In his excellent post entitled, "What to Watch Now in the World of D&O," Kevin LaCroix of the D&O Diary asks and answers 10 key questions facing the D&O insurance world. I recommend reading the entire post, but I found his discussion of whether heightened FCPA enforcement activity will lead to increased follow-on civil litigation to be particularly interesting.

Kevin concludes that, yes--anticorruption enforcement activity will likely accelerate in the months ahead, leading to increased civil litigation. He argues that:

It is now a "well-established trend" that increasing FCPA enforcement activity has led to increased levels of follow-on civil litigation.

FCPA enforcement is likely to surge in the wake of the new Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions.

The UK Bribery Act will also be implemented in April 2011, and presents far-reaching legislation that Kevin believes is "likely to have significant impacts on business that either are based in the U.K. or have significant parts of their operations in the U.K."

Kevin concludes that the expected surge in follow-on civil litigation together with the ongoing enforcement efforts at the SEC and DOJ (and soon in the UK) will represent an important and growing area of potential liability of corporate officials.

Read the full post from the D&O Diary here.