Ten years ago, I questioned in this space whether a Delaware forum selection charter provision would survive constitutional scrutiny if it involved a de facto waiver of a jury trial...more
Since 1986, Section 102(b)(7) of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) has allowed corporations to include an exculpation provision in their certificate of incorporation that eliminates or limits the personal...more
States are beginning to extend exculpation protections to corporate officers that were previously afforded only to directors. Depending on where your corporation is chartered, you may soon be considering the opportunity to...more
On July 25, 2022, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) announced insider trading charges against ten individual defendants across four separate cases (Bhardwaj, Goel, Markin, and Buyer), filed in the...more
Key Takeaways ..Newly amended DGCL Section 102(b)(7) allows Delaware corporations to provide officers with exculpatory protections for personal monetary damages resulting from a breach of fiduciary duty in certain...more
On April 12, 2022, the Corporation Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association (DSBA) approved proposed amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) that include provisions that, if enacted, would authorize...more
Overseas investors are welcome in the UK. Save as set out below, there are no specific laws prohibiting foreign investment in the UK nor are there any business requirements for UK participation in the ownership or management...more
As we have discussed in prior client alerts, in the wake of the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Salzberg v. Sciabacucci (Salzberg), 227 A.3d 102 (Del. 2020), several California state courts have dismissed claims against...more
More than a decade ago in the seminal case Gantler v. Stephens, the Delaware Supreme Court clarified that officers of Delaware corporations owe the same fiduciary duties of care and loyalty that directors owe to the...more
As previously discussed in our Sept. 10, 2020, client alert, in Wong v. Restoration Robotics, Inc., Case No. 18-CIV-02609 (Cal. Super. Ct. Sept. 1, 2020), the Superior Court of California for the County of San Mateo dismissed...more
In 2019 the Oklahoma Legislature passed, and the Governor signed into law on April 16, Senate Bill 642, which made numerous and substantial changes to the Oklahoma General Corporation Act (the “Act”) primarily relating to...more
California State Court Upholds Exclusive Federal Forum-Selection Charter Provision for 1933 Act Suits; California District Court Dismisses Fraud-Related Claims Against AT&T; Third Circuit Holds Challenge to SEC’s Decision to...more
- California state court held that federal forum provisions for Securities Act claims are not illegal and may be used to sidestep the bar on removal of Securities Act claims following the United States Supreme Court’s ruling...more
On September 1, 2020, a California Superior Court judge in San Mateo County upheld a federal forum provision (“FFP”) in the charter of Delaware company Restoration Robotics, Inc., which mandated that stockholder claims under...more
On Wednesday, March 18, 2020, the Delaware Supreme Court overturned a Chancery Court decision that had prohibited Delaware corporations from adopting federal forum selection provisions for actions arising under the federal...more
The Delaware Supreme Court held on March 18 in Salzberg, et al. v. Sciabacucchi that the exclusive federal-forum provisions in certificates of incorporation for three Delaware corporations were not facially invalid....more
On September 30, 2019, Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied defendants’ motion to dismiss a stockholder derivative action for breach of fiduciary duties in connection with BGC Partners, Inc.’s...more
The corporate spectacle better known as The We Company IPO officially and mercifully came to an end September 30 when The We Company (“We Co.”), the corporate parent of WeWork, requested that the Securities and Exchange...more
In Sciabacucchi v. Salzberg, 2018 Del. Ch. LEXIS 578, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster ruled that a Delaware corporation’s certificate of incorporation and bylaws cannot restrict the forum in which stockholders may bring a...more
A recent post by Broc Romanek linked to a MarketWatch article critiquing the new Long Term Stock Exchange. The article mentions that "The LTSE has also proposed 'long-term voting rights,' wherein a shareholder’s voting power...more
In Ephrat et al v medCPU, Inc., the Delaware Court of Chancery considered whether a separation agreement released claims of advancement pursuant to medCPU’s, or the company’s, certificate of incorporation. The plaintiffs,...more
Several provisions of the Delaware General Corporation Law authorize or require that a notice or communication be in "writing" or "written". For example, Section 142(b) provides "Any officer may resign at any time upon...more
In Sciabacucchi v. Salzberg, C.A. No. 2017-0931-JTL, 2018 WL 6719718 (Del. Ch. Dec. 19, 2018), the Delaware Court of Chancery (Laster, V.C.) held that a forum-selection provision in a Delaware corporation’s charter or bylaws...more
Section 141(d) of the Delaware General Corporations Law (DGCL) allows the certificate of incorporation (COI) of a Delaware corporation to confer upon one or more directors voting powers greater than or less than those of...more
In Sciabacucchi v. Salzberg, C.A. No. 2017-0931-JTL (Del. Ch. Dec. 19, 2018), the Delaware Court of Chancery invalidated provisions in the certificates of incorporation of three Delaware corporations — Blue Apron Holdings...more