On April 28, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed a complaint against the Brazilian mining company Vale S.A., alleging that the company made false and misleading statements to investors about the company’s...more
As previously discussed in our Sept. 10, 2020, client alert, in Wong v. Restoration Robotics, Inc., Case No. 18-CIV-02609 (Cal. Super. Ct. Sept. 1, 2020), the Superior Court of California for the County of San Mateo dismissed...more
On April 1, 2022, the Superior Court of California, County of Los Angeles, granted a summary judgment motion that effectively struck down AB 979, a California statute requiring the boards of public corporations based in the...more
As noted in previous client alerts (including here), boardroom diversity continues to be an increasing focus of stakeholders ranging from legislators to institutional investors to retail stockholders. In recent years, their...more
Judge William H. Orrick of the Northern District of California recently denied a motion to dismiss the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC’s) first insider trading case charging a defendant with “shadow trading.” The...more
As discussed in a previous client alert, The Boeing Company (Boeing) has faced shareholder litigation arising from the fatal crashes of two 737 MAX airplanes. In one such derivative suit filed under Section 14(a) of the...more
In its recent decision in Yatra Online, Inc. v. Ebix, Inc., Case No. 2020-0444-JRS, 2021 WL 3855514 (Del. Ch. Aug. 30, 2021) (Slights, V.C.), the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed plaintiff’s breach of contract and other...more
As we have discussed in prior client alerts, in the wake of the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Salzberg v. Sciabacucci (Salzberg), 227 A.3d 102 (Del. 2020), several California state courts have dismissed claims against...more
In a significant decision, the Delaware Court of Chancery recently denied a motion to dismiss, thus allowing discovery to proceed, on a Caremark claim against the directors of The Boeing Company (Boeing), arising out of the...more
Demonstrating its continued focus on cybersecurity enforcement, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) announced three new actions on Aug. 30 charging eight firms with maintaining deficient cybersecurity policies and...more
Securities fraud litigation based on regulatory mishaps, environmental disasters, data breaches, sexual harassment revelations, the COVID-19 pandemic and other well-publicized events that affect stock prices has been on the...more
9/3/2021
/ Anti-Money Laundering ,
Class Action ,
Duty to Disclose ,
Enforcement Actions ,
Federal Pleading Requirements ,
Financial Statements ,
Material Misstatements ,
Money Laundering ,
Puffery ,
Securities Fraud ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Stock Drop Litigation
As we have discussed in prior alerts, expanding boardroom diversity has been a recent focus for many regulators, issuers, shareholders and other stakeholders. To this end, in December 2020, Nasdaq Inc. proposed new rules that...more
Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court granted the petition for a writ of certiorari in Pivotal Software v. Tran, a case that could have significant implications for Securities Act of 1933 (Securities Act) cases brought in state...more
On June 21, the U.S. Supreme Court issued its long-awaited decision in Goldman Sachs Group, Inc. et al. v. Arkansas Teacher Retirement System et al. The Court held that in ruling on class certification in a securities action,...more
6/25/2021
/ Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v Goldman Sachs Group ,
Basic v Levinson ,
Burden of Persuasion ,
Burden of Proof ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Goldman Sachs ,
Investors ,
Presumption of Reliance ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Litigation ,
Shareholders
On Friday, June 11, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) filed its Agency Rule List for Spring 2021 with the Office of Management and Budget. The Agency Rule List gives clarity to when companies can expect to see...more
6/16/2021
/ 10b5-1 Plans ,
Cybersecurity ,
Disclosure Requirements ,
Environmental Social & Governance (ESG) ,
Investment Adviser ,
Proxy Voting Guidelines ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Agenda ,
Rulemaking Process ,
Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) ,
Securities Regulation ,
Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (SPACs)
We have discussed in previous alerts a spate of shareholder lawsuits alleging corporate fiduciary breaches and securities law violations tied to the defendant company’s alleged failure to fulfill diversity aspirations. ...more
Most of the recent shareholder litigation that has followed the current wave of Special Purpose Acquisition Company (SPAC) offerings and associated business combinations has been based on federal securities law claims. ...more
In a prior alert, we noted that a number of shareholder lawsuits were brought during 2020 in which large corporations and their directors were accused of fiduciary breaches and securities law violations tied to the alleged...more
3/26/2021
/ Board of Directors ,
Breach of Duty ,
Corporate Governance ,
Derivative Complaint ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Facebook ,
Fiduciary Duty ,
Pleading Standards ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities Violations ,
Shareholders
Introduction -
The proliferation of data and the rise of affordable cloud computing services has led many companies and organizations to outsource their data storage to third parties, a practice that raises numerous issues...more
As previously discussed in our Sept. 10, 2020, client alert, in Wong v. Restoration Robotics, Inc., Case No. 18-CIV-02609 (Cal. Super. Ct. Sept. 1, 2020), the Superior Court of California for the County of San Mateo dismissed...more
12/23/2020
/ Bylaws ,
Certificates of Incorporation ,
Corporate Issuers ,
Cyan Inc v Beaver Cty Emps Ret Fund ,
D&O Insurance ,
Forum Selection ,
Initial Public Offering (IPO) ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Securities Act of 1933 ,
Securities Litigation ,
Securities Violations
On Dec. 11, 2020, the Supreme Court granted certiorari in Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, et al. v. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., to review a decision by the Second Circuit Court of Appeals upholding certification of an...more
12/17/2020
/ Arkansas Teacher Retirement System v Goldman Sachs Group ,
Basic v Levinson ,
Burden of Persuasion ,
Burden of Proof ,
Certiorari ,
Class Action ,
Class Certification ,
Conflicts of Interest ,
Goldman Sachs ,
Investors ,
Presumption of Reliance ,
SCOTUS ,
Securities Exchange Act ,
Securities Litigation ,
Shareholders
Recent events have brought renewed attention to the push for greater diversity in the boardroom. In this alert, we discuss several developments highlighting the need for public company directors to remain focused on diversity...more
10/26/2020
/ Anti-Discrimination Policies ,
Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Diversity ,
Diversity and Inclusion Standards (D&I) ,
Gender Equity ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulation S-K ,
Securities Violations ,
Shareholder Litigation ,
Woman Board Members
In Wong v. Restoration Robotics, Inc., Case No. 18CIV02609 (Cal. Sup. Ct. Sept. 1, 2020), the Superior Court of California for the County of San Mateo recently dismissed claims against an issuer and its directors and officers...more
On April 7, in Arkansas Teacher Retirement System, et al. v. Goldman Sachs Group, Inc., a Second Circuit panel declined to narrow the scope of the inflation-maintenance theory of securities fraud and split 2-1 in affirming...more
There are many litigation issues presented by the outbreak of and response to COVID-19 (the disease caused by the novel coronavirus). We address below several practical and legal issues to consider during this challenging...more