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
It is sometimes said that California Corporations Code section 2116 "codifies" the internal affairs doctrine. See, e.g., Drulias v. 1st Century Bancshares, Inc., 30 Cal. App. 5th 696, 705, 241 Cal. Rptr. 3d 843, 851...more
Tulane Law School Professor Ann M. Lipton at Tulane Law School begins her forthcoming, Inside Out (or, One State to Rule them All): New Challenges to the Internal Affairs Doctrine, by quoting Delaware Vice Chancellor J....more
As a voice crying in the wilderness, I have for many years proclaimed that the internal affairs doctrine is not as all-encompassing as Delaware and its devotees would like to believe. The limitations on the internal affairs...more
In this paper, Ann Lipton, an Associate Professor at Tulane Law School, contends that the “internal affairs” doctrine has gradually expanded its reach and, perhaps as a result, is now facing new challenges. As applied in...more
In October 2020, Professor Stephen Bainbridge posed this question of whether shareholder inspection rights are subject to the internal affairs doctrine. His post followed Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster's ruling in Juul...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
Sylebra Capital Partners Master Fund, LTD v. Perelman, et. al., C.A. No. 2019-0843-JRS (Del. Ch. Oct. 9, 2020) - Defendant Scientific Games Corporation (the “Company”) is a gaming and lottery company that reincorporated in...more
The Delaware Court of Chancery recently made news when it ruled that Delaware law, not California law, applied to a minority shareholder’s request to inspect the books and records of a Delaware corporation with its principal...more
The California legislature has famously extended many provisions of the California General Corporation Law to corporations under the laws of other states. But, as Michael Corleone observed at the beginning The Godfather: Part...more
Professor Ann Lipton at Tulane University Law School has noted a slew of forthcoming papers concerning the internal affairs doctrine in light of Vice Chancellor Laster's holding in Sciabacucchi v. Salzberg, 2018 Del. Ch....more
Professor Mohsen Manesh cites two developments in 2018 as a possible turning point for the internal affairs doctrine: California's enactment of a board gender quota law and Vice Chancellor Laster's ruling in Sciabacucchi v....more
"Whereof what's past is prologue, what to come" Youngevity Int'l v. Smith, 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 31526 involved cross motions to dismiss a claim for breach of fiduciary duty. The plaintiff, a Delaware corporation, argued...more
In late 2018, California enacted SB 826, a first-in-the-nation law requiring that a public company headquartered in California have at least one woman on its board of directors. While the law is particularly important for...more
In Drulias v. 1st Century Bancshares, Inc., No. H045049, 2018 WL 6735137 (Cal. App. Dec. 21, 2018), the California Court of Appeal, Sixth Appellate District, affirmed an order staying a stockholder lawsuit brought in the...more
California is the first state to codify boardroom gender diversity requirements. On September 30, 2018, California Governor Jerry Brown signed into law Senate Bill 826, which requires publicly traded companies that were...more
When California's board gender quota bill, SB 826, was introduced last January, I raised several questions...more
Senator Hannah-Beth Jackson's effort to mandate the number of female directors recently passed out of the Senate Committee on Judiciary. That should not be too surprising as Senator Jackson chairs the committee. The bill's...more
My guess is that most attorneys would say that the duty of an officer to the corporation are governed by the law of the state of incorporation under the “internal affairs doctrine”. As explained by the U.S. Supreme Court,...more
The internal affairs doctrine “is a conflict of laws principle which recognizes that only one State should have the authority to regulate a corporation’s internal affairs — matters peculiar to the relationships among or...more