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Shareholders Attorney-Client Privilege

Morrison & Foerster LLP

Sec Lit IQ: MoFo’s Quarterly Federal Securities Litigation and Delaware Corporate Litigation Newsletter (Q4 2024)

We are pleased to announce the launch of MoFo’s new quarterly newsletter highlighting the most important developments in federal securities and Delaware corporate litigation. In this first edition, we provide a rundown of the...more

Hogan Lovells

Is the writing on the wall for the shareholder principle? Privilege update in Hong Kong

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The concept of the “shareholder principle” in English law provides that a company cannot assert privilege against its own shareholders, unless the privileged documents in question were created for the dominant purpose of...more

Greenbaum, Rowe, Smith & Davis LLP

Appellate Division Reaffirms Well-Settled Precedent in Refusing to Assume Attorney-Client Privilege for Individual Shareholders in...

Generally speaking, attorney-client privilege protects against the disclosure of confidential communications between a client and a lawyer that are related to the provision of legal advice or assistance. A recent New Jersey...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Balancing Act: Sharing Information From an Internal Investigation Without Waiving Privilege

A whistleblower has triggered a race against time: An internal inquiry, directed by the audit committee and overseen by external counsel, has been launched in response to allegations that revenue was recorded without proper...more

Jackson Lewis P.C.

Strategies for Investigating Misconduct Against Superstars, C-Suite Employees in Retail Industry

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In the retail industry, when superstars, C-suite employees, and other high-achieving individuals are accused of misconduct, the company has a significant management challenge to address the situation in an unemotional,...more

ArentFox Schiff

Minority Business Owners and Trust Beneficiaries May Be Able to Obtain Otherwise Privileged Documents

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In certain circumstances, shareholders of corporations and members of limited liability companies can obtain confidential communications between corporate management and the company’s attorney that would otherwise be...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Addresses When Third Parties Are Within the Scope of the Privilege

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Police and Fire Ret. Sys. of the City of Detroit v. Musk, C.A. No. 2020-0477-KSJM (Del. Ch. January 31, 2023) - A communication is privileged under Delaware Rule of Evidence 502(b) if it is confidential and "made for the...more

ArentFox Schiff

Minority Owners May Be Able to Obtain Privileged Company Documents in Ownership Disputes

ArentFox Schiff on

When corporate management requests or obtains legal advice from corporate counsel, management expects those communications to be protected from disclosure by the attorney-client privilege, and usually they are. But there are...more

Patton Sullivan Brodehl LLP

Shareholder Inspection Rights Are Not An Automatic Right To Attorneys’ Fees

Recently the Court of Appeals has addressed a director’s inspection rights, and shareholder inspection rights and the associated opportunity to recover attorney fees and other expenses incurred in securing the inspection of...more

Morris James LLP

Chancery Declines to Order Production of Privileged Document

Morris James LLP on

Drachman v. BioDelivery Sciences International, Inc., C.A. No. 2019-0728-LWW (Del. Ch. Aug. 25, 2021) - Drachman addresses the attorney-client privilege, certain exceptions thereto, including the Garner doctrine, and...more

Goodwin

Former Theranos CEO Denied Attorney-Client Privilege Over Communications with Company Attorneys

Goodwin on

Former Theranos CEO Denied Attorney-Client Privilege Over Communications with Company Attorneys; District of Massachusetts Allows Putative Securities Class Action to Proceed Against OvaScience Investors; Delaware Chancery...more

White & Case LLP

Defying gravity: US M&A H1 2019: Three key M&A decisions from Delaware courts

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The first half of 2019 saw several decisions from the Delaware courts that will affect M&A dealmaking - Aruba: Supreme Court awards "deal price less synergies" in closely watched appraisal case - Rejecting the Chancery...more

Morris James LLP

Merger Agreement’s Preservation of Privilege for Pre-Merger Communications Found to be Adequate, Notwithstanding that the...

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Shareholder Representative Services LLC v. RSI Holdco, LLC, C.A. No. 2018-0517-KSJM (Del. Ch. May 29, 2019). This decision confirms that, in a post-merger dispute between an acquirer and the selling stockholders, broad...more

Winstead PC

Court Holds That Attorney Did Not Have An Attorney-Client Relationship With A Company’s Directors And Shareholders

Winstead PC on

In Pennington v. Fields, the majority of shareholders of a closely held business forced the buy-out of the minority shareholder and litigation ensued. No. 05-17-00321-CV, 2018 Tex. App. LEXIS 6601 (Tex. App.—Dallas August 21,...more

Foley & Lardner LLP

Me Too, But Now What? What Board Members Need to Know About Workplace Sexual Harassment

Foley & Lardner LLP on

Allegations of workplace sexual harassment and assault have recently made headlines from Silicon Valley to Hollywood and have brought down the careers of numerous high-profile executives. Partially a response to the uptick in...more

Proskauer - Minding Your Business

The Most Overlooked Exception to Attorney-Client Privilege

In-house counsel often communicate with corporate management under the assumption that these communications are protected by the attorney-client privilege— absent some type of unusual and extraordinary circumstance, such as...more

Goodwin

Business Litigation Reporter -- October 2014

Goodwin on

California - Browsewrap Arbitration Agreement Not Enforced Against Individual Consumer. In Nguyen v. Barnes & Noble Inc., 2014 WL 4056549 (9th Cir. Aug. 18, 2014), the Ninth Circuit affirmed the denial of B&N’s motion...more

Allen Matkins

The General Counsel Is Not The Shareholders’ Agent

Allen Matkins on

A recent paper by Adair Morse, Wei Wang, and Serena Wu, Executive Gatekeepers: Useful and Divertible Governance, tackles interesting questions about the the effectiveness of internal gatekeepers and the impact of equity...more

Bracewell LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Rules That Privileged Documents Must Be Produced To Shareholders Investigating Corporate Misconduct

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The Delaware Supreme Court recently held that, in certain circumstances, shareholders may be able to obtain access to privileged, internal documents in order to investigate potential breaches of fiduciary duty. In Wal-Mart...more

Mintz - Securities & Capital Markets...

What Does Delaware’s Wal-Mart Decision Mean for the Attorney-Client Privilege and Internal Investigations?

The Delaware Supreme Court’s decision in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Indiana Electrical Workers Pension Trust Fund IBEW, No. 614, 2014 Del. LEXIS 336, 2014 WL 3638848 (July 23, 2014), a Section 220 “books and records” case...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Delaware’s Adoption of Garner — and Practical Ways to Respond

On July 23, 2014, the Delaware Supreme Court in Wal-Mart Stores Inc. v. Indiana Electrical Workers Pension Trust Fund IBEW held that plaintiff stockholders, who make a showing of good cause, can inspect documents concerning a...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Delaware Supreme Court Permits Stockholders to Overcome Corporation’s Attorney-Client Privilege for “Good Cause”

On July 23, 2014, the Delaware Supreme Court in Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Indiana Elec. Workers Pension Trust Fund IBEW held that plaintiff stockholders, who make a showing of good cause, can inspect documents concerning a...more

Allen Matkins

Delaware Likes Garner/California Not So Much

Allen Matkins on

In 1970, Richard Nixon was president, the 26th Amendment was still not part of the Constitution, and the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals issued its opinion in Garner v. Wolfinbarger, 430 F.2d 1093 (5th Cir. 1970). In that...more

Troutman Pepper

Counsel to the Company: A Framework for Corporate Governance

Troutman Pepper on

As a threshold matter, counsel must identify, and remain clear as to, the identity of its client, which may be the company or a subsidiary, the Board or Board committee, or one or more executives. The identity of the client...more

Morrison & Foerster LLP

In Delaware, Privilege Goes to the Buyer -- Court Finds Buyer Controls Attorney-Client Privilege over Seller’s Pre-Closing...

The Delaware court of chancery held recently that control over a target company’s attorney-client privileged communications, including communications between the target company’s counsel and its pre-merger stockholders,...more

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