Securities Litigation

Corporate practitioners have been closely following developments in Delaware's shareholder appraisal litigation. Much of the interest concerns the court's "fair value" determination and the risk that an acquiring company will have to pay appraisal petitioners more than the merger deal price. In a much-anticipated decision, the Delaware Supreme Court provides valuable guidance about the relative importance of the deal price in the court's adjudication of the "fair value" of a petitioner's shares.

Even the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) can get hacked — and the recently announced cyber attack against the SEC is providing an important wake-up call for U.S. companies regulated by the powerful agency and the attorneys they work with.

Potential Ramifications of SEC Disgorgement Being a Penalty

Part Two of a Two-Part Article

The Kokesh decision raises potential consequences that move beyond the realm of SEC enforcement. They are discussed in depth in this article.

Structured financing transactions make extensive use of entities formed for the specific purpose of reducing the likelihood that assets will be involved in a potential bankruptcy proceeding. Known as "bankruptcy-remote entities," or "BREs," these entities are subject to structures and covenants in financing documents and their own formation documents, which are designed to reduce the likelihood that the BRE will file for bankruptcy protection.

A recent decision by the Delaware Court of Chancery serves as a reminder that boards of directors of Delaware corporations should consider amending their companies' director compensation plans to include specific limits on the amount of compensation that a director may be awarded in a given year, and obtaining stockholder approval of such compensation plans.

Stockholders who believe that a board breached its fiduciary duties in connection with information provided to stockholders asked to vote for a merger transaction can either seek to enjoin the transaction or seek damages post-closing. In light of the Delaware courts' jurisprudence post-Corwin, such claims are unlikely to succeed

Will Reversing a Transaction 'Seriously Upset The Securities Market' Ability to Function'?

On Dec. 1, 2016, Bankruptcy Judge Michael J. Kaplan, held that when a private company repurchases stock from a shareholder, and the payments were made "by" the company "to" the shareholder, through a bank, those payments are not protected by Bankruptcy Code § 546(e)'s safe harbor defense because its application "cannot be permitted to turn upon the use of a bank."