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Directors, officers and corporate liability

directors, officers and corporate liability

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Directors and officers and corporate liability claims often require consideration of complex issues relating to coverage, insolvency, company law, financial services regulation, employment law, privacy and data protection law, environmental law and health and safety law. Our multi-disciplinary team comprises expert civil and criminal lawyers who specialise in these areas and work together to provide pragmatic, commercial solutions on D&O liability issues.

Our experience includes advising on D&O and corporate liability issues in the context of large financial institutions, SMEs, clubs, charities and other not for profit organisations. As a full service law firm, we deploy our expertise of the sectors in which directors and officers and their companies operate to achieve favourable outcomes for the policyholder and their insurer.

In a challenging climate of low rates, increasingly wide coverage and ever greater focus by regulators on personal accountability, we work closely with insurers and their stakeholders to help them pro-actively manage risk within their D&O books of business. We do this by developing risk management training tailored to the profile and sectors of policyholders, encouraging the introduction of appropriate systems and controls that are designed to reduce exposure for directors and officers and their insurers.

what we do...

National reach - with specialists working out of our five office network, allowing us to rapidly deploy our specialist lawyers in relation to regulatory investigations and raids, which are often very fast paced.
Monitoring counsel - in the co-ordination and management of national and international D&O coverage and claims defence issues.
Coverage and claims defence - in relation to D&O and corporate liability matters.

Employment claims defence - whether under dedicated EPLI policies or as part of D&O coverage.
Criminal law specialists - representing policyholders in criminal prosecutions and investigations, including interviews under caution.
Policy drafting - our wordings team has helped clients bring innovative D&O products to market.

related resources

Legal updates

Manchester Building Society v Grant Thornton UK LLP

The Court of Appeal has set out six steps to be considered when applying the ‘SAAMCo’ scope of duty principle in auditors’ negligence cases.

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what the directories say...

Browne Jacobson LLP is ‘an excellent performer in the area of civil fraud’ and has ‘an acknowledged expertise in the niched and difficult area of cross-border insolvency’. The team’s ‘knowledge is effectively brought to bear in litigation, particularly in cases involving an international element’.

Legal 500 2017

Prominent in acting for a broad range of professionals, including recruitment consultants and letting and estate agents. Also assists commercial businesses with D&O related negligence. Impressive client list includes large insurance groups and construction companies.

Chambers 2016

They go out of their way to understand their clients’ issues to ensure that a true working partnership is developed to the mutual benefit of the parties involved.

Chambers 2016

recent experience

Advising in relation to a high value claim by the company against its insured director for alleged bribery, causing damage to the company’s reputation and loss of profits.
Advising on notifications from directors who have faced multi-million pound claims for breaches of warranties given in sale and purchase agreements.
Dealing with claims against director shareholders who are alleged to have breached their fiduciary duties and acted in a manner that is unfairly prejudicial to the interests of minority shareholders.
Representing a director in relation to a claim brought by his employer arising from a contract entered into by the director with a Dutch shipping company, as a result of which the company became liable for significant losses .
Advising in connection with criminal proceedings and investigations into a director’s conduct, including breaches of health and safety regulations, bribery offences and taxation rules.
Defending directors against high value claims from liquidators who alleged that the directors had made unlawful ‘preference’ payments prior to the insolvency of a group company.
Acted in relation to a £253m D&O/professional negligence claim against non-executive directors of an Investment Company which collapsed in 2010 leaving liabilities to creditors and investors in excess of £300m.
Advising in connection with director disqualification proceedings by the Secretary of State for Business and Skills following the liquidation of a company which left a £4m unpaid debt to HM Revenue & Customs.
Acting for the officers of a specialist international engineering company, in a substantial potential claim against it in France by the Ministère du Travail, de l’Emploi et de la Santè in relation to certain alleged breaches of local employment and taxation regulations.