On March 3, a committee of the Delaware State Bar Association (DSBA) announced revisions to Senate Bill 21 (SB 21) aimed at paring back some of the proposed protections seen as too controller-friendly....more
In its unanimous decision rendered on February 4, 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court reversed the Delaware Court of Chancery’s ruling in the widely followed “TripAdvisor” case (Palkon v. Maffei) regarding the standard of review...more
Controlled companies and their directors appealed the denial of their motions to dismiss claims by stockholder-plaintiffs challenging the conversions of the companies from Delaware to Nevada corporations....more
This case stems from the proposed reincorporations of Tripadvisor, Inc. and Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. from Delaware to Nevada, which were first presented to the corporations’ respective stockholders for approval in...more
In an opinion late last month, the Delaware Supreme Court brought a close to the long-running shareholder litigation regarding Oracle’s 2016 purchase of NetSuite. The decision provides instruction for how significant minority...more
Nearly one year ago, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster decided to apply Delaware's most onerous standard of review, entire fairness, to the decisions of TripAdvisor, Inc. and Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. to reincorporate...more
A recent monumental decision of the Delaware Supreme Court (Court), dubbed a “first-of-it-kind” ruling by Bloomberg Law, provides clarity for both public companies looking to amend their bylaws and shareholder activists who...more
Much has been written about Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster's ruling in Palkon v. Maffeii, 2024 WL 678204 (Del. Ch. Feb. 20, 2024). That case involved a challenge to TripAdvisor's planned reincorporation from Delaware to...more
Following other recent decisions addressing the applicability and scope of Kahn v. M&F Worldwide Corp. (“MFW”), including In re Match Group Inc., Derivative Litigation and Tornetta v. Musk, on May 1, 2024, the Delaware...more
On April 4, 2024, the Delaware Supreme Court issued its opinion in In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation, clarifying that the heightened entire fairness standard of review applies to judicial review of any transaction...more
On January 17, 2024, the Delaware Supreme Court issued a significant decision affirming that the Delaware General Corporation Law (the DGCL) does not require companies with multiple classes of common stock to obtain separate...more
As discussed in prior articles, stockholder plaintiffs have increasingly sought to obtain companies’ books and records under 8 Del. C. § 220 (Section 220) and the Delaware Limited Liability Company Act’s analogous provision,...more
The Delaware courts have issued several noteworthy decisions in recent weeks that should have an impact on practice and stockholder litigation. Below is a brief summary of these decisions, which involved the following...more
The proposed 2023 amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) approved by the Delaware State Bar Association are intended to address a number of practical issues facing corporations and their counsel and to...more
In recent weeks, the Delaware Court of Chancery has issued two noteworthy opinions in the special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) context—one related to fiduciary duties and one related to the technical question of when a...more
Delaware courts have historically been reluctant to allow Caremark (or “board oversight”) claims to gain traction, describing such a claim as “possibly the most difficult theory in corporation law upon which a plaintiff might...more
The Court of Chancery’s decision in In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation1 is the latest example of how the Delaware Supreme Court’s watershed 2014 decision in Kahn v. M & F Worldwide Corp. (MFW)2 has been applied to...more
For decades, Delaware courts have encouraged stockholders to use the “tools at hand” — before initiating lawsuits — by obtaining corporations’ books and records through 8 Del. C. § 220 (Section 220). As described in prior...more
In this issue, we discuss recent Delaware court decisions further developing the bounds around books and records demands. Other articles focus on recent developments concerning advance notice bylaws and the standards used by...more
On July 29, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a noteworthy decision confirming the broad application of the "MFW" framework—based on the Delaware Supreme Court's decision in Kahn v. M & F Worldwide Corp., 88 A.3d 635...more
We are pleased to present the 2021 Delaware Corporate Law and Litigation Year in Review. A number of Delaware law and related corporate governance developments occurred in 2021 that should be of significant interest to...more
Nevada's corporation law is quite protective of directors and officers. Following the Delaware Supreme Court's decision in Smith v. Van Gorkum, 488 A.2d 858 (1985), the Nevada legislature amended the law to allow for...more
The following case (link) should serve as a cautionary tale for directors of Delaware corporations when taking actions that may disenfranchise stockholders, especially in the election of directors. The Delaware Supreme...more
The recently published “The Friedman Essay and the True Purpose of the Business Corporation” defends a view of stakeholder governance that reflects the following two basic flaws...more
In the last two years, plaintiffs’ lawyers have increasingly been bringing lawsuits under the Securities Act of 1933 (“Securities Act”), such as claims relating to public offerings, in state rather than federal court. ...more