Sunday Book Review: July 20, 2025, The Best Books on Business Edition
Excessive Compensation: What to do when the co-owners of your business pay themselves excessively
Building and Exiting Business Partnerships
When a co-shareholder purchases the debt obligations of the company without partners' knowledge
What happens when a majority owner makes a bad-faith capital call?
Making the Lawyer-Client Relationship Work in Challenging Litigation – Speaking of Litigation Video Podcast
Prelude to the Business Court and 15th Court of Appeals: More Questions Than Answers | Tyler Talbert | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Navigating Corporate Divorce With Michael Einbinder
Business Courts and Other Highlights of the 88th Texas Legislature | Jerry Bullard | Texas Appellate Law Podcast
Physician Partnership Agreements: Setting Yourself Up for Success
An Inside Look as a Juror - FCRA Focus Podcast
I Wish I Knew What I Know Now: Conversations with AGG on FDA Issues - Business Divorces in the Food and Supplements Space
How can an emergency injunction save your business?
Law Brief ®: Alan Gaynor and Richard Schoenstein Explore Business Divorce
Navigating the LLC Jungle - I Know a Lawyer Podcast
Episode 5: Business Divorce, Delaware Style
CorpCast Episode 7: Better Know a Judge: the Honorable Mary M. Johnston of the Delaware Superior Court
Paths to Dispute Resolution
What is arbitration?
Should any business sign a contract that includes an arbitration clause?
The Nevada District Court recently clarified that the business judgment rule — a fundamental corporate law protection — applies to limited liability companies when their operating agreements specify fiduciary duties. The...more
The Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals recently reversed a district court’s denial of a motion to compel arbitration, concluding that the contract between the parties evinced an intent to arbitrate even if the purported arbitral...more
While entity distinctness is a bedrock principle of corporate law, it may often appear redundant and unnecessary for a limited liability company (“LLC”) to sign its own operating agreement. That was likely the thinking of the...more
Business disputes can be disruptive and very expensive. Whether choosing a new partner, considering a merger or guiding a client as they start or grow a business, there are many things you can do to prevent problems. As a...more
One of the first business divorce cases that I participated in as a young litigator was a lengthy arbitration over whether a minority shareholder was oppressed under BCL 1104-a. With those fond memories, evolution of the...more
Sometimes, challenging clients need to be challenged. Whether encouraging candid client conversations or reining clients in during depositions, it’s important to keep the ultimate goal in mind: success. In this episode of...more
Delaware Chancery Court’s contractarian approach to all things LLC, embedded statutorily in Section 18-1101(b) of the Delaware LLC Act (“It is the policy of this chapter to give the maximum effect to the principle of freedom...more
Ambiguous drafting of earnout provisions in M&A agreements is a perennial source of post-closing disputes. What may have seemed clear to parties in the heat of negotiations can often become less so as time passes,...more
In the UK Supreme Court's judgment in RTI Ltd v MUR Shipping BV [2024] UKSC 18, which was handed down last week, it considered what obligations the words “reasonable endeavours” placed on a party, in the context of a force...more
Folks who’ve been following this blog for years know that periodically I like to venture beyond New York’s borders to find and report on interesting decisions from other states in business divorce cases....more
On January 29, 2024, in Cantor Fitzgerald, L.P. v. Ainslie, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed a Chancery Court holding that a forfeiture-for-competition provision in a limited partnership agreement was unenforceable as an...more
In my business divorce practice I deal with many closely held corporations that have only a few or perhaps just two shareholders, each of whom is actively involved in running the business. Within that category are many...more
One need not peruse the pages of this blog for long to learn that its authors strongly advise against entering into an owners’ agreement that calls on the members to “annually” (or worse, “regularly”) update a critical aspect...more
In Stagen v. Neu, 2023 N.Y. Slip Op. 06105 (1st Dept. Nov. 28, 2023), the Appellate Division, First Department addressed an issue of contract interpretation involving a word in a settlement agreement that most readers would...more
The question in Self v, BPX Operating Company is how to balance the Louisiana Civil Code Art 2292 principle of negotiorum gestio against Louisiana’s conservation statutes....more
The owners’ agreement is the backbone of the closely-held business. In intracompany LLC disputes, few things are more important than what the operating agreement has to say on the subject. As a consequence, the pages of...more
On June 12, Judge Hudson granted an emergency motion to stay arbitration proceedings, pending the court’s resolution of the issue of arbitrability in a case pending in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of...more
The case involved the sale of mist eliminators (demisters) from MECS Inc. to Axiall Canada Inc., an owner of a Canadian manufacturing facility. A key issue involved the terms of the parties’ contractual relationship as formed...more
Can a non-operating working interest in a Texas oil and gas lease be adversely possessed? The Amarillo Court of Appeals said yes in PBEX II, LLC v. Dorchester Minerals, L.P....more
Closely-held business owner breakups often defy easy categorization. What seem at first blush to be traditional business divorce cases sometimes end up treading far into other legal practice areas. Other disputes blur...more
In 1941, two of the three shareholders of Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, Inc. entered into an agreement stating that they would vote their combined 630 of the outstanding 1000 shares of Ringling Bros. stock...more
MIECO, LLC v. Pioneer Natural Resources presented a challenge to a force majeure defense in a dispute arising from Winter Storm Uri. The defense carried the day....more
Texas courts continue to address the “fixed or floating” non-participating royalty interest question. The El Paso Court of Appeals’ answer in Bridges v. Uhl et al. was floating, based on the language in that particular...more
On October 6, 2022, in Kodiak Building Partners, LLC v. Philip D. Adams, C.A. No. 2022-0311-MTZ (Oct. 6, 2022), the Delaware Court of Chancery found that a restrictive covenant entered into in connection with an asset...more
It’s a bit of a stretch to suggest that King Solomon prophesied the standard for judicial dissolution of LLCs, but there it is: under New York’s judicially construed standard for involuntary dissolution under Section 702 of...more