The agenda for the PLUS D&O Symposium is carefully planned by a D&O committee and by the submissions of PLUS members and advocates. PLUS takes great pride in the quality of speakers and topics at each of our events.
While an employment claim may be the most frequent claim a private or non-profit entity will experience, the past few years have shown that the D&O exposure in this arena has become much more severe than the market anticipated, with some long-term insurance markets reducing their writings in this arena once thought to be the most profitable part of the D&O insurnace world. This session will discuss the various types of exposures and walk through real life claim scenarios confronting private and nonprofit entities today.
The current state of the D&O market for IPOs is extremely challenging. This session will explore the current market, insurers’ concerns in providing capacity for IPO D&O programs, what claims look like, and suggestions and transactional terms which may help to minimize risk exposure.
The most significant severity risk that public company D&O insurance policyholders and underwriters face is the threat of class action litigation under the federal securities laws. In recent years, the pace of securities litigation in the U.S. has skyrocketed. The chance of a publicly traded company getting hit with a securities lawsuit is higher than it has ever been. This litigation rate has had a significant impact on D&O insurers’ results and, consequently, on the D&O insurance premiums that public company D&O policyholders must pay. This session will explore where there are legislative changes that Congress can make to reform a securities litigation system, alternative reform efforts that might be able available, and their prospect for success.
The severity of derivative litigation is unquestionably on the rise. Traditionally, derivative litigation was viewed as a tag along D&O exposure yet in the last ten years, there have been eight $100 million+ derivative settlements. A number of factors have been identified as contributing to this increased severity, including the rise of “event driven” securities litigation, increased interest by top plaintiffs’ firms, litigation spanning multiple jurisdictions and recent litigation successes by the plaintiffs’ bar. This session will discuss the evolving nature of derivative litigation, explore what factors have led to the increase in severity, and the role of Side A insurance in the new derivative landscape.
John Carreyrou will share the ethical lapses, the credulous media coverage, and the lax oversight that allowed Theranos to achieve a “unicorn” valuation of $9 billion; and he will share lessons companies, journalists, and business leaders can learn from its fall.
Andrew Smith, Director of the FTC’s Bureau of Consumer Protection, will engage the group with the firsthand perspective on what type of events in 2020 will trigger the FTC’s vast efforts in oversight of corporate controls around privacy, data security and beyond. As 2019 was a notably engaged year of FTC investigation and enforcement, Director Smith will share Bureau emphasis in this time of escalating exposure.
This interview will explore the current and potential future state of the D&O market from the external perspective of a Wall Street industry analyst. Yaron Kinar is an equity research analyst for Goldman Sachs. He joined Goldman in 2017, where he serves as the lead North America analyst of the non-life insurance industry. Yaron has over 14 years of sell-side research experience covering both the life and non-life insurance industries in various roles since 2006. Prior to joining Wall Street, Yaron spent three years in the insurance industry as an underwriter, and also served in an elite military intelligence unit.
While Delaware was traditionally viewed as a neutral forum for coverage litigation, in recent years there have been a number of holdings in favor of professional liability policyholders which have given the carrier-side bar serious pause when considering forum selection strategy. This session will provide an overview of Delaware practice and the Delaware judiciary’s historical role as the forum of choice for commercial disputes. We will also explore threshold questions, specific contract interpretation questions, why Delaware trial courts appear to be increasingly perceptive to policyholder’s positions in coverage litigation, and what the appellate landscape might look like going forward.
This session will walk through various case studies where the D&O industry has successfully incorporated empirical data into business operations.
The high frequency rate of litigation against public companies seems to be at a new normal as both claim filing rates and the inventory of claims needing to resolve face decade high levels. The market is seeing transformative impact due to this developed loss, but the developing and threatened loss is not yet priced into today’s terms and conditions. The session will analyze hot topics for potential claim escalation in 2020 and debate if securities class action filings today constitute a “New Normal” and what 2020 might bring.
Entering 2020, there are appears to be no abatement to a record level of securities class actions, to highly monetized derivatives, and to headline crises faced by both public and privately held companies. All this is happening while professional liability practitioners are working through record leading inventory of cases to resolve. This session will explore these issues and provide perspectives on the market. Join these executive experts as they share guidance for underwriters in decisions about transferring, retaining or mitigating risk amid market conditions unique to this decade. They will additionally provide insight on changes in the liability laws impacting results.