BarbriSFCourseDetails

Course Details

This CLE webinar will provide guidance on the expanding scope and risks of civil liability for aiding and abetting another's actionable wrongs and offer strategies for preventing unsuspecting clients from getting trapped in avoidable litigation.

Faculty

Description

Aiding and abetting is being asserted with such frequency that chances are good most litigators already have or will encounter it. New cases are changing the legal landscape.

Aiding and abetting claims have historically emanated from fraud, breach of fiduciary duty, and under the federal securities laws. But now, such claims are springing up against unsuspecting third parties in cases involving insurance bad faith, unlawful employment practices, or even terrorism planning or financing.

The most litigated issues are whether the defendant had the requisite knowledge of the wrong at the time aid was provided and whether the defendant knowingly provided substantial assistance to the principal wrongdoer. The legal standards differ under federal law and various states’ jurisprudence.

Listen as our panel offers insights to help clarify how aiding and abetting law has evolved and adapted to reach new types of misconduct, discusses expanded state recognition of the claim, and details what recent cases teach about the governing legal standards and the facts needed to establish them.

Outline

  1. Overview and history of aiding and abetting liability
  2. Substantive elements of civil liability for aiding and abetting
    1. Underlying actionable wrong
    2. Knowledge of the underlying wrong
      1. Effect of motive on knowledge analysis
      2. Reckless disregard and intentional ignorance
    3. Substantial assistance in perpetuating the wrong
      1. Affirmative actions
      2. Concealment
      3. Failing to speak when under obligation to do so
      4. Sliding scale: balancing level of assistance with amount of knowledge
      5. Causation
  3. Aiding and abetting under the federal securities laws
  4. Frequent defendants and factual scenarios
  5. Defenses

Benefits

The panel will explore these and other key issues:

  • What constitutes knowledge of the primary wrong and what type of facts must be alleged to withstand a motion to dismiss?
  • What constitutes substantial assistance?
  • What are common defenses to aiding and abetting torts?
  • What is the difference between aiding and abetting and conspiracy?
  • What information and documents should be sought in the discovery process?