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Shareholders › Fiduciary Duty › Business Divorce

ArentFox Schiff

How Boilerplate Agreement Advancement Clauses Can Transform Ownership Disputes

ArentFox Schiff on

Indemnification and advancement clauses are often seen as mere boilerplate language in a company’s governing documents, routinely copied from one form agreement to another. However, advancement clauses may be important...more

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

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

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP on

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

Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP

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

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

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

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

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

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

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Court of Appeals Bolsters the Internal Affairs Doctrine, Takes a Stroll Through Scottish Fiduciary Law

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

It’s not every day that New York’s highest court considers a question impacting the business divorce cases that we typically litigate.  And even when an interesting business divorce issue does make its way up to Albany, it’s...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Enforcing the Guardrails on Transactions Involving Interested Directors of Close Corporations

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

In my business divorce practice I deal with many closely held corporations that have only a few or perhaps just two shareholders, each of whom is actively involved in running the business. Within that category are many...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Top 10 Business Divorce Cases of 2023

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

Some years are easier than others to select the most significant business divorce cases. In this, the 16th year I’ve published this top-10 list, the task is made especially difficult by a veritable flood of court decisions...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

At-Will Employment Agreement Plus Mandatory Redemption Clause Leaves Minority Shareholder-Employees Out in the Cold

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

MiniCorp has five shareholders, all of whom are employees.  Each shareholder’s employment agreement states that they are an at-will employee of MiniCorp, and the shareholders agreement provides that when a shareholder’s...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Can One 50% Shareholder Sue the Other in the Company Name on the Company Dollar? Answer: It Depends

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

In the menagerie of closely held companies, those owned and controlled by 50/50 business partners pose unique benefits and challenges. On the benefit side, co-equal ownership and control can foster cooperation,...more

Robson & Robson, P.C.

Without Equal? Pennsylvania Federal Court Charts New Path, Rules Fiduciary Duty Exists Between 50/50 Co-owners Of A Business

Robson & Robson, P.C. on

There is arguably no more prevalent legal claim in business divorces than a claim of breach of a fiduciary duty. Simply put (and I do mean simply), when one person owes a fiduciary duty to another, the person with the duty...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

The “Conflict of Interest” Defense to Shareholder Derivative Standing

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

In shareholder derivative litigation, defendants occasionally argue that the plaintiff – who ostensibly sues on behalf of the company and its owners in a fiduciary capacity – has some form of conflict of interest with the...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Business Divorce, Brooklyn Style

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

The pictured architectural rendering of the sunlit Kings County Supreme Courthouse at 360 Adams Street, completed in 1957, doesn’t quite capture the reality of its dour, hulking presence in downtown Brooklyn. Its design...more

Winstead PC

Litigating Minority Shareholder Rights - Presentation

Winstead PC on

David F. Johnson presented his paper “Business Divorce: Minority Shareholder Rights In Texas” to the State Bar of Texas’s Business Disputes Course on September 2-3, 2021. This presentation addressed shareholder oppression...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Business Divorce Nation: A Cross-Country Tour of Recent Decisions of Interest

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

There’s tremendous diversity from state-to-state when it comes to statutory and judge-made law in business divorce cases. The basic fact patterns one sees in cases from across the country, however, don’t vary nearly as much....more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Another Door Closes to Federal Court in Judicial Dissolution Cases

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

Not for the first time, I find myself intrigued by the federal courts’ resistance to hearing state law claims for judicial dissolution of business entities where subject matter jurisdiction otherwise exists based on diversity...more

Farrell Fritz, P.C.

Dead Men Tell No Tales of Shareholder Buy-Outs Gone Sour

Farrell Fritz, P.C. on

When three gentlemen in their mid-eighties, one of whom is in a nursing home with failing health and onset dementia, are the key players in a disputed shareholder buy-out transaction, what are the odds they’ll all be around...more

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