Over the past 25 years, class action investor and shareholder derivative lawsuits naming corporate directors and officers as defendants have become a regular feature of the U.S. litigation landscape. As the insurance industry has taken an increasingly significant role in underwriting these settlement costs and legal expenses, attorneys from the White and Williams D&O Practice Group have been at the forefront in counseling insurer clients on the underwriting and claims issues associated with D&O liability and exposure, and have litigated a number of the key court decisions defining the respective rights and obligations of policyholders and D&O insurers during the past two decades.

Our attorneys work with primary and excess domestic U.S., European and Bermuda insurers on a wide variety of significant claims involving directors and officers of public and private companies, as well as similar kinds of reputational risk litigation involving financial institution and financial services insureds. Our team has significant involvement with respect to some of the last decade's largest scandals involving directors and officers and financial and professional insurance, including Enron, Worldcom, Adelphia, Tyco, IPO laddering, subprime/credit crisis-related litigation, Madoff-related litigation, and options backdating-related litigation. In addition to our involvement as coverage and monitoring counsel in these complex claims, we also represent insurers in coverage litigation and arbitration arising under these types of insurance policies.

D&O insurers also call on our attorneys to assist in drafting policies and endorsements, as well as in identifying risk management and risk evaluation tools to assist insurers in better managing these insured exposures.

Attorneys in our D&O Practice Group also are regularly involved in educational and insurance industry programs and seminars for D&O insurance professionals dealing with cutting-edge issues in the law and in the D&O marketplace.