Nonprofit Basics: Amending Nonprofit Corporation Bylaws
Litigation developments: federal forum provisions
Meritas Capability Webinar - Controlling Where to Fight and Who Pays for it?
Rules for rewarding 'super' condo board members
For many years, the rule of law governing claims for contractual indemnification in New Jersey has been well-established under the so-called “Azurak” rule, which requires that, in order for a party to be indemnified for its...more
On December 27, 2022, Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn of the Delaware Court of Chancery substantially granted plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment in an action seeking attorneys’ fees. Garfield v. Boxed, Inc., No....more
Bay Capital Finance, L.L.C. v. Barnes and Noble Education, Inc., C.A. No. 2019-0539-KSJM (Del. Ch. Mar. 30, 2020). With some limited exceptions, the American Rule requires parties to pay their own attorneys’ fees in...more
On July 8, 2019, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery awarded $3 million to plaintiffs’ lawyers in Sciabacucchi v. Salzberg, C.A. No. 2017-0931-JTL (Del. Ch. July 8, 2019). As we discussed in a...more
Yesterday, I took note of a recently introduced Nevada bill, AB 304, that would, among other things, allow a Nevada corporation to impose liability on a stockholder for attorney's fees and costs in connection with an...more
Full Value Partners L.P. v. Swiss Helvetia Fund Inc., C.A. No. 2017-0303-AGB (Del. Ch. June 7, 2018) - A representative plaintiff who confers a non-monetary benefit on the represented class will be entitled to an award of...more
In 2015, the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) was amended to prohibit Delaware corporations from adopting bylaws that imposed liability on a stockholder for the attorneys’ fees or expenses of the corporation or any...more
After the enactment of Section 109(b) of the Delaware General Corporation Law, one would have thought that fee-shifting bylaws were invalid. However, this decision deals with another attempt to shift fees, this time when a...more
In 2015, Section 115 was added to the Delaware General Corporation Law, or DGCL providing that Delaware corporations may adopt bylaws requiring that internal corporate claims be filed exclusively in Delaware. Section 109(b)...more
Goodwin Procter’s Business Litigation Reporter provides timely summaries of key cases and other developments within dedicated Business Litigation sessions and related courts throughout the country – courts within which...more
Section 145(k) of the Delaware General Corporation Law is quite clear and emphatic about which court may hear actions for indemnification or advancement of expenses: The Court of Chancery is hereby vested with exclusive...more
Recent decisions by the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit and the Delaware Court of Chancery have raised important issues regarding fee advancement bylaws or policies of Delaware corporations. Please see full...more
On June 24, 2015, Delaware Governor Jack Markell approved several important amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (the “DGCL”),[1] with such amendments generally becoming effective on August 1, 2015. These...more
Delaware recently enacted new legislation to prohibit stock corporations from adopting fee-shifting bylaws and charter provisions, among other amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law. The fee-shifting ban ends a...more
Prohibition on Fee-Shifting Provisions - The legislation signed into law last week responds to the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in ATP Tour, Inc. v. Deutscher Tennis Bund, 91 A.3d 554 (Del. 2014) in which the Court...more
On June 24, 2015, Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed into law Senate Bill No. 75, “An Act to Amend Title 8 of the Delaware Code Relating to the General Corporation Law.” The law prohibits a Delaware stock corporation from...more
There has been considerable interest over the last year about whether a fee-shifting provision in the charter or bylaws of a Delaware corporation is enforceable. On Thursday, June 11, 2015, the Delaware House of...more
In a post published yesterday on The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, Delaware lawyer A. Thompson Bayliss and Mark Mixon write that no pay provisions “could transform stockholder...more
Tuesday, the Delaware Senate passed legislation prohibiting publicly-traded corporations from adopting bylaws that force shareholders to pay legal fees if they bring internal corporate claims against the company in court and...more
With the ongoing hullabaloo concerning the legislative demise of fee shifting bylaw provisions under Delaware law, little attention has been paid to California law. More importantly, no one seems to have noticed that...more
Here are two things I thought when I was a kid: (1) Quicksand was a real threat, something that could suck me into the Earth if I wasn’t careful when walking around outside. I don’t know if this was a function of too many...more
The “American Rule.” To the uninitiated, that name probably conjures up fuzzy feelings of independence. The hardy spirit of our forefathers. Bootstraps and grit. Rocky IV. But to American lawyers, it’s just a rule about...more
A topic of considerable controversy within the corporate community over the past two months has been the possibility of adopting a "fee-shifting" provision in the bylaws of Delaware corporations. Depending on how it is...more
Recent court decisions, including the Delaware Supreme Court’s opinion earlier this month in ATP Tour, Inc. v. Deutscher Tennis Bund, have focused new attention on the use of corporate bylaws and charters to establish the...more
On May 8, 2014, the Delaware Supreme Court held in ATP Tour, Inc. v. Deutscher Tennis Bund that a bylaw provision that shifts "all fees, costs and expenses of every kind and description (including, but not limited to...more