Theodore N. Mirvis

Wachtell Lipton Discusses Delaware Approval of Officer Exculpation from Personal Liability in Charters

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For over 45 years, Delaware law has permitted directors of Delaware corporations to be exculpated from personal monetary liability to the extent such protections are set forth in the certificate of incorporation, subject to certain exceptions.  However, such protective statutory provisions did not reach officers.  As contemplated in our April 2022 memorandum, Delaware has now adopted important amendments to Delaware’s General Corporation Law that would expand the right of a corporation to adopt an “exculpation” provision in its certificate of incorporation to cover not only directors (as has been allowed and widely adopted since 1986, following Smith v. Van … Read more

A Judge With the Confidence to Go in New Directions

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Bill Allen was an extraordinary person – a great judge who recalibrated Delaware fiduciary law at a critical junction in its history; an enthusiastic and enlightening teacher who engaged with students who were not even born when he had already written Time/Warner, Caremark, and Interco; a convivial lunch companion despite his intellectually rigorous approach to law and life; a person of rock-ribbed integrity but also compassion; and, certainly not least,  a loving and well-loved husband and father.  And he was a true stoic – achieving all this while dealing with  difficult medical issues.  His courage extended to never … Read more

Wachtell Lipton Discusses the New New Regime in Delaware Appraisal Law

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A recent spate of appraisal decisions signals that the Delaware courts will be skeptical of claims that the “fair value” of a company’s stock, as determined in a judicial proceeding brought by a dissenter from the merger, will be higher than the price paid in the transaction.  To the contrary, in the context of strategic transactions—which may include synergy value to which dissenting stockholders are not entitled under the appraisal statute—Delaware has made clear that the appraised value may well be less than the deal price.

These decisions follow the important and welcome rulings of the Delaware Supreme Court in … Read more

Wachtell responds to Bebchuk and Jackson’s Toward a Constitutional Review of the Poison Pill

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In a recent paper, Professors Lucian Bebchuk and Robert Jackson have extended Professor Bebchuk’s extreme and eccentric campaign against director-centric governance into a new realm—that of the Constitution of the United States. They claim that “serious questions” exist about the constitutionality of the poison pill—or, more precisely, “about the validity of the state-law rules that authorize the use of the poison pill.” It is likely, they argue, that these state-law rules violate the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution, and are thus preempted, because they frustrate the purposes of the Williams Act, the 1968 federal statute that governs tender-offer timing … Read more

Wachtell on Controlling Shareholders and the Business Judgment Rule in Going Private Merger Transactions

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The Delaware Court of Chancery this week held that the use of both an independent special committee and a majority-of-the-minority vote condition in a go-private merger between a controlled company and its controlling stockholder will result in application of the deferential business judgment rule standard of review rather than the onerous entire fairness standard.  In re MFW S’holders Litig., C.A. No. 6566-CS (Del. Ch. May 29, 2013).

The case arose out of a stockholder challenge to a merger in which MacAndrews & Forbes acquired the 57% of M&F Worldwide it did not already own.  The transaction was subject to … Read more

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Wachtell Proposes Bylaw to Ward Off Threat of Conflicted Directors

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This year, the practice of activist hedge funds engaged in proxy contests offering special compensation schemes to their dissident director nominees has increased and become even more egregious.  While the terms of these schemes vary, the general thrust is that, if elected, the dissident directors would receive large payments, in some cases in the millions of dollars, if the activist’s desired goals are met within the specified near-term deadlines.

These special compensation arrangements pose a number of threats, including:

  • undermining Board prerogatives to set director pay and select the timeframe over which corporate goals are to be achieved;
  • creating a

… Read more

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Wachtell Lipton Discusses Rulemaking Petition for Modernization of Section 13 Beneficial Ownership Reporting Rules

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NYSE Euronext, the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals and the National Investor Relations Institute have jointly filed a rulemaking petition with the SEC, seeking prompt updating to the reporting rules under Section 13(f) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934, as well as supporting a more comprehensive study of the beneficial ownership reporting rules under Section 13. The petitioners urge the SEC to shorten the reporting deadline under Rule 13f-1 from 45 days to two business days after the relevant calendar quarter, and also suggests amending Section 13(f) itself to provide for reporting on at least a monthly, … Read more

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Editor's Tweet: Wachtell Discusses a Rulemaking Petition Calling for Modernization of Section 13 Beneficial Ownership Reporting Rules