So there is an interesting article in Massachusetts Lawyers Weekly on the rise of so-called “nuclear” verdicts in Massachusetts, or in other words, what we used to just call – with much less hyperbole – runaway jury verdicts. (By the way, can we do away with the marketing campaign to label large verdicts nuclear; runaway
Directors and Officers
A Few Thoughts On Litigation Over Executive Retention and Departure
One of my partners, Mark Poerio, an expert on executive compensation, has written a client alert discussing what companies can consider doing proactively to encourage executives to stick around rather than move onto greener pastures. In short, they are all different ways to make the current position “greener,” so to speak, than competing pastures.…
Cyber Insurance: As Prices Go Up, Coverage Disputes Increase As Well
By Stephen Rosenberg on
You may need a subscription to read it, but I greatly enjoyed this Bloomberg Law article today on cyber insurance. The title of the article sort of says it all, although the article delves into the topic in decent depth: “Cyber Insurance Policies Grow Pricey Amid Rising Hacks, Lawsuits.”
For those of you…
How to Trigger Insurance Coverage for an ERISA Claim
Well, how can I not comment on this, given the focus of both this blog and my practice? The Second Circuit was just presented with the question of whether an insurer has to provide a defense to a company and its officer, under the employee benefits liability portion of a policy, for an ERISA claim…
Using the Economic Loss Doctrine to Defend Company Officers
One of the interesting aspects of litigating ERISA cases is the extent to which, for me anyway, it is part and parcel of a broader practice of representing directors and officers in litigation. From top hat agreements they have entered into, to being targeted in breach of fiduciary duty cases for decisions they participated in related…
At the Intersection of Insurance and Plan Fiduciaries
Well, given the title of this blog, I couldn’t exactly let this decision pass unnoticed. In this decision from the Court of Appeals of New York, Federal Insurance Company v. IBM, the Court denied insurance coverage for IBM under an excess fiduciary liability (apparently) policy, for a settlement by IBM of a claim that…
Fiduciary Liability: Risks and Insurance
By Stephen Rosenberg on
What’s that old saying – your lack of foresight doesn’t make it my emergency, or something to that effect?
I am a little guilty of that here, in my advice to you, at the relative last minute, to hurry up and register for a webinar on the intersection of insurance law, ERISA and fiduciary liability.
Directors and Officers Coverage, Exclusions and the Magic Words “In Fact”
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Directors and Officers, Exclusions
Here is a terrific article on the lessons about directors and officers insurance that should be taken from a series of rulings that eventually ended coverage for the Stanford Financial executives. I have said many times that because the scope of D & O insurance is so dependent on the scope of the exclusions, it…
Doubling Down: Protecting the Director or Officer Against the Unknown and Unforeseen
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Posted in Directors and Officers
Here’s a little story that rung an old bell for me, and provides an object lesson on a point I have made in the past in various forums concerning the protections against liability that need to be sought by officers and directors. The story concerns a decision out of the Tenth Circuit finding that a…
On Coverage for Financial Investigations, and an Echo from the Past
By Stephen Rosenberg on
Little time to blog today – plus I still have to get up the latest chapter of our on-going serialization of Robert Plotkin’s book, The Genie in the Machine – but I did want to pass along, with a couple of brief comments, this excellent article on the question of whether there is coverage for…