Sky Blog
On May 6, 2016, in Singh v. Attenborough, No. 645, the Delaware Supreme Court strengthened the defenses available to directors by clarifying a roadmap for effectively dismissing post-closing claims for breach of fiduciary duty. A fully informed, uncoerced vote …
Over the last twelve months, over fifty US publicly traded companies with a market capitalization of over $1 billion have announced plans to spin-off lines of business into independent companies. During that period, companies such as Starwood Hotels, ConAgra Foods, …
The Delaware Supreme Court’s recent decision in Singh v. Attenborough (May 6, 2016, en banc, “Zale III”), written by Chief Justice Leo E. Strine, Jr., is consistent with the trend of Delaware decisions that, as a practical matter, have …
Target firms typically employ either an auction or a negotiation method during merger negotiations. In auction deals, the pre-public takeover process involves contacting several potential bidders, signing confidentiality/standstill agreements and accepting private bids. In negotiation deals however, the target engages …
After the July 4th weekend, Reynolds Holding will be taking over as the fourth editor-at-large of the CLS Blue Sky Blog. It has been a remarkable year and a half, and I am confident our Blog will continue to grow …
On May 6, 2016, the Delaware Supreme Court affirmed the Delaware Chancery Court’s ruling that Zale Corporation’s sale to Signet Jewelers withstood scrutiny under the business judgment rule because the transaction was approved by a fully-informed, uncoerced vote of the …
| Rank | Name | School | Citations | Age in 2016 |
| 1 | John Coffee, Jr. | Columbia University | 1470 | 72 |
| 2 | Lucian Bebchuk | Harvard University | 1130 | 61 |
| 3 | Stephen Bainbridge | University of California, Los Angeles | 1010 | 58 |
| 4 | Reinier Kraakman | Harvard University | 820 | 67 |
| 5 |
The rise of shareholder activism has become a global phenomenon. Shareholder activists are not only present–as they started–in the US, but also in European and Asian Markets.[1] This situation has generated a vast literature about the desirability (or not) …
The corporate board is commonly seen as a crucial governance device that operates to both monitor corporate management and provide strategic advice. Recent corporate governance research has discovered a broad range of evidence of internal board monitoring and advisory activities; …
The work of Columbia Law School Professor Kate Judge appears in the list of twelve best corporate and securities law articles in 2015, based on a poll conducted by the Corporate Practice Commentator. Teachers in corporate and securities law were …
In an article recently posted on SSRN.com, I explain why the law requires agents to act with single-minded devotion to their principals. For example, a lawyer must do what is best for a client and may not subordinate a …
…
Whether one ascribes to the agency theory of shareholder primacy or the contractarian theory of director primacy, boards of directors have great discretion in determining whether, when, and how to sell the corporation. Defensive tactics, like poison pills, can be …
A corporate inversion involves the relocation of a corporation’s legal domicile to a lower-tax nation (host country) while retaining its material operations in its higher-tax country of origin (home country). Corporations have been engaging in inversions for over three decades. …
In our recent paper forthcoming in The Financial Review (2016), we highlight the role of venture capital (VC) in spawning new ventures. That is, after acquisitions, IPOs and other successful exits, entrepreneurs backed by venture capitalists (VCs) tend to form …
Hedge fund activism is the latest rave in corporate governance. Activist hedge funds build stakes in target firms in order to press management for various changes. When managers are uncooperative, they may just be forced to step down. Lest you …
Just six months ago, when the Supreme Court’s current term opened in October, things looked bleak for the class action. Three major cases were on the Court’s docket, and each seemed handpicked as a vehicle for the Court’s conservatives to …
On January 7th 2016, Thomson Reuters and the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) published their Exit Poll Report, which stated that in the U.S. 77 venture capital (VC)-backed initial public offerings (IPOs) raised $9.4 billion in 2015. Over …
The “meh” economy that accounts for some of the sourness in the American electorate is partly due to a design flaw in the US corporate governance system. One proffered diagnosis is that companies invest for the short term and are …
Columbia Law School is looking for an Editor-at-Large to oversee and administer the Columbia Law School Blue Sky Blog. The Blog, now completing its third year, has grown rapidly and become one of the most read sources of current information …