What the Delaware McDonald's Decision Means for Corporate Officers and Compliance Programs
One Month to a More Effective Compliance Program with Boards - Day 1 - Legal Requirements of the Board Regarding Compliance
Nonprofit Quick Tips: Secretary of State Filings in California and Delaware
Compliance into the Weeds - McDonald’s and Duty of Corporate Officer Oversight
A Compliance Officer Turned Board Member's Advice
What happens when a protégé rebels against its mentor? In a recent decision from the Eleventh Circuit, Yorktown Sys. Grp. Inc., v. Threat Tec LLC, the court had to deal with such a question after Threat Tec, the protégé and...more
California's Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act provides "The law of the state . . . under which a foreign limited liability company is formed governs all of the following: The organization of the limited liability...more
Since the Delaware Court of Chancery’s January 2022 decision in In re MultiPlan Corp. Stockholders Litigation,1 plaintiffs in Delaware had enjoyed a long and unbroken string of motion to dismiss victories in suits alleging...more
As you know from our prior alerts, creditors of borrowers formed as Delaware LLCs (as opposed to corporations) lack standing under Delaware law to sue directors for breaching fiduciary duties even when, to the surprise of...more
In early February, a Delaware bankruptcy judge set new precedent by granting a creditors’ committee derivative standing to pursue breach of fiduciary duty claims against a Delaware LLC’s members and officers. At least three...more
On February 20, 2024, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied in part and granted in part a motion to dismiss a stockholder action against TripAdvisor, Inc. and its parent (together, the...more
On February 7, 2024, Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III of the Delaware Court of Chancery denied a motion for a “mootness” fee of plaintiffs in a derivative action brought against the founder of a technology company (the...more
On February 1, 2024, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a decision refusing to dismiss stockholder claims against directors and officers of Coinbase Global, Inc. over their sales of...more
On December 28, 2023, Vice Chancellor Morgan T. Zurn of the Delaware Court of Chancery dismissed derivative breach of fiduciary duty and other claims asserted by a plaintiff shareholder after nCino, Inc. (the “Corporation”)...more
The past year saw significant developments in the Delaware courts for books and records inspection demands pursuant to Section 220. In a first-of-its-kind decision, the Court rejected an inspection demand as lacking a...more
Long a feature of directors’ and officers’ (D&O) liability insurance policies, the so-called “Bump-Up” Exclusion has gotten significant attention over the last few years. Because of the recent escalation in securities...more
For more than thirty-five years, Delaware law, pursuant to Section 102(b)(7) of the Delaware General Corporation Act (DGCL), has allowed Delaware corporations to exculpate their directors from personal liability for damages...more
Disputes regarding ownership interests often arise in the context of closely held corporations, particularly when directors, officers, or majority shareholders sell or acquire ownership interests in the company. These...more
Effective August 1, 2022, Section 102(b)(7) of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) was amended to permit a Delaware corporation to include in its charter a provision eliminating or limiting the personal liability of...more
In Anderson v. Magellan Health, Inc., No. 2021-0202, — A.3d —-, 2023 WL 4364524 (Del. Ch. July 6, 2023) (McCormick, C.), the Delaware Court of Chancery addressed the circumstances under which the Court will award a...more
Proof that an inspection demand is improperly “lawyer-driven” will overcome a stockholder’s pretextual claim for investigating wrongdoing. A stockholder does not have a proper purpose for investigating an “ordinary...more
With SPAC IPOs virtually gone but SPAC mergers (aka de-SPACs) continuing at a steady pace since the beginning of the year, the questions around getting a deal done boil down to the following: How and where can companies get...more
Section 800 of the California Corporations Code applies to actions brought in the name of any domestic or foreign corporation, aka derivative actions. It is similar, but not the same as, Delaware Court of Chancery Rule 23.1...more
In Lee v. Fisher, No. 21-15923, 2023 U.S. App. LEXIS 13521 (9th Cir. June 1, 2023), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit, sitting en banc, affirmed the dismissal of a shareholder derivative complaint...more
On May 12, 2023, Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III of the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled in favor of defendant, the founder and largest shareholder (the “Founder”) of a technology company (the “Company”), on derivative...more
I have recently written about TripAdvisor's proposal to redomesticate, by conversion, from Delaware to Nevada. The first reason given for the move in TripAdvisor's proxy statement is saving money...more
Delaware Court of Chancery holds contractual waivers of fiduciary duties are facially valid when they are both narrowly tailored to authorize specific transactions and satisfy the Court’s review for reasonableness. Court...more
Last week, I wrote about a pending challenge to the proposed redomestications of TripAdvisor, Inc. and Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. from Delaware to Nevada. The plaintiffs are claiming that these redomestications would...more
Corporate officers take note: Recent changes to Delaware law introduce a path towards additional protection and new potential liability for corporate officers. First, corporations may now amend their articles of incorporation...more
On March 15, 2022, Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick of the Delaware Court of Chancery ruled that the founder and former CEO of Mindbody Inc. (the “Company”) breached his fiduciary duties to stockholders in connection with the...more