Episode 24: Corporate Oppression Doctrine Meets Sex Discrimination: A Conversation with Professor Meredith Miller
Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 167: Listen and Learn -- Direct and Derivative Actions (Corporations)
Episode 8: Minority Oppression in the LLC: Interview With Professor Douglas Moll
Most institutions in our society make decisions upon the consent of the majority, from legislatures passing important bills to families deciding on what movie to watch on movie night. ...more
Welcome to this year’s Winter Case Notes where, amidst the arctic blast currently sweeping most of the nation, I offer shortish takes on several court decisions in recent business divorce cases. This year’s edition...more
In matters of corporate divorce, deadlock, majority oppression, or usurpation of corporate opportunities are all well-tread grounds for disputes between co-owners of closely held entities. These disputes often culminate in...more
It’s unlikely the extended Evenstad family, former owners and heirs of the Upsher-Smith company, will be celebrating Thanksgiving together this year. After all, the last time the family got together was likely for the 16-day...more
Earlier this year, using as a springboard the Maryland intermediate appellate court’s decision in Eastland Food Corp. v Mekhaya, I posted about a topic on which there’s little or no New York law, viz., whether a complaint for...more
Potential client sits down with business divorce lawyer and says, “I’m a minority shareholder in XYZ Corp. I’ve been completely frozen out by the majority. Can you help me?” The lawyer says, “Absolutely. New York law gives...more
Over its three-decade rise to the closely-held business entity of choice, the Limited Liability Company has won a special place in our hearts. The majority of disputes we litigate and blog about concern ownership of or...more
There are many ways that an owner of a closely-held business can use their superior financial resources to gain an advantage over their co-owners in a dispute. One common way is the use of a capital call provision to dilute...more
Occasionally, we come across post-trial decisions with such scathing rebuke of one side that it’s difficult to imagine why the loser ever chose to take the case to trial. O’Mahony v Whiston is a perfect example....more
When a minority shareholder petitions for dissolution of a corporation on the grounds of oppressive or illegal conduct (see BCL 1104-a), Section 1118 of New York’s Business Corporation Law allows the corporation or any other...more
De facto dividend. Disguised dividend. Constructive dividend. They all refer to the same thing: monies in excess of reasonable compensation taken by owners of closely held companies, booked as deductible employment...more
I’m delighted to present our 15th annual list of the past year’s ten most significant business divorce cases. This year’s list includes decisions by New York’s trial and appellate courts concerning a smorgasbord of...more
Davies Governance Insights analyzes the top trends and issues most important to Canadian public companies and provides practical guidance for boards to meet these challenges head on. ...more
In 1950, Sam Hoffman and his two sons, Hyman and Melvin, founded Brooklyn-based Cornell Beverages, Inc. to manufacture and distribute seltzer. Those were the days when “seltzer men” made weekly home deliveries of cases of...more
This episode features an interview with Professor Meredith Miller of the Touro Law Center on her recently published article in the Indiana Law Review entitled Challenging Gender Discrimination in Closely Held Firms: The Hope...more
Longtime readers of this blog may recall a post I wrote three years ago titled Minority Shareholder Oppression in the #MeToo Era. The post highlighted an apparent first-of-its-kind decision in a judicial dissolution case...more
A watershed moment or a forgettable outlier? It is often difficult to predict how much a novel decision will impact the body of laws governing closely-held corporations and their shareholders. Decisions that seem the most...more
Welcome back to the Bar Exam Toolbox podcast! Today, we review the terminology and rules that you'll need to know when answering a question on direct and derivative actions. To illustrate the concepts, we also go over two...more
I. Introduction - As a common law jurisdiction, Ireland’s legal system is similar to that of the US and the UK and businesses can be carried on in Ireland in several different ways, including as sole traders, partnerships,...more
Two years ago, Peter Mahler wrote about a dissolution lawsuit by a female minority shareholder alleging that her male co-shareholders condoned a pattern of sexually offensive and demeaning conduct by a senior co-worker, which...more
For the second time in two years, the Connecticut Supreme Court has ventured into uncharted waters of LLC governance under the Revised Uniform LLC Act which, to date, has been adopted by 22 states and awaits legislative...more
If ever there was a ticking time bomb of a family-owned, closely held business more likely to result in business divorce litigation than the one in Matter of Brady v Brady, 2021 NY Slip Op 02705 [4th Dept Apr. 30, 2021], I...more
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
The closely held nature of a family business means there is often a single controlling shareholder or a controlling shareholding group, making it important for shareholders in family businesses to be aware of the legal...more
Iowa was one of the first states to adopt the 2006 Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act. As of this year, 21 others have done so not including New York which continues to limp along with its creaky LLC Law enacted...more