Yesterday's Wall Street Journal includes a story about the possible delisting of shares of Chinese companies. Shares of companies that are listed, or authorized for listing, on a national securities exchange (or tier or...more
Nearly 13 years ago, I ruminated on the question of whether corporations are required to have bylaws. As far as California is concerned, there is no requirement that a corporation in fact have bylaws, although virtually all...more
In 2018 and 2020, California enacted laws mandating that publicly held corporations (as defined) having their principal executive offices in California have specified minimum numbers of directors who are female and from...more
2/14/2025
/ Board of Directors ,
California ,
Constitutional Challenges ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporations Code ,
Diversity ,
Investors ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Regulatory Reform ,
Securities Regulation ,
Shareholders
A little more than eight years ago, I wrote about U.S. District Court Judge Ronald M. Whyte's ruling that a corporate board of directors lacks the capacity of being sued. Theta Chi Fraternity, Inc. v. Leland Stanford Junior...more
According to the Securities and Exchange Commission, a DAO is a "term used to describe a 'virtual' organization embodied in computer code and executed on a distributed ledger or blockchain". That does not answer the...more
When a California corporation has been completely wound up without court proceedings, a majority of the directors then in office must sign and verify a Certificate of Dissolution which must be filed with the California...more
Professor Stephen Bainbridge recently took note of a draft essay by Yale Law School Professor Jonathan R. Macey, Delaware Law Mid-Century: Far From Perfect but Probably Not Leaving for Las Vegas. Professor Macey posits that...more
Professor Eugene Volokh recently highlighted a decision by U.S. District Judge Brian Cogan taking a plaintiff to task for inadequately pleading diversity jurisdiction when the defendant is a limited liability company. ...more
California's securities qualification requirements and exemptions depend upon whether the offer and sale of securities is an issuer transaction, a change in rights, exchange, merger, or conversion transaction, or a nonissuer...more
California's version of the Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act provides that in the case of a member managed limited liability company provides...more
The California General Corporation Law requires that a California corporation have a secretary. Cal. Corp. Code § 312(a)(2). The CGCL, however, says nothing about a chief legal officer. Indeed, many corporations do not...more
In yesterday's post, I discussed the Court of Appeal's unpublished opinion in Milks v. Affirmed Techs., LLC, 2024 WL 1502944 (Cal. Ct. App. Apr. 5, 2024), reh'g denied (Apr. 30, 2024). That case involved claims against a...more
California's Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act endows limited liability companies with a certain level immortality. Corporations Code Section 17707.06(a) provides...more
The California Corporations Code is a misnomer. While the Corporations Code does in fact govern corporations, it also governs a wide variety of unincorporated entities, including general partnerships, limited partnerships,...more
The validity of a board meeting hinges on three things - a quorum, notice and call. Many lawyers focus on the first two and may overlook the third. For California and Nevada corporations, the question of who may call a...more
Yesterday, the Fourth District Court of Appeal issued a noteworthy opinion addressing at least two significant questions. Samuelian v. Life Generations Healthcare, LLC, 2024 WL 3878448....more
A significant amount of background is required to answer the question of whether amending a shareholders agreement is subject to qualification under the California Corporate Securities Law. As an initial matter, the CSL...more
In 1989, the California legislature added Section 14200 to the California Corporations Code...more
I began writing about Nevada Corporate Law more than three decades ago with an article entitled "The Nevada Corporation: Is It A Good Bet?". 14 CEB California Business Law Reporter 259 (1992). In the ensuing decades, I have...more
8/13/2024
/ Board of Directors ,
Corporate Governance ,
Corporate Officers ,
Corporations Code ,
Delaware ,
Delaware General Corporation Law ,
Incorporation ,
Nevada ,
Publicly-Traded Companies ,
Shareholders ,
TripAdvisor
My last several posts have discussed the current debate on the phenomenon referred to as "DExit", which refers to Delaware corporations that choose to reincorporate in other states. In a recent article, Professor Bainbridge...more
In a recently released article, Professor Stephen Bainbridge tackles the question of just how real the DExit phenomenon might really be. Among other things, he responds to my argument that Nevada eschews Delaware law...more
Yesterday's post highlighted Professor Stephen Bainbridge's recently posted article, DExit Drivers: Is Delaware's Dominance Threatened? His article analyzes the reasons that companies give for leaving Delaware for other...more
California is a very linguistically diverse state with an estimated 200 plus different languages being spoken. Within my own family, English is not the primary language spoken at home by any of my grandchildren. Yet, the...more
I recently came across another publicly traded Delaware corporation with plans to reincorporate in Nevada. Interestingly, this corporation, Sonoma Pharmaceuticals, Inc., originally began as a California corporation and then...more
Seven years ago, I addressed the question of whether the board of directors of a California corporation could remove a fellow director...more