An article from Michael T. Graham, Paul M. Hamburger, Nancy G. Ross, and John A. Litwinski details the Supreme Court decision affecting remedies available under ERISA for individual plan participants in 401(k) plans.

In LaRue v. DeWolff, Boberg & Associates, Inc., the Supreme Court clarified that an individual plan participant may recover damages as a result of an ERISA fiduciary’s breach of duty even if that breach affected only that individual’s 401(k) plan account.  Prior to LaRue, courts had generally taken the view that ERISA Section 502(a)(2) provided a remedy for fiduciary breach claims only for relief sought for the plan as a whole. 

Read the whole article here on the McDermott, Will & Emery website.

Looking forward to the 2008 PLUS Medical PL Symposium March 11 & 12 in Chicago, we are posting this clip from the 2007 PLUS International Conference held in November in Washington, DC.

In it, panel moderator Angela Williams Russell talks with Charles Citrin, MD,  Susan Durbin Kinter and Joshua Stein about the newer technology of telemedicine, the inherent risks involved, and how to underwrite these risks.

A tiny Alaska village eroding into the Arctic Ocean sued two dozen oil, power and coal companies Tuesday, claiming that the large amounts of greenhouse gases they emit contribute to global warming that threatens the community's existence.

The city of Kivalina and a federally recognized tribe, the Alaska Native village of Kivalina, sued Exxon Mobil Corp. and BP PLC, seven other oil companies, 14 power companies and one coal company in a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco. 

The Supreme Court decided Wednesday that employees who claim job discrimination should not suffer because of mistakes made by the federal agency charged with investigating their allegations.

In this clip from the 2008 PLUS D&O Symposium, John Rafferty, Vice President with Hartford Financial Products, sets out a great overview of the issues surrounding the subprime and larger credit crisis that we are facing.  Panelist Bain Head, Senior Vice President with McGriff, Siebels & Williams, then gives her predictions of where the subprime crisis is going, and what the resulting effect on D&O will be.

Five former insurance company executives were found guilty Monday of a scheme to manipulate the financial statements of the world’s largest insurance company, American International Group Inc.

The defendants, including four former executives including a onetime CEO of General Re Corp., and a former executive of AIG, sat stone-faced as they were convicted of conspiracy, securities fraud, mail fraud and making false statements to the Securities and Exchange Commission. 

The Iowa Supreme Court has sent two medical malpractice cases back to district court after offering a new opinion on how the statute of limitations can be interpreted. They ruled that the statute of limitations two year window should begin when patients know the extent and cause of their illness or injury, not necessarily when their symptoms are initially diagnosed.

The Insurance Journal has the story of William Gilman and Edward J. McNenney, two Marsh executives found guilty of participating in a bid rigging scheme.  They were acquitted of all other charges in a ruling handed down by New York State Supreme Court Judge James Yates.

You can read the details of the case, as well as information about the expected appeal, here on the Insurance Journal Website.

Motivated by mounting medical costs, lawmakers and executives are urging doctors to embrace a seemingly simple way to save billions of dollars a year: prescribe medications online. Officials in the public and private sectors say electronic prescriptions will make transactions more efficient, reduce medication errors and entice doctors to prescribe less expensive drugs.

Although there has been some pushback by physicians who have been working in the industry for a while, however the up and coming practitioners are doing much of this work on-line in medical school.

Read the full article here on Yahoo! News.

Please follow the link below for a summary of enforcement and non-enforcement actions by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The report was prepared by Gregory S. Bruch, Gregory F. Monday and Terry D. Nelson, all partners with Foley & Lardner LLP.

The full summary is located here on the Foley & Lardner website.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear five cases this term that will deal directly with age discrimination. The cases at the court include what kind of evidence an employee may present to bolster an age discrimination claim; whether retirement-age workers are entitled to disability payments; and whether federal workers who complain about age discrimination are protected from retaliation.

Read the full story here on MSNBC.COM.

This is a clip from the 2008 PLUS D&O Symposium held in New York City.  More than 1300 professionals gathered to hear the latest information on the D&O industry.

In this clip, there is an introduction to the topic, and then two questions answered:

What coverage opportunities are there for brokers and underwriters as they approach the private equity industry?

What do you predict for the private equity market five years from now?

According to a report by Navigant Consulting, the number of subprime-related cases filed in federal courts is outpacing the S&L litigation of the 1990’s.  The number of subprime-related cases doubled during the second half of 2007, and appears to be an indicator of what lies ahead.

Warren Buffett said on Tuesday that he has offered to help out troubled bond insurers by offering a second level of insurance on up to $800 billion in municipal bonds.

In an interview on CNBC (video link of the phone interview can be found here) he stated that he has offered to help out the bond insurers, however he was quick to point out that it wasn’t an altruistic gesture – he was doing it to make money.

At the time of the interview, they had been turned down by one company, and Buffett stated that the others were "not leaping at the door" to accept his offer.

According to the Stamford Advocate, a jury ruled that an obstetrician must pay $38.5 million to the family of a baby born with cerebral palsy.

Details of the circumstances surrounding the award can be found here on the Stamford Advocate Web Site.

The PLUS Foundation held it’s annual Shots for Charity hockey game Tuesday, February 5^th at Chelsea Piers in New York City. This was the seventh annual event, held each year prior to the PLUS D&O Symposium. 

This year, a video was created and presented during the opening session of the PLUS D&O Symposium to capture the successes of the PLUS Foundation. Click on the screen below to watch this video, and be sure to visit the PLUS Foundation Website for more information or to donate.

Susanne Scalfane with National Underwriter Online News Service has a great article detailing the world of class action lawsuits based on comments made by the opening panel of the 2008 PLUS D&O Symposium.

Read the full article here at the National Underwriter website.

David Katz from CFO.com reports on the keynote address by William Donaldson, former Securities and Exchange Commission chairman and Wednesday Luncheon Keynote at the 2008 PLUS D&O Symposium held February 6 & 7, 2008 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.

Read the full article behind the comments here on the CFO.Com website.

A survey of financial sector risk managers and chief financial officers by Advisen has found that the subprime crisis is not materially affecting D&O or E&O pricing.

According to Michel Yarhi, Risk Manager for Societe Generale, the company does have insurance coverage that may respond to the 7 Billion dollar fraud that was perpetrated by a single employee.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the New York Attorney General’s Office is utilizing the 1921 Martin Act to investiage the subprime issues on Wall Street. The state law spells out a broad definition of securities fraud without requiring the prosecutors to prove intent.

Read the full article, written by Kate Kelly, Amir Efrati and Ruth Simon here on the Wall Street Journal website.