Columbia Law School
Sky Blog
delaware
Paul Weiss Discusses Recent Delaware Appraisal Decisions
Two decisions by the Delaware Court of Chancery in the past two weeks reached seemingly disparate outcomes on fair value for the companies involved, but together stand for the general trend of recent appraisal decisions that deal price is the …
SCOTUS Just Invented Unlikely Sentry Against Corporate Tax Inversions: Patent Trolls
Tax regulators and acquisition sponsors have long been embroiled in a cat and mouse game in the context of corporate inversions—cross-border transactions in which a U.S.-incorporated public corporation is “acquired” by a foreign entity, and the survivor’s locus of incorporation …
Delaware’s Long Silence on Corporate Officers
Delaware has reigned as the preeminent corporate law jurisdiction in the United States for over a century, weathering the rivalry of eager state competitors (such as Maryland and Nevada) and the looming presence of – and occasional intervention by – …
Skadden Discusses Director Disinterestedness and Independence in Delaware
Delaware law provides important tools for directors to maintain control of derivative lawsuits.1 One such tool is the “demand requirement” embodied in Court of Chancery Rule 23.1, which requires that before a stockholder acts on behalf of the corporation, …
How Shareholder Approval Rules Affect the Forms of Mergers
While all acquisitions require approval from target shareholders, the necessary level of shareholder support varies across jurisdictions and deal structures. Some transactions can be approved by a simple majority of target shareholders, while others require super-majority approval. In our paper, …
Paul Weiss Discusses Delaware Court of Chancery Decision on Equity Incentive Plan Ratification
In a recent decision in In re Investor Bancorp, Inc. Stockholder Litigation, the Delaware Court of Chancery held that a fully informed stockholder vote approving adoption of an equity incentive plan also ratified subsequent equity awards to individual directors …
Morrison & Foerster Explains How Delaware Paves the Way for Blockchain Technology
Following last May’s announcement of the “Delaware Blockchain Initiative” by former Delaware Governor Jack Markell[1], on March 13, 2017, the Corporate Council of the Corporation Law Section of the Delaware State Bar Association released groundbreaking draft legislation proposing …
“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 …
Gibson Dunn on Justice Holland’s Lasting Imprint on Corporate Law
In early February, Justice Randy Holland, the longest-tenured member of the Delaware Supreme Court, announced his plans to retire at the end of March 2017. At the time of his appointment in 1986 by Governor Michael N. Castle, Justice Holland …
The Race to the Bottom: Is the Last Stop New York?
The practice of nominal shareholder plaintiffs challenging virtually every sizable corporate merger with a lawsuit alleging a fiduciary breach has been a scandal for some time. At least when brought by the “bottom fishers” of the plaintiff’s bar, these suits …
Blue Sky Banter: Lynn LoPucki on Corporate Charter Competition
Professor Lynn LoPucki of UCLA School of Law speaks with Reynolds Holding about the competition among states for corporate charters. Many people assume that the game is over and Delaware — the corporate home of more than half of U.S. …
Corporate Charter Competition
In an article to be published in the Minnesota Law Review, I use systems-strategic analysis to explore the role of charter competition in corporate law. A systems-strategic analysis begins by identifying a law-related system for study, then describes how the …
Shearman & Sterling Discusses the Cleansing Effect of Stockholder Ratification
It has long been a policy of corporate law1 that the informed business decisions of independent and disinterested directors are protected by the presumption of the business judgment rule.2 Courts are reluctant to second-guess decisions that are made …
Blue Sky Banter: Travis Laster on Appraisal Rights
The Delaware Chancery Court’s vice chancellor speaks with Reynolds Holding about Dell, DFC Global and appraisal actions, which allow holdout shareholders who didn’t vote for a deal to ask the court to set a higher price for their stock. The …
Gibson Dunn Discusses M&A Disclosure-Only Settlements
On January 22, 2016, the Delaware Court of Chancery signaled the demise of “disclosure-only” settlements in M&A stockholder lawsuits with its decision in In re Trulia, Inc. Stockholder Litigation.[1] Arguing that the “optimal means by which disclosure claims …
DFC Global Appraisal Battle Draws Opposing Briefs From Professors
An M&A appraisal case before the Delaware Supreme Court has drawn amicus briefs from two groups of esteemed professors — including three from Columbia Law School — with opposing views on how a company should be valued.
The case involves …
Proskauer Discusses Due-Process Issues in Shareholder Derivative Actions
The Delaware Supreme Court requested further consideration of the federal due-process issues that might arise where a court is asked to hold that a shareholder derivative action is precluded because a prior derivative action was dismissed based on the first …
Reputation Through Litigation
“Reputation matters” is by now almost a mantra. Scholars of commercial law increasingly refer to reputational concerns as important forces that shape our behavior – a “system of control” of sorts. The idea – backed by mounting empirical evidence – …
Skadden Discusses Delaware Courts’ M&A Appraisal Valuation Methods
There is a general perception that statutory appraisal challenges have been on the rise over the past several years. The Delaware Court of Chancery has issued a number of opinions during that time that use the merger price minus synergies …