Bar Exam Toolbox Podcast Episode 167: Listen and Learn -- Direct and Derivative Actions (Corporations)
Board Diversity Podcast
Securities Litigation and Disclosure Issues
Podcast: CFTC Issues LIBOR Transition Relief for Swaps
The Texas Legislature recently has taken Texas-sized steps intended to make the state a more attractive place for companies to form, reincorporate, or relocate, further advancing Texas’s efforts to rival Delaware as a...more
On April 10, 2025, the Delaware Court of Chancery granted a motion to dismiss in a breach of fiduciary duty action arising from BGC’s conversion from an Up-C corporation to a traditional full C corporation. While multiple...more
A year ago, I posited the question whether a derivative suit can survive a conversion. I raised that question in reference to Palkon v. Maffei, 2024 WL 678204 (Del. Ch. Feb. 20, 2024), in which the plaintiffs unsuccessfully...more
Gentile v. Rossette, 906 A.2d 91, 100 (Del. 2006), held that dilution claims involving a controller can be both derivative and direct. In Gentile, the Delaware Supreme Court found that dilution claims, challenging a...more
Globe Photos, Inc. owned a portfolio of millions of images of celebrities and musicians, including Marilyn Monroe, the Beatles, and Jimi Hendrix, some taken by famous photographers such as Frank Worth. Despite these assets,...more
In an opinion issued just after Christmas, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster ruled that a derivative lawsuit may proceed against the directors and officers of Fox Corporation. The plaintiffs are claiming that the directors...more
As we previously reported, in January 2024, the Court held in a stockholder derivative suit against the CEO and directors of a sustainable energy and electric vehicle company (the “Company”) that a record-setting $55.8...more
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
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
In In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation, the Delaware Supreme Court held that the dual procedural protections announced in the seminal case of Kahn v. M & F Worldwide Corp. (MFW) are required in order to shift the...more
In Palkon v. Maffei, 2024 WL 678204 (Del. Ch. Feb. 20, 2024), the plaintiffs sought to enjoin the proposed conversions of TripAdvisor, Inc. and Liberty TripAdvisor Holdings, Inc. into Nevada. As noted in this post, Vice...more
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
In Lee v. Fisher, No. 21-15923 (9th Cir. 2023), an en banc panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the district court’s dismissal of a shareholder derivative action against The Gap, Inc. Plaintiff...more
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
Delaware’s demand futility analysis for derivative claims is designed to prevent stockholders from divesting the board of its control of an asset and enabling stockholders to pursue weak claims. To plead demand futility under...more
This June, the Ninth Circuit sitting en banc reheard argument in Lee v. Fisher — a case in which a three-judge panel of the court affirmed the enforceability of an exclusive forum provision contained in a Delaware...more
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
In this past year, we saw an uptick in in-person court proceedings as the effects of the pandemic subsided, a decrease in pandemic-related litigation, and a return to many of the core issues facing Delaware companies...more
One of the earliest signs that a closely-held business is headed for divorce lies in how its owners treat new opportunities. When the relationship among the owners reaches a certain level of distrust, an owner presented with...more
Tesla Motors Stockholder Litigation arises out of Tesla’s acquisition of SolarCity, a market leader in manufacturing and installing solar energy generation systems. On two occasions in 2015 and 2016, Elon Musk suggested to...more
In Lee v. Fisher, 34 F.4th 777 (9th Cir. 2022), the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a shareholder derivative suit against The Gap Inc. (Gap), alleging violations of Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of...more
In 2008, Vice Chancellor J. Travis Laster of the Delaware Court of Chancery — one of the many intellectual giants and gifted writers who’ve occupied seats on that bench — published an article in the Delaware Journal of...more
The Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit affirmed the dismissal of a shareholder derivative action in light of an exclusive-forum bylaw requiring assertion of derivative claims in the Delaware Court of Chancery, even though...more
The Seventh Circuit issued a resounding message: Delaware forum selection clauses in corporate bylaws cannot lawfully prevent a plaintiff from bringing claims under the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the Exchange Act or the...more
Class Certification - Central District of California Denies Class Certification in Securities Fraud Action Concerning Company’s Purchase of ADRs - Stoyas v. Toshiba Corp., No. 2:15-cv-04194 (C.D. Cal. Jan. 7, 2022) - ...more