Directors and Insolvency | 7
INSURING
FOR INSOLVENCY
STANDARD DIRECTORS' AND OFFICERS'
INSURANCE MAY NOT BE ENOUGH IF
THE UNTHINKABLE HAPPENS By Brian Burton
IT'S NATURAL FOR first-time corporate directors to be flattered
when a major company comes courting their services. They should
rather be wary, bordering on suspicious, experienced litigators advise.
The worst of all scenarios unfolds when the formerly fortress-like
corporation hits the financial skids and directors face a barrage of
civil and possibly criminal actions from multiple jurisdictions where
the company is cross-listed on securities exchanges. If that sounds farfetched, think of such defunct corporate titans as Nortel Networks
and Hollinger International, whose board members are still before
the courts, says David Conklin of Goodmans LLP in Toronto.
The first bad news, as the ongoing Sino-Forest case has recently reconfirmed, is that those beefy corporate indemnities, which look so
LEXPERT®Ranked Lawyers
Bredt, Christopher D.
Brock, AdE, William
Brodkin, Andrew
Brown, Alexandra K.
Brown, John P.
Byers, David R.
Borden Ladner
Gervais LLP
Davies Ward Phillips &
Vineberg LLP
Goodmans LLP
Laishley Reed LLP
McCarthy Tétrault LLP
Stikeman Elliott LLP
(416) 367-6165
cbredt@blg.com
(514) 841-6438
wbrock@dwpv.com
(416) 597-4278
abrodkin@goodmans.ca
(416) 981-9424
abrown@laishleyreed.com
(416) 601-7719
jbrown@mccarthy.ca
(416) 869-5697
dbyers@stikeman.com
Senior litigation partner
and national leader of
BLG's Public Law Group.
Bencher LSUC. Practice
includes corporate/
commercial disputes,
directors' and officers'
duties and liability,
securities, class actions
and public law issues.
Mr. Brock's trial and
appellate practice
focuses on important
commercial, corporate,
M&A and securities
matters, fraud and
misappropriation
claims, shareholder
rights litigation,
and domestic
and international
arbitration.
Mr. Brodkin focuses on
IP litigation, primarily
in pharmaceutical
patent disputes. He is
particularly active in
proceedings prosecuted
pursuant to the
Patented Medicines
(Notice of Compliance)
Regulations.
Ms. Brown practises
tax litigation and
dispute resolution. She
represents domestic
and international
clients, drawing on her
experience as a senior
tax litigator at the
Department of Justice
and her years practising
in large national
law firms.
Mr. Brown defends
Canadian and
international companies
in a wide variety of
complex, high-risk
class-action litigation
including price-fixing,
consumer claims,
product liability and
tax matters. He also has
a general commercial
litigation practice.
Mr. Byers heads the
Toronto Litigation
Group. His practice
includes commercial
litigation at trial and
appeal. A member of
the Insolvency Institute
of Canada, the Litigation
Counsel of America and
a former director of The
Advocates' Society.
