The streak of good news in D&O litigation risk ends this year, with a rise in class action filings and bigger settlements. But the D&O market is still soft, so staying on top of the evolving risk landscape will help you...more
8/6/2024
/ Board of Directors ,
Class Action ,
Cybersecurity ,
D&O Insurance ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Insurance Costs ,
Insurance Industry ,
New Rules ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Webinars
It has been two years since public companies saw a marked decrease in the number of securities class action filings against them. In 2022, 168 class actions were filed, a record low since 2014; however, 2024 activity is...more
8 Reasons to Buy D&O Insurance 1. Attracting New Directors: D&O insurance makes board seats more attractive. 2. Investor Requirements: Some venture capital and private equity firms require that their portfolio companies...more
As they go through their initial public offering (IPO) and the subsequent merger & acquisition (M&A) process, special purpose acquisition companies (SPACs) face many regulatory, legal, and business hurdles. Obtaining the...more
Hackers are now weaponizing the SEC’s cyber disclosure rules as a new way to pressure corporations. You may recall that the Securities and Exchange Commission has new rules for timely disclosure of cyberattacks.
One major...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) is ratcheting up the pressure on chief information security officers (CISOs)—and it’s entirely deliberate. In this post, I’ll discuss the litigation landscape against SolarWinds,...more
The softening D&O market has continued into 2023, with 91% of our clients experiencing a cost reduction in their renewal in the first half of the year. Self-insured retentions have also continued to fall. The soft market is a...more
9/6/2023
/ Class Action ,
Contract Renewal ,
Cybersecurity ,
D&O Insurance ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Insurance Claims ,
Insurance Contracts ,
Insurance Industry ,
Insurance Rates ,
New Rules ,
Risk Management ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Violations ,
Self-Insured Retention Provisions ,
Webinars
They’re here. No, not poltergeists. Just the Securities and Exchange Commission’s new cyber disclosure rules. While implementing them will be challenging, and new, serious risks will emerge, the rules are now final and public...more
The D&O liability landscape is poised to change—or not—depending on how the US Supreme Court rules in the long-running Section 11 case against Slack. The Supreme Court heard oral arguments in this case on April 17, 2023, and...more
Non-US companies are attracted to going public on a US exchange for a variety of reasons, such as access to capital, increased liquidity, and in some cases, more flexible rules and regulations compared to other markets....more
Did senior executives at Silicon Valley Bank sell shares while in possession of material nonpublic information shortly before the demise of the company? If they did, they violated the federal laws against insider trading....more
Woodruff Sawyer's D&O DataBox™ Year-End Report provides insights about securities class action activities, developments, and historical trends—sourced from DataBox, our proprietary database and leading resource for securities...more
In addition to creating rules that govern both private and public companies, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) uses an in-house, government legal system—Administrative Law Judges (ALJs)—to prosecute securities...more
10/13/2022
/ Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ,
Appointments Clause ,
Article III ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Jury Trial ,
Officers of the United States ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Violations ,
Standing ,
Subject Matter Jurisdiction
8 Reasons to Buy D&O Insurance -
1. Attracting New Directors: D&O insurance makes board seats more attractive.
2. Investor Requirements: Some venture capital and private equity firms require that their portfolio...more
The Securities and Exchange Commission is proposing new cybersecurity disclosure rules for public companies. According to the SEC, while public companies have improved their cyber disclosures over time, overall, they have...more
5/25/2022
/ Corporate Governance ,
Cyber Attacks ,
Cybersecurity ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Popular ,
Proposed Rules ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation
Everyone knows that employees cannot buy or sell securities while in possession of material nonpublic information.
However, when we think about material non-public information, we usually think in terms of information...more
In 2021, 182 securities class actions were filed against issuers of stock listed on US exchanges. This statistic means that the total number of annual filings in 2021 was down 13% compared to 2020. As highlighted in our...more
SPACs (special purpose acquisition companies) had a volatile year in 2021, raising more funds in the public market and doing more business combinations than ever before. After an extremely busy first quarter the pace of SPAC...more