Analysis and Discovery
The fifth of my “5 Wishes for Securities Litigation Defense” (April 30, 2016 post) is to move securities class action damages expert reports and discovery ahead of fact discovery. This simple change would allow the defendants and their D&O insurers to understand the real economics of cases that survive a motion to dismiss,…
5 Wishes for Securities Litigation Defense: Effective Use of the Supreme Court’s Omnicare Decision
In this installment of the D&O Discourse series “5 Wishes for Securities Litigation Defense,” we discuss the third of five changes that would significantly improve securities litigation defense: to make the Supreme Court’s Omnicare decision a primary tool in the defense of securities class actions.
As a reminder, in Omnicare, Inc. v. Laborers…
5 Wishes for Securities Litigation Defense
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…
Why I’m So Passionate about Omnicare
On March 24, 2015, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Omnicare, Inc. v. Laborers Dist. Council Const. Industry Pension Fund, 135 S. Ct. 1318 (2015). My partner Claire Davis and I are publishing a forthcoming one-year anniversary article on Omnicare. In addition to discussing the lower courts’ application of the decision,…
5 Securities Litigation Issues to Watch in 2016
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…
Reform Act Report Card: The Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, 20 Years Later
In 2015, the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act* turned twenty years old.
Over my career as a securities litigator, I’ve seen both sides of the securities-litigation divide that the Reform Act created. In the first part of my career, I witnessed the figurative skid marks in front of courthouses, as lawyers raced to the courthouse…
Securities Claims Based on Item 303 of Regulation S-K: It Just Doesn’t Matter
Does Item 303 of Regulation S-K matter in private securities litigation? In Stratte-McClure v. Morgan Stanley, 776 F.3d 94 (2nd Cir. 2015), the Second Circuit held that Item 303 imposes a duty to disclose for purposes of Section 10(b), meaning that the omission of information required by Item 303 can provide the basis for…
Hey There Fellow Securities Defense Lawyers: Omnicare is GOOD for Us!
If correctly understood and applied, the Supreme Court’s decision in Omnicare, Inc. v. Laborers Dist. Council Const. Industry Pension Fund, 135 S. Ct. 1318 (2015), will allow corporate officers to speak more freely, without fear of unfair liability. And defendants will win more cases.
Yet I keep seeing commentary from defense lawyers saying that…
Supreme Court’s Omnicare Decision Follows Middle Path Advocated by WLF
In the opinion issued yesterday in Omnicare, Inc. v. Laborers District Council Construction Industry Pension Fund (“Omnicare”), the Supreme Court rejected the two extremes advocated by the parties regarding how the truth or falsity of statements of opinion should be considered under the securities laws, and instead adopted the middle path advocated in…