Implications of New GDPR Fines
As followers of multinational business know, the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) went into effect in May 2018, with more questions than answers in the minds of many observers.…
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Announcing Executive Session Video Series
Simkiss & Block is excited to announce a new, regular video series featuring our CEO Brian Block. In this video series, Brian will sit down with other CEOs, industry leaders,…
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D&O Claim Settlement Size Increased in 2018
According to the latest report from Cornerstone Research, a source widely followed in the D&O world, aggregate, average, and median securities class action lawsuit settlement amounts all rose in 2018.…
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Court’s Reversal Potentially Problematic for D&O
About 18 months ago, we told you of what we hoped would be a significant obstacle to merger-objections suits and perhaps lead to a downturn in securities litigation overall, when the Delaware Chancery Court made it clear that plaintiffs should no longer expect the Court to approve disclosure-only settlements. This position has been expressed in...
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Personal Indemnification Agreements for Directors & Officers
Although D&O insurance is important for protecting directors’ and officers’ personal assets, it is often an individual insured’s last line of defense. For most directors and officers, state statutory protections, corporate bylaws/ indemnification provisions and/ or individual indemnification agreements will provide the first line of defense. Only if these protections fail would a director or...
Read MoreBusiness Email Scams On The Rise
In an alert to businesses last month, the FBI indicated that business email scams have accounted for $2.3 billion in losses since 2013 and such scams more than tripled in this past year alone. The alert went on to say that such frauds are becoming harder to detect because attackers, who once pretended to...
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Data Protection in The EU
Data Protection in the EU has been a hot topic lately, not only because of the discussions taking place to finalize the EU General Data Protection Regulation (EU GDPR), but also because of the on-going renegotiations of the EU-US Safe Harbor provisions, which the European Court of Justice recently ruled as being invalid. The...
Read MoreDOJ Enforcing Yates Memo Accountability
As further evidence that the tone toward individual accountability set by the Yates memorandum (which we wrote about last Fall) continues to be applied by the Department of Justice, two new settlements were announced last month which corporate executives and independent directors should review. On September 19 and 27, 2016, the Department of Justice...
Read MoreInsiders Remain Among The Most Dangerous Cyber Threats
Although system intrusions from external hackers (foreign governments, hacktivist entities, lone wolves, etc) grab most of the headlines, it remains an underpublicized fact that one of the most common causes of data breaches is actually from an internal exposure – the rogue employee. According to The Wall Street Journal, a recent report found that...
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Mechanics’ Lien State Construction Notices Directory Now Available Online
The Pennsylvania Department of General Services has announced the online availability of the State Construction Notices Directory, an interactive and searchable repository as required by changes made to the Mechanics’ Lien law of 1963 per Act 142 of 2014 (49 P.S. §§ 1501.1 – 1501.6). The standardized directory provides property owners, contractors and subcontractors with...
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