Stephen O’Donnell
Cyber liability insurance is a relatively new product and many of the terms and conditions found in cyber-liability policies are as yet untested in the courts. In this guest post, Stephen O’Donnell of the Steptoe & Johnson law firm takes a look at two particular standard features of the cyber liability insurance policies, the retroactive date and policy inception date exclusions, and the potential for these exclusions to preclude coverage for the very kind of exposures that are the reasons most purchasers buy the insurance.
I would like to thank Stephen for his willingness to publish his article on this site. I welcome guest post submissions from responsible authors on topics of interest to this blog’s readers. Please contact me directly if you would like to submit a guest post. Here is Stephen’s guest post.
The private company management liability insurance environment is constantly changing. The liability environment is constantly evolving. Because of the changes in liabilities and exposures and because of the competitive nature of the insurance marketplace, the available terms and conditions are constantly changing as well. Unfortunately, all too often, some private companies simply renew their management liability insurance programs year after year, without ensuring that their policies contain the most up-to-date terms and conditions available. In order for companies assess whether their policies are current, I have listed some of the important items for companies to look for in their policies. I have added some additional comments below, as well. 
It has now been seven months since the U.S. Department of Justice announced — in the form of a 
One of the key current concerns in the global D&O insurance marketplace involves questions of cross-border implementation of insurance policy responsibilities and requirements. This concern is usually presented as a problem for policyholders, as they must determine how their insurance might respond to claims arising outside their home jurisdictions. However, a recent decision in the Eastern District of New York and involving one of the individuals caught up in the FIFA improper payments scandal show that the problems involved with cross-border policy implementation represent a challenge for insurers, as well.
One of the interesting (and challenging) quirks of the federal securities laws is that 
As I have noted previously on this site, there are many fewer publicly traded companies in the United States now than there were within past decades. I have noted this phenomenon primarily within the context of 
In a 
The number of securities class action lawsuit filings raising accounting-related allegations rose in 2015, as did the number and value of accounting-related securities suit settlements, according to a new report from Cornerstone Research. In addition to the increase in the number of accounted-related lawsuit filings, the market capitalization losses associated with those new filings increased as well. The April 19, 2016 report, entitled “Accounting Class Action Filings and Settlements: 2015 Review and Analysis,” can be found 