The U.S. Department of Justice ("DOJ") won at trial in its first insider trading prosecution against an executive based exclusively on his sales of stock under 10b5-1 trading plans....more
The electric vehicle company Canoo went public in a de-SPAC transaction in December 2020. After its stock price fell, a stockholder in the SPAC who chose not to redeem his stock sued the SPAC board and its controller for...more
6/20/2024
/ Breach of Duty ,
Business Litigation ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Entire Fairness Standard ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Investment ,
Manufacturers ,
Merger Agreements ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Shareholders ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Stock Prices
The United States Supreme Court in Macquarie Infrastructure Corp. v. Moab Partners, L.P., No. 22-1165, ruled that a corporation is not liable under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 and Rule 10b-5 for...more
4/29/2024
/ Disclosure Requirements ,
Item 303 ,
Macquarie Infrastructure Corp v Moab Partners LP ,
Misleading Statements ,
Omissions ,
Regulation S-K ,
Rule 10b-5 ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act of 1934 ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Violations
The Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") won at trial in its first "shadow trading" case, holding a corporate official liable for insider trading for using nonpublic information about his company's acquisition to trade...more
4/19/2024
/ Acquisition Agreements ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Insider Trading ,
Material Nonpublic Information ,
Pharmaceutical Industry ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Third-Party
The SEC has adopted the much-anticipated climate-related disclosure rules, which are more than 900 pages long, two years after they were first proposed. Although the rules will almost certainly face challenges in court that...more
During 2023, securities lawsuit filings rose for the first time in four years. Settlements declined last year; there were nine mega-settlements of more than $100 million, including a $1 billion settlement. Case filings...more
2/28/2024
/ Class Certification ,
Cryptocurrency ,
False Statements ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Financial Institutions ,
Financial Services Industry ,
Misleading Statements ,
Scienter ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs) ,
Standing ,
Statute of Limitations
We are pleased to present our latest update on financial reporting and issuer disclosure enforcement activity. This White Paper primarily focuses on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) enforcement activity...more
The Delaware Supreme Court recently confirmed that the adoption of an exculpatory charter amendment does not require a class vote under the Delaware General Corporation Law ("DGCL")....more
A recent decision by the First Department of the New York Appellate Division held that the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act's automatic stay of discovery applies in state court, but not during the pendency of an...more
In light of the DOJ’s most recent guidance on the use of personal devices and third-party messaging applications by corporate personnel, this White Paper addresses issues and challenges that companies are facing in this area...more
10/18/2023
/ CFTC ,
Compliance ,
Cybersecurity ,
Data Collection ,
Data Privacy ,
Data Protection ,
Department of Justice (DOJ) ,
Electronic Communications ,
Financial Industry Regulatory Authority (FINRA) ,
Guidance Update ,
Instant Messaging Apps ,
Mobile Devices ,
Policies and Procedures ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
White Collar Crimes ,
Workplace Communication
A Washington federal judge dismissed challenges to Starbucks's Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion ("DEI") policies in a strongly worded opinion, making clear that politics don't belong in his courtroom....more
We are pleased to present our latest update on financial reporting and issuer disclosure enforcement activity. This White Paper primarily focuses on the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s (“SEC”) enforcement activity...more
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") has charged a group of small companies with making deficient filings on Form 12b-25, harkening back to the SEC's "broken windows" strategy from the last decade....more
A unanimous Supreme Court has confirmed that a claim brought under section 11 of the Securities Act of 1933 ("1933 Act") requires that a plaintiff plead and prove that the shares purchased were issued pursuant to an allegedly...more
In Short -
SPAC Deals: Special purpose acquisition companies ("SPACs") boomed in 2020 as a means of taking early-stage private companies public. Following enhanced scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission and...more
The largest-ever award highlights the importance of whistleblowers to the SEC's biggest cases.
On May 5, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC") awarded $279 million to a whistleblower, the agency's largest...more
According to the Stanford Law School/Cornerstone Research Securities Class Action Clearinghouse, each year since 2001, with just one exception (2006), investors have filed more than 150 securities fraud class actions in the...more
During 2022, securities case filings fell for the fourth consecutive year and were down slightly from 2021. The number of announced settlements rose substantially last year, as did total settlement amounts. The 2022...more
2/8/2023
/ Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
Cryptocurrency ,
Cybersecurity ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Popular ,
Scienter ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Litigation ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs)
On March 9, 2022, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a post-trial decision in Arwood v. AW Site Services, LLC, subsequently amended on March 24, 2022. The plaintiff, John Arwood, had spent decades building a waste...more
3/30/2022
/ Breach of Contract ,
Buyers ,
Contract Negotiations ,
Contract Terms ,
Corporate Sales Transactions ,
Post-Closing Rights ,
Purchase Agreement ,
Representations and Warranties ,
Sandbagging ,
Sellers ,
Sua Sponte
Before the pandemic, it was generally accepted that establishing an MAE was very difficult—indeed, only one case in Delaware, 2018's Akorn v. Fresenius Kabi, had ever found that an MAE occurred. Following the pandemic, this...more
The Situation: A number of shareholder derivative lawsuits in federal court have been filed seeking to hold directors and officers of major companies accountable for alleged failures to uphold their companies' stated...more
7/20/2021
/ Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Derivative Suit ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Forum Selection ,
Motion to Dismiss ,
Securities Regulation ,
Securities Violations ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Shareholders
Chairman Gensler's comments indicate that new, additional requirements for 10b5-1 plans are likely to be coming.
In prepared comments made at The Wall Street Journal's CFO Network event on June 7, 2021, SEC Chairman Gary...more
The Situation: President Joe Biden nominated Gary Gensler, former Chairman of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission ("CFTC") under the Obama administration, for Chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission ("SEC"). ...more
The Background: Demand for environmental, social, and governance ("ESG")-aligned companies and investment products is transforming the investing landscape. Financial institutions will be at the forefront of this change, as...more
2020 was another active year for securities litigation in the United States. Federal securities class actions continued to be filed at record levels notwithstanding the COVID-19 pandemic. In fact, a number of those newly...more
2/8/2021
/ Attorney-Client Privilege ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Corporate Counsel ,
D&O Insurance ,
Derivative Suit ,
Forum Selection ,
Loss Causation ,
Pleading Standards ,
Scienter ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Fraud ,
Securities Litigation ,
Short-Swing Trading ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs)