Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 167: Listen and Learn -- Direct and Derivative Actions (Corporations)
Board Diversity Podcast
Securities Litigation and Disclosure Issues
Podcast: CFTC Issues LIBOR Transition Relief for Swaps
Data breaches made headlines throughout 2024, affecting governments, health care groups, and telecoms. Follow-on litigation has kept pace. Nearly 4,000 class actions involving data privacy issues are estimated to be filed in...more
In this past year, we saw an uptick in in-person court proceedings as the effects of the pandemic subsided, a decrease in pandemic-related litigation, and a return to many of the core issues facing Delaware companies...more
In an era of increasing cyberattacks by varying threat actors, the board's oversight of cybersecurity risks remains a key responsibility. In two recent cases, the Delaware Court of Chancery (Chancery Court) dismissed Caremark...more
Takeaway: With the surge of data and cybersecurity breaches, corporate directors and officers have become targets for shareholder derivative lawsuits. Fortunately, there are procedural measures that directors and officers can...more
In Firemen’s Ret. Sys. of St. Louis v. Sorenson, C.A. No. 2019-0965-LWW (Del. Ch. Oct. 5, 2021), the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed a derivative lawsuit against Marriott executives and directors for breaches of the duty...more
As predicted in last year’s Looking Ahead, D&O insurance rates continued to rise in 2021. However, there are early signs that the market is in transition and that some relief may be on the way. As documented in this year’s...more
In 1996, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued its seminal decision in In re Caremark International Inc. Derivative Litigation, establishing the conditions for director oversight liability under Delaware law. Adopted a decade...more
Investors filed a derivative suit claiming that the company knew about, and failed to mitigate known, existing cybersecurity risks and shortfalls prior to the security breach. In early November, pension funds and...more
On November 25, 2020, a shareholder of First American Financial Corporation (“First American”) filed suit against the company and its officers and directors over a massive data security breach that exposed hundreds of...more
Following several quarters of double-digit rate hikes and increased retentions, the hardening marketing for directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance is adjusting to a “new normal” of increasing exposures, claims, and...more
On July 24, 2019, the Securities and Exchange Commission (the "SEC") announced charges against Facebook Inc. ("Facebook") for making misleading statements and risk factor disclosures regarding the misuse of Facebook user data...more
Google Receives Record GDPR Fine - Marking the first major penalty against a U.S. tech company under the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), the French data-protection authority, CNIL, has fined Google a record $57...more
On January 4, 2019 a federal district court in California approved a $29 million settlement in a shareholder derivative lawsuit against former Yahoo directors and officers regarding high-profile data breaches at Yahoo between...more
Yesterday, a Superior Court judge in Santa Clara, California approved what is believed to be the first monetary award to a company in a data breach-related derivative lawsuit....more
Despite focused media coverage and a steady increase in the number of data breaches involving public companies, there has not been a corresponding increase in shareholder securities fraud and shareholder derivative claims...more
Shareholders may have found a new hook for data security lawsuits. Over the past year, plaintiffs have filed nine federal class action securities fraud lawsuits against public companies after data security incidents,...more
Takeaways - Companies that suffer cyberattacks can expect not sympathy but scrutiny from legal authorities. - D&O insurance can cover not only litigation but also investigation costs. - Strategic negotiation of...more
In a surprise move late last week, Home Depot has agreed to settle a shareholders derivative suit filed against current and former members of the Board of Directors and the Chief Executive Officer and Chief Information...more
Snatching victory of a sort from the jaws of defeat, shareholders who brought a derivative action alleging that the 2014 Home Depot data breach resulted from officers’ and directors’ breaches of fiduciary duties have reached...more
Last week, Yahoo issued another warning to some of its customers telling them that their personal information may have been compromised in a data breach. This is the third notification to Yahoo users that their information...more
Public companies that are proactively working to mitigate “cyber” risks and prepare to respond to potential incidents frequently ask whether a “breach” will lead to litigation, loss of customers, stock price decline, and...more
Judge Thomas W. Thrash Jr. of the U.S. District Court of Georgia permanently shelved a derivative suit brought by shareholders of Home Depot. Home Depot is a multinational home improvement retailer. In September, 2014,...more
On November 30, 2016, The Home Depot, Inc. (Home Depot) got a victory in the shareholders’ derivative suit filed against it for its alleged failure to institute necessary controls to secure its data relating to its 2014...more
The recent dismissal of a Home Depot derivative action ends a string of high-profile derivative suits stemming from large-scale corporate data breaches. On November 30, the Northern District of Georgia dismissed a shareholder...more
Dismissal Of Home Depot Derivative Action Extends Shareholder Losing Streak An attempt to impose liability on corporate officers and directors for data breach-related losses has once again failed. On November 30,...more