Protecting Your Organization, Your Board, Yourself: What every in-house counsel needs to know about D&O insurance

November 2012Directors and Officers Liability Insurance

Abstract

As in-house counsel, you are expected to provide input into the analysis and management of risk for your organization. You may also be a director or officer yourself, and thus have direct exposure to some of your organization's management risks. Whether you are counsel to a publicly-traded or privately-held company or to a non-profit organization, you will want to have an understanding of the tools available to address governance risk, which include directors' and officers' liability (D&O) insurance. D&O insurance policies are complex because of the variation in provisions and scope of coverage -- there is no "standard" policy form and each insurance carrier has its own wordings. Clauses touted as coverage enhancements will have pro's and con's depending on the structure and functions of your organization's board. And there are added considerations if your company has operations in multiple jurisdictions. This article discusses D&O insurance and how it fits into an organization’s risk management process, with a focus on items of particular relevance to in-house counsel.

Subscribe to reador

Related Papers

The Path of Duty Down Under

The focus of this paper is on the priority duties owed by Australian life companies and their directors to policyholders and addresses how those duties operate where the policyholder...Read more

Catherine James

Acting General Counsel and Executive General Manager, Corporate Affairs, Challenger Limited, Australia

Reforming Shareholders’ Meetings in Italy: Considerations on the Emerging Reform of the Consolidated Finance Act

While this article was in proof, the Italian Government approved the reform of the capital markets framework. At the time of writing, the final consolidated text, although in line with...Read more

Giuseppe Catalano

Company Secretary and Head of Corporate Affairs, Assicurazioni Generali, Italy

The geopolitical element and business: a framework for in-house counsel

Geopolitics and geoeconomics have assumed an unprecedented centrality for globally active companies, yet many in-house legal functions remain uncertain about how to respond. This article proposes a practical framework for...Read more