Sugarman

FACTS

1. The Parties Plaintiff is the former chairman of the board, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of defendants Banc of California, Inc., and Banc of California, N.A. (Banc). He resigned his positions at Banc on January 23, 2017. The Steven and Ainslie Sugarman Living Trust, a revocable living trust and stockholder in Banc, is also a plaintiff. For convenience, we refer to both Mr. Sugarman and the trust in the singular as plaintiff. Plaintiff sued defendants in connection with their conduct after plaintiff’s resignation. Mr. Turner was interim CFO of Banc, and also became interim president when plaintiff resigned. (He was not a director.) He resigned and left the banking industry on June 12, 2017. Mr. Brown was employed by the accounting firm KPMG, Banc’s outside auditor, and was the lead audit partner for Banc’s 2016 fiscal year. The other seven named defendants are or were members of Banc’s board of directors or officers of Banc. The parties refer to these defendants (and Mr. Turner) as the Banc individuals, and to Banc and these defendants collectively as the Banc defendants. 2. The Complaint The operative complaint spans 166 pages, plus more than 600…