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Conflicts of Interest Shareholder Litigation

Davies Ward Phillips & Vineberg LLP

Governance Insights: Dual Fiduciaries – A Cautionary Tale for Nominee Directors

The latest edition of Davies’ Governance Insights is now available. In this issue, we review the Manti Holdings decision from Delaware. For boards, nominees and nominating shareholders, the decision is a reminder of the...more

Mayer Brown

Delaware Law Alert: A Step-by-Step Approach for Boards Evaluating Conflicted Director, Officer, and Controlling Stockholder...

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In perhaps one of the most significant revisions to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL), on March 25, 2025, the governor signed into law amendments overhauling much of the state’s law relating to conflicted...more

Winthrop & Weinstine, P.A.

The New and Improved Delaware General Corporation Law: What You Need to Know

On March 25, 2025, Delaware Governor Matt Meyer signed into law significant amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) that are designed to reduce excessive stockholder litigation and reinforce the authority of...more

Cole Schotz

Proposed Amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law

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On February 17, 2025, significant amendments to the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the DGCL) were proposed directly by the Delaware General Assembly via Senate Bill No. 21, signaling important updates for...more

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP

I Want You to Want Me. But I Don’t Need You to Need Me: Manti Holdings v. The Carlyle Group and the Meaning of Non-Ratable Benefit...

Delaware’s rigorous fairness standards for transactions involving controlling shareholders have recently come to the forefront of the Chancery Court’s docket. The Transaction...more

Vinson & Elkins LLP

Delaware Court of Chancery Rejects Challenges to Sale of Company by Private Equity Controller, Assesses Transaction Under Business...

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On January 7, 2025, Vice Chancellor Glasscock issued a 68-page post-trial decision in Manti Holdings, LLC v. The Carlyle Group Inc., in which he rejected plaintiffs’ claims of breach of fiduciary duty in connection with the...more

Nutter McClennen & Fish LLP

M&A in Brief: Q1 2024

In a letter ruling, the Delaware Chancery Court held that where neither the target nor the acquiror was a Delaware entity, the transaction documents between the parties could not confer jurisdiction in the Chancery Court...more

Goodwin

Delaware Court of Chancery Rescinds Elon Musk’s $55.8 Billion Compensation Package in Cautionary Tale About Director Independence...

Goodwin on

On January 30, 2024, the Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery struck down the $55.8 billion compensation plan that Tesla, Inc.’s board of directors had granted to Tesla’s well-known CEO, Elon Musk, finding that the...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

The “Conflict of Interest” Defense to Shareholder Derivative Standing

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In shareholder derivative litigation, defendants occasionally argue that the plaintiff – who ostensibly sues on behalf of the company and its owners in a fiduciary capacity – has some form of conflict of interest with the...more

Goodwin

Delaware Chancery Court Reemphasizes Importance of Properly Handling Board Conflicts in Ruling for Elon Musk in SolarCity Case

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On April 28, 2022, Vice Chancellor Slights of the Delaware Chancery Court issued a verdict for the defense in In re Tesla Motors, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, a long-running derivative lawsuit challenging the 2016 acquisition...more

Opportune LLP

Should SPACs Take A Page From The MLP Playbook?

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SPAC sponsors, investors, advisors, and (most keenly) directors are asking questions following a Delaware court’s denial in January of the defendants’ request for dismissal in the MultiPlan Corp. shareholder litigation. Those...more

Patterson Belknap Webb & Tyler LLP

Delaware Court Holds that SPAC Sponsor’s “Founder Shares” Created a Conflict of Interest with Public Stockholders

In 2021, there were 613 initial public offerings (“IPOs”) of Special Purpose Acquisition Companies (“SPACs”), after 248 SPACs went public in 2020 and 59 in 2019. Prior to 2021, there had not been more than 500 IPOs of any...more

Winstead PC

Litigating Minority Shareholder Rights - Presentation

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David F. Johnson presented his paper “Business Divorce: Minority Shareholder Rights In Texas” to the State Bar of Texas’s Business Disputes Course on September 2-3, 2021. This presentation addressed shareholder oppression...more

Troutman Pepper Locke

Fraud on the Board: Material Conflicts Must Be Disclosed to the Board to Warrant Business Judgment Review

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A recent decision by the Delaware Supreme Court emphasizes the importance of fully disclosing material director and officer conflicts of interest in connection with proposed M&A transactions. Indeed, as the Court’s ruling...more

White and Williams LLP

Delaware Chancery Court Holds That a Transaction Involving a Conflicted Board Majority Can Be Cleansed If Appropriate Safeguards...

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In a legal challenge to a corporate transaction, the applicable standard of review is often outcome determinative. The deferential business judgment rule applies where the board is not majority conflicted. The burden is on...more

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

2019 Delaware Corporate Law and Litigation Year In Review

In 2019, the Delaware courts issued a broad range of important decisions addressing various corporate law and governance issues—including board compensation, controlling stockholder conflicts, board oversight obligations, M&A...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Key Developments in Delaware Corporation Law

Consistent with trends in recent years, in 2019 Delaware corporation law largely was shaped by post-closing suits for money damages against directors who had approved mergers and acquisitions. Two Delaware Supreme Court...more

Dechert LLP

Electricity in the Air: Court Decides that Stockholder Ratification Not Enough to Insulate Tesla CEO’s $55.8 Billion Compensation...

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The Delaware Chancery Court rejected an attempt by Tesla’s Board of Directors to dismiss a challenge to CEO Elon Musk’s “extraordinary” 2018 compensation package. Because Musk is also Tesla’s controlling stockholder, the...more

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

A Guidebook to Boardroom Governance Issues - Fall 2019

In recent years, we have seen boards and management increasingly grapple with a recurring set of governance issues in the boardroom. This publication is intended to distill the most prevalent issues in one place and provide...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Investment Management Update - September 2019

In this issue, we summarize regulatory, litigation and industry developments from May to September 2019 impacting the investment management sector, including SEC action on standards of conduct for broker-dealers and...more

Mintz - Employment Viewpoints

Delaware Court Of Chancery Reaffirms Entire Fairness Standard In Director Compensation

On May 31, 2019, in Stein v. Blankfein, et. al., the Delaware Court of Chancery reaffirmed the Delaware Supreme Court’s holding in In re: Investors Bancorp, Inc. Stockholder Litigation that the “entire fairness” standard...more

Robins Kaplan LLP

Your Daily Dose of Financial News

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The Dow’s serious dive on Friday helped put all three major indices into correction territory (aka, all are now at least 10% below their peak from earlier this year....more

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Delaware Court of Chancery Addresses Duties and Exposure of Activist Stockholder and Its Board Designee

In a 137-page post-trial opinion, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that an activist stockholder of PLX Technology (PLX) had acted through a principal who served on the PLX board of...more

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

New York and Washington Courts Issue Important Decisions Relating to M&A and Stockholder Nominations of Directors

Two courts recently issued significant corporate law decisions that are meaningful for corporations and investors navigating an M&A transaction or a proxy contest. Interestingly, both decisions arose outside of Delaware,...more

Proskauer Rose LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Confirms Preclusive Effect of Dismissal of Derivative Actions Based on Lack of Demand Futility

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The Delaware Supreme Court held yesterday that the dismissal of a shareholder derivative action for lack of demand futility can preclude other derivative actions as long as the plaintiff in the dismissed case adequately...more

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