FCPA Compliance and Ethics Report-Episode 169-the First Mailbag Issue
Homebuilder Series Webinar: Protecting Your Company From Misrepresentation Claims Through Contractual Exculpatory Clauses
Last year, we reviewed proxy statements filed by companies in the Silicon Valley 150 (SV150) to see whether they included an officer exculpation proposal in their proxy statements for stockholder meetings held from August 1,...more
In August 2022, the Delaware General Assembly amended the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”) to allow corporations to adopt charter provisions exculpating certain officers from personal liability for monetary damages...more
In re Fox Corporation/Snap Inc. Section 242 Litigation, the Delaware Supreme Court ruled that corporations do not need to seek votes from each separate stockholder class to approve charter amendments exculpating corporate...more
Delaware’s Supreme Court unanimously rejected challenges by stockholders of two corporations who argued the respective companies invalidly adopted exculpatory charter provisions without giving each class of stock a separate...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
Last summer, Delaware amended Section 102(b)(7) to permit the exculpation of certain officers for direct (but not derivative) stockholder suits for monetary damages for breach of fiduciary duty...more
Delaware has long permitted corporations to limit or eliminate monetary liability of directors from breach of fiduciary duty of care lawsuits. However, the same protections have not been afforded to a corporation’s officers....more
In United Food & Com. Workers Union v. Zuckerberg, No. 404, 2020 (Del. Sup. Sep. 23, 2021), the Delaware Supreme Court adopted a new, three-part test for determining when a shareholder is required to make a pre-suit demand on...more
On January 29, 2021, Vice Chancellor Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery refused to dismiss a shareholder class action stemming from the 2019, $2.2 billion sale of Presidio, Inc., an IT solutions provider specializing in...more
In this unusual factual circumstance, the Court denied a motion to dismiss a claim against an investment banker for aiding and abetting a board’s alleged breach of its duty to act with care. Note that the board itself was...more
In Koehler v. NetSpend Holdings, Inc., 2013 Del. Ch. LEXIS 131 (Del. Ch. May 21, 2013), Vice Chancellor Sam Glasscock III wrote “In fact, NetSpend appears more Rapunzel than Penelope; she must, it seems, let down her hair or...more
Delaware law has long provided that the decisions of disinterested and independent directors who receive no special benefit from a transaction ought not be the basis of personal liability in monetary damages. To subject...more
In In re Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc. Stockholder Litigation/Leal v. Meeks, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed decisions of the Delaware Chancery Court denying director-defendants’ motions to dismiss breach of fiduciary...more
In the consolidated appeal In re Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc., Stockholder Litigation and In re Zhongpin Stockholders Litigation, Nos. 564, 2014 and 706, 2014, 2015 Del. LEXIS 231 (Del. May 14, 2015), the Delaware Supreme...more
This important Supreme Court decision clarifies when independent, disinterested directors may be dismissed from litigation, even when an interested transaction is under attack. When the complaint only alleges a breach of the...more
Yesterday, in In re Cornerstone Therapeutics, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, the Supreme Court of Delaware held that plaintiffs seeking monetary damages against disinterested, independent directors must plead facts sufficient...more
On May 14, 2015, the Delaware Supreme Court issued its decision in In re Cornerstone Therapeutics Inc., S'holder Litig., clarifying that damages claims against independent directors can be dismissed where: (1) an applicable...more