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Delaware General Corporation Law Shareholder Litigation Corporate Officers

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

The Informed Board - Spring 2025

In this issue of The Informed Board, we go behind all the talk about companies reincorporating in states other than Delaware. In our lead article and our podcast, we point out that few companies actually moved, and we explain...more

Tarter Krinsky & Drogin LLP

Significant DGCL Amendments Expand Protections for Corporate Insiders

Amendments to Section 144 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) broaden safe harbor protections for interested director and officer transactions and extend such protections to controlling stockholder transactions....more

Fenwick & West LLP

Delaware Amends General Corporation Law to Stanch Company Exodus

Fenwick & West LLP on

On March 25, Delaware adopted significant amendments to §§ 144 and 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law which aim to provide greater clarity and predictability to corporate fiduciaries in light of certain recent...more

Mayer Brown

Delaware Law Alert: A Step-by-Step Approach for Boards Evaluating Conflicted Director, Officer, and Controlling Stockholder...

Mayer Brown on

In perhaps one of the most significant revisions to the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL), on March 25, 2025, the governor signed into law amendments overhauling much of the state’s law relating to conflicted...more

Cole Schotz

State of Delaware Adopts Milestone Amendments to the Delaware General Corporation Law

Cole Schotz on

On March 25, 2025, significant amendments to the General Corporation Law of the State of Delaware (the DGCL), intended to provide greater certainty to transaction planners in light of recent Delaware case law developments,...more

Cadwalader, Wickersham & Taft LLP

Delaware Governor Signs Senate Bill 21 into Law, Significantly Amending Delaware Corporate Law

On March 25, 2025, Delaware Governor Matt Meyer signed into law Senate Bill 21, amending Sections 144 and 220 of Title 8 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL). The legislation responds to recent concerns over...more

Holland & Knight LLP

Delaware Supreme Court: Permissive Business Judgment Rule Applies to Corporate Conversions

Holland & Knight LLP on

everal 2024 decisions by the Delaware Court of Chancery led some prominent corporate leaders to express frustration over perceived increased liability standards for corporate officers and directors, even publicly advising new...more

Allen Matkins

Is Delaware Corporate Law Meant Only For The Oἱ Όλίγοι?

Allen Matkins on

Professor Stephen Bainbridge has offered a rebuttal to my observation that Delaware's corporate law is inaccessible to everyday observers.  He posits that inaccessibility is a "feature not a bug".  As an example, he describes...more

Allen Matkins

After More Than A Year, Questions Remain Regarding Caremark and Officers

Allen Matkins on

Last year, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster famously held that officers could be subject to liability under the Caremark doctrine.  In re McDonald’s Corp., 289 A.3d 343 (Del. Ch. Jan. 26, 2023).    The Caremark doctrine...more

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Officer Exculpation and the Silicon Valley 150: Year Two

Last year, we reviewed proxy statements filed by companies in the Silicon Valley 150 (SV150) to see whether they included an officer exculpation proposal in their proxy statements for stockholder meetings held from August 1,...more

Bennett Jones LLP

Delaware Court Affirms High Threshold for Breach of Directors' Caremark Duties

Bennett Jones LLP on

In a recent case, Bricklayers Pension Fund of Western Pennsylvania (derivatively on behalf of Centene Corporation) v Brinkley (Centene), Delaware's Court of Chancery dismissed “Caremark duty claims”—named after the 1996 case...more

Allen Matkins

Does Revlon Make Nevada Tense?

Allen Matkins on

In Revlon, Inc. v. MacAndrews & Forbes Holdings, Inc., 506 A.2d 173, 182 (1986), the Delaware Supreme Court famously held that when the sale of a corporation becomes inevitable,  the board of directors' duty changed from the...more

Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman LLP

Clarity for M&A Practitioners: Proposed DGCL Amendments Bridge the Gap between Recent Delaware Chancery Court Decisions and Market...

The proposed amendments would address recent case law decisions in Activision, Moelis and Crispo that uprooted well-established market practice with respect to the enforceability of certain provisions of stockholder...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Requires Compliance With DGCL Provisions Governing Board Negotiation And Board And Stockholder Approval Requirements For...

A&O Shearman on

On February 29, 2024, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick granted in part and denied in part defendants’ motion to dismiss claims seeking to invalidate the acquisition of a gaming company (“Target”) by a large technology...more

Bennett Jones LLP

Delaware Courts Confirm High Standard for Breach of Oversight Duty Applies Equally to Officers and Directors

Bennett Jones LLP on

In the United States, corporate directors and, as confirmed by the Delaware Court in McDonald’s Corp. Stockholder Derivative Litigation (McDonald), corporate officers owe, as a subset of their duty of loyalty, a duty to...more

McDermott Will & Schulte

Delaware Court Invalidates Stockholder Agreement Governance Provisions

In holding that certain provisions within the stockholder agreement of a Delaware corporation are invalid under the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL), the Delaware Court of Chancery has created a framework for...more

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

2023 Delaware Corporate Law and Litigation Year in Review

Wilson Sonsini is pleased to present the 2023 Delaware Corporate Law and Litigation Year In Review. In 2023, the Delaware courts issued many decisions addressing an array of important topics, including director and officer...more

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Delaware Supreme Court Affirms Important Ruling for Multi-Class Companies Concerning Class Votes

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

DarrowEverett LLP

Lessons For Founders From Sam Altman’s Short-Lived OpenAI Ouster

DarrowEverett LLP on

We’ve all read countless headlines and articles about the removal and swift return of Sam Altman as CEO of OpenAI over the past several weeks. Simply put, the nonprofit board voted to remove Altman as a result of a...more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

Insights: The Delaware Edition - December 2023

In this issue, we discuss recent Delaware court developments regarding officer liability, who can recover “lost-premium” damages, and trends in books and records actions, among other topics....more

Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP

‘Busted Deals’ and Damages: Court of Chancery Clarifies Who Can Recover ‘Lost-Premium’ Damages

In October 2023, Chancellor Kathaleen St. J. McCormick of the Court of Chancery addressed an issue of first impression in Crispo v. Musk, C.A. No 2022-0666-KSJM, holding that “a provision purporting to define a target...more

Latham & Watkins LLP

California Court Adopts the Caremark Standard for Oversight Claims

Latham & Watkins LLP on

The decision articulates the standard for plaintiffs asserting derivative claims based on an alleged failure of oversight by directors and officers of California companies. Nearly three decades ago in the seminal case In...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Court Of Chancery Rejects Stockholder Demand For Corporation To Supplement Its Section 220 Production With Searches And...

A&O Shearman on

On August 25, 2023, Magistrate Bonnie W. David of the Delaware Chancery Court issued a post-trial report denying stockholder requests for supplemental productions of emails from Zendesk, Inc. (the “Company”) pursuant to a...more

Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati

Officer Exculpation and the Silicon Valley 150

Effective August 1, 2022, Section 102(b)(7) of the Delaware General Corporation Law (DGCL) was amended to permit a Delaware corporation to include in its charter a provision eliminating or limiting the personal liability of...more

A&O Shearman

Delaware Court Of Chancery Rejects Stockholder’s Section 220 Books And Record Demand In Connection With Corporation’s Expression...

A&O Shearman on

On June 27, 2023, Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will of the Delaware Court of Chancery issued a judgment in favor of a “leading media and entertainment” company with a “substantial presence in Florida” (the “Corporation”),...more

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