In a case that adds more ammunition to those who question the motives of Wall Street investment bankers, last week the Delaware Chancery Court issued yet another stinging opinion strongly chastising sell-side bankers who were allegedly conflicted in the M&A advice they provided to a board of directors that was considering a takeover bid. Chancellor Strine’s warnings to investment bankers in his decision in In re El Paso Corporation Shareholder Litigation are perhaps the strongest-worded admonitions issued by the Delaware Chancery Court to date.

The decision is the latest in a string of recent Delaware Chancery opinionswhere the Court has carefully focused on the role of the investment bankers in an M&A transaction. What it means is that M&A bankers and those that hire them – boards of directors and management – should be very sensitive to banker conflicts (be they real or perceived) and be ready to aggressively defend their role when the deal is announced.