New Liability Concerns for Boards

Liability concerns have become a major issue for directors of U.S. company boards.
Board members today must meet higher standards of conduct under Delaware law. They also face the possibility that they may have to make personal payments to resolve investor lawsuits, as former WorldCom directors had to do. Meanwhile, shareholders have filed dozens of derivative lawsuits this year against directors over the alleged backdating of executive stock options. These issues were among those discussed by panelists at the National Association of Corporate Director'' annual conference in Washington on Oct. 16-17.