Shareholders, Corporate Governance, Business Divorce

Beware of Wolves in Sheep’s Clothing: Accepting PE Investments May Create Unforeseen Problems for Private Company Majority Owners

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 7/24/2025

As private companies grow, they need to secure capital to support their efforts to provide more (and/or better) products and services to their clients. The need for emerging companies to obtain growth capital often leads the...more

Corporate Divorce – Preventing and Managing the Break-Up of a Business Partnership

Nossaman LLP on 6/1/2025

In this episode, Kimberly Kamkar is joined by corporate law partners Patrick Richard, Anna Tang and Doug Schwartz to explore the complexities of business "break-ups." They discuss essential practices for future planning, the...more

Majority Owners Achieving Balance: Incentivizing Employees Without Giving Up the Keys to the Whole Kingdom

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 3/3/2025

Success is not just an elusive goal – it can also be difficult to maintain once achieved. For majority owners in private companies, achieving success is just the first hurdle, because once they arrive at this pinnacle, they...more

I’ll Cry if I Want To – But Taking Steps to Avoid Tears Is a Better Strategy for Private Company Business Partners

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on 1/14/2025

In recent years, the headlines have tracked the news of high-profile breakups among business partners in private companies. These business partner fallouts include: - 2023: Sam Altman was ousted as Open AI CEO (for...more

Can a Shareholder Be Oppressed After Ceding Control? Oppression, Reasonable Expectations, and Contractual Formalism

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on 1/13/2025

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

First Department Recognizes Cause of Action for Specific Performance of LLC Member Voting Agreement

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on 4/10/2023

In 1941, two of the three shareholders of Ringling Bros.-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows, Inc. entered into an agreement stating that they would vote their combined 630 of the outstanding 1000 shares of Ringling Bros. stock...more

Stop the Vote: Injunction Halts Shareholders Meeting Pursuant to Courts’ Broad Power to Review Corporate Elections

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on 7/26/2021

The right of shareholders to elect a corporation’s directors is one of the most valuable rights attendant to share ownership. Election of directors is where shareholders can directly exert their influence on the corporation,...more

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