Episode 24: Corporate Oppression Doctrine Meets Sex Discrimination: A Conversation with Professor Meredith Miller
Episode 23: LLCs as They Approach the 50-Year Milestone: A Conversation with Professor Susan Pace Hamill
Litigation developments: core M&A and corporate governance doctrines
PODCAST: Williams Mullen GovCon Perspectives - Why Was My SWaM Certification Denied, and What Can I Do?
Episode 8: Minority Oppression in the LLC: Interview With Professor Douglas Moll
Episode 10: The Marketability Discount Revisited: Interview with Greg Barber
The M&A Word of the Day® from the Book of Jargon® – Global Mergers & Acquisitions Is Squeeze Out
There is a common misconception that ownership equals control. But in many businesses—especially those participating in the Small Business Administration’s (SBA) 8(a), Women-Owned Small Business (WOSB), or Service-Disabled...more
On March 25, Delaware governor, Matt Meyer, signed into law Substitute 1 to Senate Bill 21 (SB 21), following its rapid approval by the Delaware state legislature. This legislative measure aims to counter the current trend of...more
A common adage tells us that in the absence of information, people tell themselves a story. In the corporate version, add in frayed business relations, and the plotline quickly thickens with suspicion and distrust. Minority...more
A short-form statutory merger can be effected under the Cayman Islands' Companies Act (as revised) (the "Act") between a parent company and a Cayman Islands incorporated subsidiary. The short-form statutory merger takes...more
The BVI and the Cayman Islands both have regimes in place to address unfair prejudice suffered by shareholders, although each jurisdiction approaches the issue differently. The threshold for successfully bringing an...more
On January 21, 2025, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Court of Chancery’s decision in In re Oracle Corp. Derivative Lit., finding that a less than 50% stockholder does not owe fiduciary duties absent evidence of either...more
Controlling stockholders owe fiduciary duties to other stockholders that minority stockholders do not. A holder of over 50% of a corporation’s voting power is clearly a controlling stockholder. As a consequence, transactions...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
The Delaware Court of Chancery, in Palkon v. Maffei, et al., C.A. No. 2023-0449-JTL (Del. Ch. Feb. 20, 2024), determined that a reduction in the liability exposure of a fiduciary due to the conversion of a Delaware...more
The mere potential for a prominent, highly respected officer, director and minority holder to influence a board’s decision to approve a deal where the minority holder sits on both sides is insufficient to confer controller...more
Section 204(a)(9) of the California Corporations Code allows the articles of incorporation to include a provision requiring the approval of the shareholders (Section 153) or the approval of the outstanding shares (Section...more
There is no shortage of ways in which parties in closely held corporations or partnerships can find themselves at odds. Those shareholders who control the majority of a company’s stock generally set the corporate strategies...more
The North Carolina Business Court recently strengthened the hands of minority shareholders in closely-held corporations. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 55-16-02(b) affords qualified shareholders the right to “inspect and copy: (1)...more
Delaware recognizes the need to promptly resolve disputes over the composition of the board of directors of a Delaware corporation. Section 225 of the Delaware General Corporation Law provides that the Delaware Court of...more
The Background: In RBC Investor Services Australia Nominees Pty Limited v Brickworks Limited [2017] FCA 756 (10 July 2017) ("Brickworks case"), a large institutional investor sought to dismantle a cross shareholding...more
The Supreme Court of the State of Texas recently issued a significant opinion relating to the remedies available to minority shareholders of Texas corporations. In Ritchie v. Rupe, No. 11-0447 (Tex. June 20, 2014), available...more
The Delaware Supreme Court recently considered whether the directors of a closely held corporation had a duty under common law fiduciary principles to repurchase a minority shareholder’s shares. The court also considered...more