Law Brief ®: Alan Gaynor and Richard Schoenstein Explore Business Divorce
Episode 4: John Cunningham Interview on Avoiding LLC Deadlock
Since its legislative birthing in New York in 1994, the limited liability company has become the preferred choice of entity New York and across the country. Over the ensuing 15 years or so, New York’s lower courts struggled...more
The statutes authorizing judicial dissolution of Delaware LLCs (LLC Act § 18-802) and New York LLCs (LLC Law § 702) essentially are the same: the petitioner must show that it is no longer “reasonably practicable” to carry on...more
Plaintiff Lee Norris and defendant James Schaafsma are the sole member-managers of a development company – defendant Greymont Development, LLC – and disagree about the propriety of a derivative action initiated by Schaafsma...more
A Delaware Court of Chancery case decided earlier this year provides some useful guidance on the interpretation of LLC agreements and what constitutes a “deadlock” under Delaware law. The case, Mehra v. Teller, involved a...more
Under both New York and Delaware law, members of an LLC may petition for judicial dissolution on the grounds that the management is so hopelessly deadlocked that the LLC can no longer function in accordance with its purpose...more
Here in the New York metro area, for the first time in years winter is living up to its name. The snow-plowed streets and sub-freezing temperatures are a natural setting for this sixth annual edition of Winter Case Notes in...more
One of the more attractive features of LLCs as a business organization is that they are, in large part, creatures of contract. Most provisions in the NY LLC Law are default rules, and members are free to adopt those or...more
When the management of a closely held business is controlled equally by two owners, it’s wise both to anticipate possible deadlock over major decisions and to provide in the constitutive documents a deadlock breaking...more
Usually I open my annual Summer Shorts post with some breezy comment about summer vacations, travel, or poolside reading. But this shelter-at-home year we find ourselves living and working in profoundly different...more
This year’s list offers a good mix of business entities: six involve disputes among LLC members, two involve law firms organized as limited liability partnerships, one involves an accounting firm organized as a professional...more
This is the story of a deadlock resolution provision that backfired. It is a long story — 94 pages long to be exact. That is the length of Chancellor Bouchard’s characteristically detailed and thorough post-trial opinion...more
Mediation, as commonly understood in the context of alternative dispute resolution, employs a neutral third party to facilitate negotiation and voluntary agreement between the parties. Unlike arbitration, the mediator does...more
In re: TransPerfect Global Inc., C.A. 9700-CB (February 15, 2018) - In what it is hoped is the final act in the TransPerfect case, this decision upholds the sale process used by the Custodian to sell TransPerfect....more
As LLCs have become the dominant form of closely-held business in New York, cases involving dissolution of partnerships have become more and more rare. Section 63 of the Partnership Law is the statute governing judicial...more
In Advanced 23, LLC v. Chambers House Partners, LLC, No. 650025/2016, 2017 BL 462831 (NY. Sup. Ct. Dec. 15, 2017), Justice Saliann Scarpulla of the Commercial Division ruled that Advanced 23, LLC (“Advanced”) and David...more
I’ve said it before, I’ll say it again: for professionals who dwell in the world of LLCs, whether as transactional, tax, or litigation counsel, attending the annual, two-day LLC Institute, sponsored by the LLCs, Partnerships...more
A huge percentage of limited liability companies consist of two co-equal, 50% members, which poses the danger of management deadlock and dysfunction leading to dissolution or other litigation. In this episode, you'll hear my...more