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?
Problems with a partner? You’re not alone. Our law firm routinely fields calls from business owners seeking to remove a partner who is inactive, engaging in unethical or illegal behavior, or otherwise disrupting operations....more
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
In the fast-paced and high-stakes world of restaurant ownership, conflicts among business partners can arise from financial disagreements, operational decisions, or differing visions for the restaurant’s future. When disputes...more
This case is an important reminder that in trade secrets litigation, the specific business context is critically important and may be outcome determinative. Here, a closely held business was held to a much more lenient...more
A prior LLC Jungle post covered the Court of Appeal’s seminal opinion in the Jarvis v. Jarvis case here: Why Having “Co-Managers” for Your LLC is a Terrible Idea. In the Jarvis case, the Court of Appeal affirmed the...more
Major changes to Texas Business Organizations Code enacted during this summer’s legislative session provide unprecedented protection for management decisions and business disputes – but only if you amend your governing...more
There is perhaps no provision in an LLC operating agreement more susceptible to abuse than one allowing those in control of the LLC to make mandatory capital calls. For one, that authority often comes with very few...more
The Spotlight strives to provide a forum to discuss the latest news and compelling issues impacting fiduciaries and those to whom fiduciaries owe duties. Whether you are an officer, director, trustee, beneficiary, trust...more
It is not uncommon in the restaurant business for a restauranteur to partner with a silent-partner investor, i.e. the money guy. It’s not uncommon for the restaurant partners to fight over the control of the restaurant....more
Disputes among members of a limited liability company (LLC) are inevitable. Unlike casual disagreements with friends or roommates, conflicts within an LLC can have legal and financial consequences. Recognizing this reality,...more
Mehra v. Teller, C.A. No. 2019-0812-KSJM (Del. Ch. Sept. 20, 2024) - In this post-trial decision, the plaintiffs claimed that one of the defendants breached his fiduciary duties by failing to distribute assets equally at...more
In determining whether parties are, in fact, in a partnership depends on the conduct of the parties. Titles, labels, and disclaimers are often meaningless. Consider this scenario: In a New York City bar, two successful...more
Spring is soon upon us. March Madness is at our doorstep. The Formula 1 season is underway. Baseball season will be in full swing shortly. And my allergies are already in bloom....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
In recent years, the headlines have tracked the news of high-profile breakups among business partners in private companies. These business partner fallouts include: - 2023: Sam Altman was ousted as Open AI CEO (for...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
I focus my practice on commercial litigation and in particular on representing business owners in disputes with their business partners. As part of my job I get to see a whole variety of ways that business people attempt to...more
We frequently see a partner’s “fiduciary duties” expressed as the union of the duty of loyalty and the duty of care. The duty of loyalty requires fiduciaries to avoid elevating the interests of any other person or entity...more
There’s a ton of Delaware caselaw enforcing Section 18-1101 (c) of that state’s LLC Act as amended in 2004, authorizing LLC agreements to eliminate the members’ and managers’ liability for breach of fiduciary duty, the only...more
My last few posts have been devoted to the Court of Appeal's opinion in Tuli v. Specialty Surgical Center of Thousand Oaks, LLC, 2024 WL 4499271 (Oct. 16, 2024). The case relates to the plaintiff's "decade-long litigation...more
The shareholder oppression claim under BCL 1104-a has a unique relationship with claims for money damages. A minority shareholder petitioning for dissolution under BCL 1104-a must establish that the majority shareholders...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
Antero Resources Corp. v. C & R Downhole Drilling, Inc. et al, proves again the extreme risk when one bites the hand that feeds him (shoutout to Greek poet Sappho, 600 BCE). Antero sued former employee Kawsak and his...more
More often than not, the centerpiece of an intra-owner business dispute is a claim that those in control of the business breached their fiduciary duties to the company or the minority owners. While often easy to assert, the...more
In a landmark decision, the Delaware Court of Chancery addressed, for the first time, the precise duties that a controlling stockholder owes, and the standard of review that will apply, when a controlling stockholder takes...more