Columbia Law School
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bylaws
Does SEC Commissioner Want to Kill Shareholder Proposals?
Based on his recent speech to the Society for Corporate Governance, it certainly seems as if SEC Commissioner Mark Uyeda would welcome an end to shareholder proposals. He proposes ideas that would empower companies to limit severely how shareholders could …
Revisiting Corporate Bylaws for the Universal Proxy Era
On August 31, 2022, the universal proxy rules adopted last year by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) will go into effect. The rules require proxy cards distributed by public companies and activist shareholders in a contested director election to …
Skadden Discusses Delaware Court Rulings on Advance Notice Bylaws and Incumbent Director Conduct
In early 2020, in BlackRock Credit Allocation Income Tr., et al. v. Saba Capital Master Fund, Ltd.,1 the Delaware Supreme Court reiterated that Delaware courts will enforce clear and unambiguous advance notice bylaws according to their terms using …
Public Corporations’ Bylaws as Standard Form Contracts
Vast corporate growth over more than a century has weakened shareholder voting rights, as highlighted by, among other things, the rise of dual-voting stock IPOs. The extent of that growth, and the lack of people’s power to negotiate with …
Separating Voting and Control: Shareholder Agreements and Corporate Governance
In corporate democracy, the default system for electing directors is voting, but shareholders are free to commit their votes by contract. In private companies, shareholders routinely do so, using shareholder agreements – contracts among the owners of a firm – …
Gibson Dunn Discusses Delaware Chancery Decision on Advance Notice Bylaws
In an important transcript ruling issued on August 14,[1] the Delaware Court of Chancery upheld the validity and vitality of advance notice bylaw provisions, which govern the timing and disclosure requirements of stockholder nominations of board candidates. The ruling …
“No Pay” Bylaws May Threaten Shareholder Lawsuits
After Delaware prohibited fee-shifting provisions in corporate bylaws,[1] scholars considered alternate means by which corporations might use private ordering to limit the ability of stockholder plaintiffs to bring lawsuits challenging corporate actions. For instance, Professor Sean Griffith suggested that …
What Matters in Governance?
In the past 20 years, many corporate law scholars have come to the view that governance arrangements protecting incumbents from removal are what really matter for firm value, arguing that such arrangements help entrench managers and harm shareholders. A major …
The Upside of Delaware Limits on Fee-Shifting and Forum Selection Provisions
Until very recently, it was not controversial to claim that shareholder litigation had entered a period of crisis. A significant majority of deals involving publicly-traded corporations (most of which are organized in Delaware) were challenged in litigation, and to make …
Shearman & Sterling discusses “Veep:” The Evolving Law of Advancement and Indemnification
Companies confer the title of “Vice President” on a wide range of employees, from senior executives, in some cases, to line-level personnel, in others. While distinguishing someone functioning as a senior executive from someone in a lower-level position may be …
Survey of Fee-Shifting Bylaws Suggests DGCL Amendments Won’t End Debate
On November 3, 2014, the board of directors of Cogent Communications Holdings, Inc., a publicly traded internet-service provider incorporated in Delaware, amended Cogent’s bylaws to include two new provisions. One was a forum-selection provision designating Delaware as the exclusive forum …
Update on “Loser Pays” Fee Shifting
The Delaware State Senate passed legislation on May 12th that will preclude “loser pays” fee shifting by bylaw or charter provision—sometimes. The Delaware House is expected to act sometime in June. But the pending legislation only bars such fee-shifting …
Fried Frank discusses Delaware Corporations’ Expansive Powers with Respect to Bylaws
Recent Delaware decisions have reinforced the expansive power and authority of a board to adopt and enforce corporate bylaws. Advance notice bylaws have become commonplace; exclusive forum bylaws are becoming more prevalent; and adoption of fee shifting bylaws generally awaits …
Federal Preemption and Fee-Shifting
All eyes are on Delaware, where soon the Delaware Bar Association will recommend to the state legislature whether or not to curb the Delaware Supreme Court’s decision last year to uphold the facial validity of a board-approved bylaw that shifted …