Kevin LaCroix (LexBlog Australia)

As ESG-related litigation has developed, one definitive trend has been the emergence of litigation involving allegations of “greenwashing” – that is, claims alleging that companies overstated their ESG credentials in order to win business, attract customers, or score virtue points. To date, the greenwashing claims have emerged primarily in the U.S. and Europe. Now, Australia...

Readers of this blog well know that one of the current hot topics in the world of D&O is ESG – and not just in the United States, but in Europe, and elsewhere as well. In the following guest post, Persia Navidi, Partner in Insurance, Cyber and Climate Risk at Hicksons Lawyers, provides an overview...

The D&O Diary is on assignment in the Asia Pacific region this week, with a first stop in the beautiful Australian city of Sydney. Even though it was still Southern Hemisphere late winter/early spring while I was in Australia, the weather was beautiful and even summerlike. I was fortunate that my meeting schedule in Sydney...

The D&O Diary was on assignment this past week in the Asia Pacific region, with the first stop in the great country of Australia. It is always great to be in Australia, but the Southern Hemisphere Summer is a particularly good time to be there. After a day or two of clouds and some rain...

In the following guest post, Jeff Lubitz, Managing Director, ISS Securities Class Action Services, and Jarett Sena, Director of Litigation Analysis, ISS Securities Class Action Services, review an important recent Australian High Court decision in which the court paved the way for foreign shareholders to join the collective investor action pending in Australia against BHP...

Ever since the U.S. Supreme Court’s March 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank courts have struggled with application of the Morrison Court’s standard to securities lawsuits involving transactions in American Depository Receipts. As I noted in a prior blog post, one of the latest court rulings involving the application of Morrison to ADR...

One of the enduring questions following in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank is whether transactions in a non-U.S. company’s unsponsored Level I American Depository Receipts (ADRs) can be the subject of a damages action under the U.S. Securities laws. As I noted in a blog...

In a recent post in which I reviewed recent legal developments in Australia, I discussed the growing possibilities for future climate change-related D&O claims. A recent paper highlights the extent of these D&O claim risks in the United States. The October 2021 paper, published by the Commonwealth Climate and Law Initiative and entitled “Fiduciary Duties...

An Australian Federal Court class action lawsuit alleging that the Australian Federal Government failed to disclose to investors the climate change risks associated with the government’s sovereign bonds has survived in part an attempt by the government to have the action dismissed. In an October 8, 2021 Judgment (here), a Federal Court of Australia Judge...

It has been over ten years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark decision in Morrison v National Australia Bank – yet the lower courts continue to struggle with its application in specific situations. Morrison clarified that the U.S. securities laws apply to securities transactions on U.S. securities exchanges and to domestic transactions in...

Securities litigation observers know that class action securities lawsuit in the U.S. rarely go to trial. The same is true in Australia as well. However, in a recent ruling in only the second-ever securities lawsuit to go to trial in Australia, a Federal Court Justice has ruled in favor of the defendant company, the first...

It has been ten years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its landmark opinion in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, in which the Court clarified that the U.S. securities laws applies only to securities transactions that take place in the United States, either on an exchange or otherwise. While the decision has had a significant...

As regular readers know, over the last few months, I have been closely following the rise of coronavirus outbreak-related securities class action lawsuits. To date, though the pandemic is a global health and economic phenomenon, the pandemic-related securities litigation activity has been limited to the United States. In the following guest post, Jason Symons, Persia...

Securities class action lawsuits have been an important part of the litigation scene in Australia for many years. But even though the current class action procedural regime has been in place since 1992, no Australian securities class action lawsuit ever went all the way to judgment – that is, no case ever went to judgment...

As I have detailed in prior posts on this blog, securities class action litigation is well-established in Australia. According to a recent report from ISS Securities Class Action Services, securities class action litigation has grown “markedly” in the last ten years, to the point that outside North America, Australia “is the jurisdiction in which a...

The D&O Diary is on assignment in the Asia Pacific region this week, with a first stop on the itinerary in Sydney, Australia. The primary purpose of my visit was to attend the annual conference of the Australia Professional Indemnity Group (APIG), but I did have a little time before and after the conference to...

As readers of this blog know, data breach, cyber, and privacy-related issues have become a new important area of securities class action litigation in the U.S. In the following guest post, Andrew Miers, Jason Symons, and Shonagh Rasmussen of the HWL Ebsworth law firm review the possibilities or this type of securities lawsuit in Australia....

There was a time only a few short years ago when the U.S. courts were the preferred forum for the litigation of securities class actions claims, arguably even claims whose relationship to the U.S. and to U.S. laws was slight. The U.S. courts role as preferred forum for securities suits was undermined by the U.S....

In numerous prior posts, I have noted the phenomenon of securities suits following on in the wake of governmental regulatory or enforcement action. This phenomenon is well-established in the U.S.  Now it apparently is catching on outside the U.S. as well. Earlier this week, an Australia plaintiffs’ law firm filed a securities suit in an...

Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, the lower courts have wrestled with the issue of whether or not the transactions at issue in a particular securities suit were sufficiently “domestic” to bring them under the U.S. securities laws. These inquiries mostly have taken place at the motion...

Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank (here), the lower federal courts have set about implementing the Morrison decision’s holding that the U.S. securities laws do not apply extraterritorially. One issue that the courts have wrestled with is whether or not the U.S. securities laws apply to over-the-counter...

Prior to the U.S. Supreme Court’s June 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, U.S. courts held that the U.S. securities laws could be applied extraterritorially if there was sufficient fraudulent conduct or were sufficient effects from that conduct in the U.S.  In Morrison the Supreme Court rejected this “conduct or effects” test, ruling...

In its June 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank, the U.S. Supreme Court held that the U.S. securities laws do not apply extraterritorially. Since then, the lower U.S. federal district courts have struggled with applying Morrison in securities lawsuits involving foreign issuers. A host of recent U.S. lawsuits involving high-profile foreign companies has...

The D&O Diary’s Asia Pacific mission continued at the end of last week with a stop in Sydney, for the meetings that were the primary reason for my Asia Pacific trip. I have been to Sydney several times now, but the city has lost none of its charm for me. If anything, I think I...

Tasmania. Ten thousand miles away and about as far away from home as you can get. Tasmania — an island state off the southeastern coast of Australia and about an hour’s plane flight from Melbourne. Its capital city, Hobart, is located on the River Derwent and nestled below the rugged peak of Mt. Wellington. I...

The D&O Diary is on assignment in Australia this week, for meetings and for a little bit of a look around. The first stop on this sojourn Down Under was in Melbourne, in the Australian state of Victoria, on the southeastern quadrant of the Australian continental landmass. Melbourne is a surprisingly large city. Its metropolitan area...

During the more than six years since the U.S. Supreme Court issued its opinion in Morrison v National Australia Bank, the lower courts have worked out a host of issues about how Morrison applies in a variety of circumstances. One issue that has continued to percolate is the question of how the Morrison decision applies...

Class actions have been a big deal in the U.S. for a long time now, but what is really interesting is that class actions (and other forms of collective action) are now becoming a big deal outside of the U.S. One place in particular where class actions have become a very big deal indeed is...

As the rise of collective investor actions has gone global, one of the questions that has arisen is whether a country other than the U.S. would become a preferred forum in which investors might pursue their claims, even investors from outside the forum country. Australia is among the countries that have been suggested. Another country...

One of the practical effects of the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2010 decision in Morrison v. National Australia Bank is that, as a result of the decision, it is more difficult to bring a class action in a U.S. court under the U.S. securities laws against a company based outside the U.S. The Court rejected earlier...