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?
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
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
Welcome to our 17th annual edition of the Top 10 business divorce cases featured on this blog over the past year. This year’s selections buck the trend of previous years in which cases involving limited liability...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
Parallel business divorce proceedings in the same or different courts alleging overlapping or duplicative claims are common. When it occurs, judges must often determine whether to dispose of one so the other may proceed...more
Some years are easier than others to select the most significant business divorce cases. In this, the 16th year I’ve published this top-10 list, the task is made especially difficult by a veritable flood of court decisions...more
Do New York’s Surrogate’s Courts have jurisdiction to compel an accounting related to a non-party limited liability company in which the decedent’s estate has only a minority interest? ...more
Going into business with someone requires a high level of trust. For a business to thrive, business partners must be loyal to the business and each other. As in a marriage, when a partner in a business is disloyal, things...more
Part Three of a Series Payne & Fears’ Business Litigation Group helps businesses and their owners with wide-ranging disputes. In our practice, we’ve noticed that in disputes among business partners there are common issues...more
The pictured architectural rendering of the sunlit Kings County Supreme Courthouse at 360 Adams Street, completed in 1957, doesn’t quite capture the reality of its dour, hulking presence in downtown Brooklyn. Its design...more
When an LLC suffers primary harm that also indirectly harms the LLC’s members, the cause of action generally belongs to the LLC, not its members. Only if the LLC (through its duly authorized management) fails to pursue the...more
Appearances can be deceiving. - That, essentially, was the argument made in two recently decided cases involving claims for judicial dissolution. ...more
LLC managers owe fiduciary duties both to the LLC and to the LLC’s members, similar to the duties owed by a partner to other partners in a partnership. (Corp Code §17704.09.) These include the duty of loyalty, care, and...more
In Villareal v. Saenz, a district court magistrate judge for the Western District of Texas, San Antonio Division, has recognized that members exiting a limited liability company may continue to hold fiduciary duties despite...more
In Jacobs v Cartalemi, now the leading case on the subject of LLC member withdrawal (which our firm had the pleasure of litigating), the Appellate Division – Second Department repeated a well-established principle of law:...more
I’ve yet to see him make a court appearance, and hope I never do, but the Grim Reaper sure has a knack for disrupting business divorce litigation involving LLCs and limited partnerships....more
In 2019, the Delaware courts issued a broad range of important decisions addressing various corporate law and governance issues—including board compensation, controlling stockholder conflicts, board oversight obligations, M&A...more
Not long ago, The LLC Jungle posted an article addressing the perils of attorney representation of an LLC with two equal “co-managing members.” See Why Having “Co-Managers” for Your LLC is a Terrible Idea. This post...more