In this edition of “Strange But True Corporate Stories,” we present Hexagon – a Swedish company that held its quarterly earnings call last week. The company had good news to report – sales & earnings were both up. Was there any bad news? No, nothing really. . . well . . .maybe there’s this one tiny issue that wasn’t worth mentioning during the call:
Swedish measurement technology firm Hexagon has defended the time it took to announce the arrest of its chief executive for alleged insider trading after it came to light he was under arrest during last week’s earnings call with analysts.
After being detained in Sweden on Oct. 26, Ola Rollen was allowed by the Swedish Economic Crime Authority to present Hexagon’s third-quarter results in a conference call on Oct. 28, the agency told Reuters on Tuesday, adding two of its police officers were with Rollen during the call. Analysts on the call were not told Rollen had been arrested or that police were in the room.
The company finally announced – three days after the conference call – that authorities had accused its CEO of insider trading in connection with an investment in a Norwegian company.
My favorite part of this story is the idea of two police officers sitting with the CEO while he was on the conference call. I’m sorry, but I can’t get the picture of Joe Friday & Bill Gannon out of my head.
Board Survey: Positive Trends on Cybersecurity
According to this BDO survey, boards are becoming more engaged on cybersecurity issues, investments to defend against cyber-attacks are increasing, and more companies are putting cyber-breach response plans in place.
Approximately three-quarters (74%) of public company directors report that their board is more involved with cybersecurity than it was 12 months ago and 80% say they have increased company investments during the past year to defend against cyber-attacks, with an average budget expansion of 22 percent. This is the third consecutive year that board members have reported increases in time and dollars spent on cybersecurity. The survey also identified improvements in the number of boards with cyber-breach response plans in place (from 45% to 63%).
That’s the good news. The bad news is that only 27% of companies surveyed are sharing information about cyber-attacks with entities outside of their business – a practice that needs to become more prevalent for the safety of critical infrastructure and national security, particularly at larger organizations.
“You’re Fired!”: Board Governance & CEO Turnover
This Stanford study starts with the proposition that one measure of good governance is a board’s willingness to terminate an underperforming CEO, & then looks into what governance characteristics result in stricter board oversight of the CEO. The study concludes that companies are likely to terminate an underperforming CEO, and identifies the following governance factors associated with stricter CEO monitoring:
– Independent/outside directors
– Experienced/engaged directors
– Significant institutional ownership
– Companies with access to replacement candidates
The study also suggests that “busy boards” – those where a majority of the directors serve on three or more boards – provide worse CEO oversight & are less likely to fire an underperforming CEO.
Yesterday, ISS announced the latest release of its governance ratings product – which also was renamed to “QualityScore” from “QuickScore.” Here’s the 139-page technical document. In addition to board diversity and board refreshment areas being added, one area that appears to have been updated involves proxy access – with subscribers now being able to view the details of a company’s proxy access bylaw provision.
Last year, ISS included a question on proxy access, but that was “zero weighted” & was included for informational purposes only. This year, it counts. The QualityScore will give credit to a company for having proxy access – but the existence of any “problematic provisions”- e.g. counting mutual funds under common management as separate shareholders under the aggregation limit, requiring a pledge to hold shares past the annual meeting date, providing the board with broad & binding authority to interpret the proxy access provision or combinations of other problematic provisions – could be deemed sufficient to “nullify the proxy access right” & result in no credit being given. See this Gibson Dunn blog for a larger summary of the changes.
As noted in this blog from Davis Polk’s Ning Chiu, the data verification period began yesterday – and runs through November 11th. QualityScores will be published on November 21st.
By the way, with this rebranding to “ISS QualityScore,” it now has made more name changes than Jefferson Airplane. My favorite was GRid 2.0…although CGQ was nice…
“Hulk-O-Mania” Redux: New Questions on 3rd Party Litigation Funding
If you follow high-brow websites like TMZ and “The Hollywood Reporter” as religiously as I do, you’re no doubt up-to-speed on the controversy surrounding billionaire Peter Thiel’s funding of Hulk Hogan’s recent invasion of privacy suit against Gawker Media. The Hulkster rang the bell to the tune of $140 million in that lawsuit, but Thiel’s role in the case has focused new attention on third-party litigation funding – and that attention hasn’t been limited to the media.
As this D&O Diary blog points out, a pair of recent court decisions in Pennsylvania & Delaware have raised new questions about the legal issues that have long surrounded litigation funding arrangements:
One of the most interesting and important recent litigation-related developments has been the rise of third-party litigation funding. An important part of this development has been the more or less general view that there is nothing improper about these kinds of arrangements and, in particular, that litigation funding does not represent improper champerty or maintenance, as long as the actual plaintiff continues to control the case.
However, a recent decision from a Pennsylvania appellate court suggests that the somewhat unusual litigation funding arrangement involved in an attorney fee dispute was “champertous” and therefore invalid. This decision and another recent decision from Delaware nullified the specific funding arrangements presented to the courts in those cases; the question is what these decisions may say about litigation funding in general.
Some of the broad-brush language employed by the courts in these two cases might cause concern to litigation funders. However, each of these cases involved highly unusual circumstances – the funding arrangements the courts were asked to review were very different from the straightforward funding structures that litigation funding firms typically employ.
Our November Eminders is Posted!
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The SEC recently announced insider trading charges against a board member (who also happens to be a lawyer) who allegedly purchased securities of a target company during a board committee meeting where the deal was being discussed. Here’s an excerpt from the SEC’s press release:
According to the SEC’s complaint, Cope learned confidential details about the planned merger during a board executive committee meeting on Jan. 5, 2016, and proceeded to place his first order to purchase Avenue Financial stock while that executive committee meeting was still in progress. He allegedly placed four more orders within an hour after the meeting ended.
If proven to be true, that’s just. . . wow.
The stock exchanges’ computer surveillance of trades make it so easy to catch insider traders in situations like these that it’s kind of amazing to me that people keep trying. Anyone who has ever done a deal has seen that FINRA inquiry letter that identifies people who engaged in unusual trading around the time of the announcement & asks if anyone on the deal team had any contact with them. These lists are rarely short & they definitely let you know that Big Brother is watching.
The fact that people still roll the dice in this kind of environment reminds me of what Director Joel Coen said about where the title of the Coen Brothers first movie – Blood Simple – came from. He said that the title came from a Dashiell Hammett story: “It’s an expression he used to describe what happens to somebody psychologically once they’ve committed murder. . . They go ‘blood simple’ in the slang sense of ‘simple,’ meaning crazy.”
Poll: Insider Trading in Target Company’s Stock
survey software
John & Broc: Corporate Officer Liability
Broc & I had a lot of fun taping our 5th “news-like” podcast. This 6-minute podcast is about corporate officer liability & the World Series battle of Cubs v. Indians. I highly encourage you to listen to these podcasts when you take a walk, commute to work, etc.
This podcast is also posted as part of our “Big Legal Minds” podcast series. Remember that these podcasts are also available on iTunes or Google Play (use the “My Podcasts” app on your iPhone and search for “Big Legal Minds”; you can subscribe to the feed so that any new podcast automatically downloads…
Yesterday, the SEC proposed amendments to the proxy rules that would require parties in a contested election to use universal proxy cards that would include the names of all director nominees. The proposal would permit shareholders to vote by proxy for their preferred combination of board candidates – as they could do if they attended the meeting & voted in person. Here’s the 243-page proposing release (and see Ning Chiu’s blog).
The proposed rules would:
– Allow shareholders to vote for the nominees of their choice by requiring proxy contestants to provide shareholders with a universal proxy card including the names of both management & dissident nominees.
– Enable parties to include all nominees on their universal proxy cards by changing the definition of a “bona fide nominee” in Rule 14a-4(d).
– Eliminate the Rule 14a-4(d)(4)’s “short slate rule,” since dissidents would no longer need to round out partial slates with management’s nominees.
– Require proxy contestants to notify each other of their respective director candidates by specific dates.
– Require dissidents to solicit shareholders representing at least a majority of the voting power of shares entitled to vote on the election of directors.
– Require proxy contestants to refer shareholders to the other party’s proxy statement for information about that party’s nominees and inform them that it is available for free on the SEC’s website.
– Require dissidents to file their definitive proxy statement with the SECby the later of 25 calendar days prior to the meeting date or five calendar days after the registrant files its definitive proxy statement.
The SEC also proposed amendments to Rule 14a-4(b), which would require proxy cards to include an “against” voting option for director elections when that vote has a legal effect, & also enable shareholders to “abstain” in a director election governed by a majority voting standard.
The ability to provide a “withhold” voting option when an “against” vote has legal effect would be eliminated. In addition, the proposed amendments to Item 21(b) of Schedule 14A would require disclosure about the effect of a “withhold” vote in an election of directors.
SEC Modernizes Rules 147/504 – & Rule 505 of Reg D Goes Poof!
The changes to the Rule 147 safe harbor include amendments updating Rule 147 & adoption of a new Rule 147A:
– Amended Rule 147 will remain a safe harbor under Section 3(a)(11) of the Securities Act, so that issuers may continue to use the rule for offerings relying on current state securities law exemptions.
– New Rule 147A – which is based on the SEC’s general exemptive authority under Section 28 of the Act – will be identical to Rule 147, except that it would not condition the safe harbor on Section 3(a)(11)’s requirement that offers be made only to in-state residents & would permit companies to be organized out-of-state. Sales would continue to be permitted only to in-state residents.
The amendments to Regulation D are intended to facilitate regional offerings. The final rules amend Rule 504 to increase the amount of securities that may be offered and sold from $1 million to $5 million. The rules also apply “bad actor” disqualifications to Rule 504 offerings. In light of the changes to Rule 504, the final rules repeal Rule 505 of Regulation D.
Amended Rule 147 and new Rule 147A will be effective in 150 days; revised Rule 504 will be effective in 60 days; and the repeal of Rule 505 will be effective in 180 days – all timed from publication in the Federal Register.
My Favorite Deal: Take Me Out to the Ballgame
Watching the Indians & Cubs in the World Series brings back a lot of memories – not only of baseball, but of my favorite deal. Most sports fans would give a kidney to spend a couple of months hanging out with – or just around – their favorite teams. I had that chance in 1998, when I was part of the underwriters’ counsel team for the Cleveland Indians’ initial public offering.
Working on that deal is still the most fun I’ve ever had practicing law – and there were plenty of legal challenges as well. The best part of the deal was that we were in the loop on trades, contract extensions, etc. well before everybody else was. You can keep your million dollar stock tips – this is the kind of material non-public information that I want!
Corp Fin took an interest in our deal too – or at least a couple of the reviewers did. On the day the deal priced, we’d asked to go effective at 4:00 pm, but by 4:30, we still hadn’t heard from the reviewer. I called my counterpart at company counsel, and she placed a couple of calls to the Staff to check on the status.
Finally, she called me around 4:45 to let me know that she’d spoken with the SEC, and we were effective. She was laughing when she told me this. When I asked why, she said the reviewers were apologetic for not calling sooner – but they had been distracted arguing about who was the best right hand power hitter in the American League.
The deal was criticized at the time, but investors got a pretty good return when the Dolan family purchased the team less than two years later – the 1998 IPO price was $15.00, and the team sold in early 2000 for more than $22.00 per share. However, there was another investment angle to the IPO – the memorabilia factor. I confess to setting aside some prospectuses for myself – and that turned out to be a pretty good investment too.
This Audit Analytics blog highlights a recent study that suggests PCAOB regulation may be good for an auditor’s business:
In a recent paper titled “Regulatory Oversight and Auditor Market Share,” authors Daniel Aobdia and Nemit Shroff look into the PCAOB’s role in contributing to the perception of an auditor’s assurance value, and whether or not it has an effect on an auditor’s market share. If external stakeholders perceive the PCAOB inspection process to increase the quality of an inspected firm’s audit, then, they hypothesize, the demand for the inspected firm’s audits will increase.
Since all accounting firms that audit US publicly-traded companies are subject to PCAOB oversight, the study looked abroad to measure the effect of regulation on market share. The study concluded that firms with positive PCAOB inspection reports realized bottom-line benefits:
PCAOB-inspected firms do indeed see an increase in market share relative to the firms that are not inspected by the PCAOB. According to the data, the average inspected auditor’s market share increased by 0.4 to 0.9 percentage points, or 3.5% to 6.4%. When looking at only auditors who received substantial negative criticism, however, they found that, true to their hypothesis, the auditors experienced no change in market share.
The study notes that the effect of a favorable PCAOB inspection was particularly significant in countries with higher levels of corruption. Firms with good inspection outcomes saw an increase of 0.5 to 1.4% in high-corruption countries, while those in countries with a lower level of corruption only saw an increase of -0.4 to 0.4.
“Critical Audit Matters” Disclosure: Insurance Policy for Auditors?
As Cooley’s Cydney Posner points out in this blog, accounting firms have not been big fans of the PCAOB’s proposal to make audit reports more informative through disclosure of “critical audit matters” – or “CAMs.” Under the latest version of the proposal, critical audit matters would be defined to include any matter communicated to the audit committee that is material to the financial statements, and involves especially challenging, subjective, or complex auditor judgment.
According to a recent study, auditors may want to rethink their opposition to this proposed disclosure requirement:
It’s somewhat ironic to see the results of the study showing, among other things, that disclosure of CAMs could help protect auditors from legal exposure if a misstatement were subsequently discovered in the CAM area.
The study concluded that the “types of CAMs illustrated by the PCAOB are more likely to prompt a ‘disclaimer effect’ by warning users of the inherent subjectivity and complexity associated with auditing CAM areas. Specifically, we find that CAM disclosures lead to less confidence in the CAM area before a misstatement is revealed and less assessed auditor responsibility after a misstatement is revealed in the CAM area.”
Transcript: “Middle Market Deals – If I Had Only Known”
We have posted the transcript for our recent DealLawyers.com webcast: “Middle Market Deals: If I Had Only Known.”
This Dodd-Frank.com blog discusses the SDNY’s recent decision in Perez v. Progenics Pharmaceuticals – which added $2.7 million in front pay to a whistleblower’s $1.6 million jury award for retaliation. Here’s an excerpt:
The Court granted Perez’ motion for reinstatement in the form of an order for “front pay” in an amount over $2.7 million. The Court did so because, among other things, it found Perez had no reasonable prospect of obtaining comparable alternative employment. The amount of the award was based on a conservative estimate of expected earnings based on Perez’ age at the time of the verdict until a reasonable retirement age.
SOX Section 806 says that a successful plaintiff in a retaliation case is entitled to “all relief necessary” to make that individual whole – but the opinion cited only two cases when analyzing the propriety of a front pay award, neither of which involved a Sarbanes-Oxley retaliation case.
“Dela-fornia” Corporations?
Steven Davidoff-Solomon’s recent “Deal Professor” column notes that 20% of NYSE & Nasdaq-listed companies are headquartered in California. In this blog, Keith Bishop analyzes what that means for Delaware corporations that call “The Golden State” home:
Delaware continues to lead all other states as the jurisdiction for incorporation. This doesn’t necessarily mean that Delaware’s corporate law necessarily applies to Delaware corporations headquartered in California. Here are a few provisions of the California General Corporation Law that are explicitly applicable to foreign corporations having their principal executive offices in the state:
– Annual report requirement (Section 1501)
– Shareholder list inspection (Section 1600)
– Shareholder inspection of books & records (Section 1601)
But wait! There’s more – regardless of where you’re heaquartered:
Other California statutes apply to foreign corporations without regard to the location of their principal executive offices, including:
– Effectiveness of limitations in articles (Section 208)
– Issuance of replacement certificates (Section 419)
– Immunity for certain share transfers (Section 420)
– Action to contest election or appointment made in California (Section 719)
– Shareholder derivative actions (Section 800)
– County assessor right to California property records (Section 1506)
– Shareholder right to obtain results of shareholder meeting (Sections 1509-1511)
If your foreign corporation isn’t a listed company, then read the rest of Keith’s blog & you’ll find that this laundry list just scratches the surface when it comes to the applicability of California’s corporate statute.
Broc & John: Shareholder Proposal Reform
Broc & I had a lot of fun taping our 4th “news-like” podcast. This 8-minute podcast is about shareholder proposal reform & sports blogs. I highly encourage you to listen to these podcasts when you take a walk, commute to work, etc. And as we tape more of these, it’s inevitable we’ll figure out how to be more entertaining…
This podcast is also posted as part of our “Big Legal Minds” podcast series. Remember that these podcasts are also available on iTunes or Google Play (use the “My Podcasts” app on your iPhone and search for “Big Legal Minds”; you can subscribe to the feed so that any new podcast automatically downloads…
Here’s the survey results from our recent survey about registration statement due diligence:
1. Prior to the effectiveness of a registration statement, we do this:
– No formal action was taken to bolster a due diligence defense – 31%
– Management reported to the board about the contents of the registration statement – 36%
– Counsel reported to the board about the contents of the registration statement – 31%
– Some other process was followed to bolster a due diligence defense – 29%
2. If no formal action was taken to bolster a due diligence defense, the reasons include:
– Counsel did not alert us to this issue – 11%
– Director personal liability seems remote – 34%
– Board relied on the audit committee’s prior review of the incorporated SEC filings, which are the likely source of any liability – 66%
– Process takes too much time for the value that it provides – 29%
A new Equilar study says that companies aren’t saying much about board diversity in their SEC filings:
Lacking any regulatory requirement to disclose diversity on their boards of directors, few companies explicitly detail this information in public filings. Just 12.8% of S&P 500 companies included information on board diversity in terms of race or ethnicity in their most recent proxy statements, according to a new study from Equilar.
The tech sector lagged almost every other industry, with only four (5.7%) of the technology companies in the S&P 500 disclosing information about board diversity in their 2016 proxy statements. Oil & gas companies were also lacking when it came to diversity disclosure – only one company included this type of information in its 2016 proxy statement.
According to the report, tech companies have improved board diversity in recent years – but still have far to go:
While still lagging the overall S&P 500, the technology sector did see the largest percentage growth of women on boards during the last five years, according to the Equilar study. In 2012, women held 14.4% of tech board seats, and that percentage increased to 21.0% in 2016. However, that growth still was not enough to reach the overall S&P 500 average—21.3%—nor up its ranking in comparison to other sectors.
Women on Boards: Benefits of Gender Diversity
While we’re on the topic of gender diversity, this recent CFA Institute blog highlights the results of an MSCI study on women serving on corporate boards in the US and other developed & emerging markets. It also cites some interesting results associated with increasing the gender diversity of corporate boards:
– Companies that had strong female leadership generated a return on equity of 10.1% per year versus 7.4% for those without (on an equal-weighted basis).
– Companies lacking board diversity tend to suffer more governance-related controversies than average.
– Strong evidence was not found that having more women in board positions indicates greater risk aversion.
This Deloitte memo reviews recent comments by senior Staffers from the SEC’s Office of Chief Accountant addressing best practices in implementing the upcoming new accounting standards on revenue recognition, leases & credit losses. Specific recommendations include:
– Management may need to exercise greater judgment under the new credit loss ASU and should implement any changes to internal controls necessary “to support the formation and enforcement of sound judgments” under the new standard.
– Auditor input regarding the implementation of new accounting standards and the accounting for complex transactions will not raise independence issues so long as management makes the final determination based upon its own analysis as to the accounting used, and the auditor does not design or implement accounting policies.
– When a company can’t reasonably estimate the impact of adopting the new standards, it should consider providing additional qualitative disclosures about the significance of the impact on its financial statements. The SEC staff would expect such disclosures to include a description of:
– The effect of any accounting policies that the registrant expects to select upon adopting the ASU(s).
– How such policies may differ from the registrant’s current accounting policies.
– The status of the registrant’s implementation process and the nature of any significant implementation matters that have not yet been addressed.
Also see this blog that Broc ran last week on our “Mentor Blog” entitled “Disclosure of New Accounting Standards: SEC Seeking Incremental Qualitative Disclosures.”
New Accounting Standards: KPMG Says “Get Moving!”
Meanwhile, in this memo, Baker & McKenzie’s Dan Goelzer notes that KPMG is sounding the alarm about a lack of readiness for two of these new accounting standards with rapidly looming effective dates. Companies must apply FASB’s new revenue recognition standard for periods beginning after December 15, 2017 – while the new lease accounting standard kicks in a year later.
KPMG reports that more than 2/3rds of companies are still in the assessment phase when it comes to the new revenue recognition standard – and that less than half have begun to assess the impact of the new lease accounting standard. Here’s an excerpt from the memo:
Audit committees should be actively monitoring the company’s plans and progress with respect to implementation of these new standards. Given the importance of revenue recognition to virtually all companies, and the fast-approaching effective date, a realistic work plan and adequate resources for implementation of that standard are becoming critical priorities. KPMG states: “[I]t is becoming increasingly evident that some companies will be forced to implement the standard using manual processes and controls with the ability to introduce system changes until sometime after the effective date. As reliance on manual processes increases, companies will be faced with heightened risk of errors, increased costs, and less efficient operations.”
While there is somewhat more time available for implementation of the leasing standard, audit committees of companies that engage in any significant amount of leasing should make sure that the company has an implementation plan and has begun its assessment efforts.
More on “The Mentor Blog”
We continue to post new items daily on our blog – “The Mentor Blog” – for TheCorporateCounsel.net members. Members can sign up to get that blog pushed out to them via email whenever there is a new entry by simply inputting their email address on the left side of that blog. Here are some of the latest entries:
– Boards: Portfolio Managers as New Directors
– LSE: Changes AIM Rules to Reflect ‘Market Abuse Regulation’
– PwC Violates Auditor Independence Rules – Yet Again
– US Foreign Bond Issuers: Fed Cracks Down on Form SLT Reporting
– Delaware Supreme Court Affirms Chancery’s Lack of Damages Award as Remedial Discretion
Recently, Senator Mark Warner wrote this letter (also see this article) to the SEC asking the agency to investigate whether Yahoo! adequately informed investors about its massive data breach – this focuses even more attention on a hot topic: cybersecurity disclosure. This Debevoise memo reviews the disclosure practices of Fortune 100 companies for data security breaches. Here are some of the key findings:
– Most Fortune 100 companies make initial disclosures about a cyber incident through their periodic reports, rather than on a current report Form 8-K.
– Periodic reports typically reflected the cybersecurity event in updated risk factors, sometimes by directly calling out the event and other times by revising risk factors in light of it, though without specific reference to the event.
– Disclosures were typically contained in the “risk factors” section of periodic filings. When disclosures did appear elsewhere, they were usually made in the financial statement footnotes, in MD&A, or – occasionally – in the discussion of legal proceedings or the business.
Board & CEO Views: What Makes a Good GC?
Recently, KPMG published these survey results that reveal how CEOs & boards perceive what makes a good general counsel. The answers suggest that the job requires a lot more than just being the company’s chief lawyer. Here are the five attributes that characterize a top GC:
– Business leader providing insightful commercial advice to the other senior executives and the board, based on sound legal principles.
– Risk manager being constantly alert to – and vigilant against – an increasingly broad array of global threats to the company, and handling them accordingly.
– Technology champion leading the change in mindset – from technology as a stand-alone, isolated specialism to the all-pervasive reality of doing business in the digital age.
– Key communicator adeptly handling communications with key stakeholders such as the board and investors, as well as effectively communicating with regulators and internal teams.
– Builder of corporate culture setting a tone of trust at the top & building a risk-aware culture in which compliance is not seen as a straitjacket, but as a source of competitive advantage.
If a GC’s Profile Increases, A Greater Risk to Privilege?
The changing role of today’s GC increases the risk to the attorney-client privilege. This recent blog by McDermott Will’s Michael Peregrine & Bill Schuman notes that the emerging best practice of giving the general counsel greater organizational prominence may create attorney-client privilege issues. Here’s an excerpt:
Despite its organizational benefits, the transformation of the general counsel’s role carries with it a significant potential cost. The challenges of attempting to attach the protections of the attorney-client privilege to business advice provided by the general counsel have long been acknowledged.
These challenges become more consequential as the general counsel’s internal communications increasingly extend to operational or strategic considerations, and not just purely legal matters. And the stakes are even higher now that the Justice Department and other enforcers have said they will hold accountable more individuals, for whom the privilege may be unavailable.
Yesterday, Corp Fin announced that it would no longer require companies to include “Tandy letter” representations in their responses to Staff comments. In a Tandy letter, a company essentially represents that it won’t raise the SEC’s comment process as a defense in securities litigation. In its announcement, Corp Fin makes clear that the absence of Tandy letter language doesn’t mean that the SEC’s posture on that position has changed.
The Staff began to require this language in all response letters in 2004, when it made all comment & response letters publicly available. Back then, Broc blogged about the Staff’s reasons for imposing that new requirement:
Before August 2004, the SEC Staff only required this language when the Staff had an open Enforcement inquiry related to a particular company – but this selective approach became unworkable when response letters became universally available.
The change is effective immediately – so if you have a comment letter that you haven’t replied to yet, Corp Fin says you can forget about the Tandy letter request that’s in it.
Wells Fargo: Is There A Caremark Claim?
This blog from Christine Hurt at “The Conglomerate” ponders whether the unfolding scandal at Wells Fargo might support a Caremark claim against the directors for shortcomings in oversight. Her answer? As usual, probably not:
So, we have illegal activity. The activity also does not seem isolated — over 5000 employees, possibly 2 million unauthorized accounts, over 500,000 unauthorized credit cards. However, the Caremark case involved the company paying civil damages of $250 million in 1995. Here, the fine is $185 million, which may be the largest fine levied by the brand-new CFPB, but isn’t that big in the scheme of things. If more charges are brought, that would strengthen the claim. I’m not sure I would be confident in a Caremark claim here, even though the activity is illegal and seems to be widespread.
Broc & John: Dodd-Frank Reform
Broc & I had a lot of fun taping our 3rd “news-like” podcast. This 6-minute podcast is about efforts in Congress to repeal Dodd-Frank & dinosaurs. I highly encourage you to listen to these podcasts when you take a walk, commute to work, etc. And as we tape more of these, it’s inevitable we’ll figure out how to be more entertaining…
This podcast is also posted as part of our “Big Legal Minds” podcast series. Remember that these podcasts are also available on iTunes or Google Play (use the “My Podcasts” app on your iPhone and search for “Big Legal Minds”; you can subscribe to the feed so that any new podcast automatically downloads…
