Leo E. Strine, Jr. is Chief Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court, the Austin Wakeman Scott Lecturer on Law and a Senior Fellow of the Harvard Law School Program on Corporate Governance.
The Delaware Judiciary was saddened to learn of the passing on Sunday of retired Chancellor William T. Allen, a giant of the corporate bar, academia, and the Delaware Bench. The Judiciary expresses its deepest condolences to the friends and family of Chancellor Allen.
Allen, 75, was appointed as Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery by Governor Mike Castle in 1985. He served until 1997 when he returned to his alma mater, New York University, to teach law and re-entered private practice at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz.
“Our nation lost one of the finest jurists of the last fifty years yesterday,” said Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo E. Strine, Jr. “Chancellor Allen set a standard of excellence that made Delaware stand out in the eyes of all sophisticated observers. Bill Allen, the person, set a standard as a husband, father, friend, and caring professor to which we should all aspire. For me personally, he was a mentor, source of wisdom, and an inspiration. Everyone in Delaware owes him a debt of gratitude for what he did for our state, and our Judiciary’s hearts are with his wife and children, as they endure the loss of this special man.”
“I was saddened on Sunday to learn of the passing of former Chancellor Allen—one of Delaware’s finest legal minds,” said Delaware Governor John Carney. “Bill helped set and maintain a reputation of excellence on Delaware’s Court of Chancery. He was known and respected across our country, and by many citizens in our state, for his judgment and his fairness. My thoughts and prayers remain with Bill’s family and his many friends during this difficult time,” he said.
William T. Allen became Chancellor in 1985, at a time when the takeover boom of the 1980s was in full swing and the Delaware Court of Chancery was the subject of intense national scrutiny. During that time, Chancellor Allen’s decisions, often produced under extreme time pressure, were known for their lucid and lively writing style and incisive analysis. His rulings also showed a deep concern for the integrity of the law, the need for those with power to use it with fidelity to those they represented, and for their understanding of scholarship relevant to the matters before the Court. For that reason, Chancellor Allen was considered to be one of the finest corporate law judges of the era and, even more broadly, as one of the finest judges of his generation on any court. When Delaware most needed a Chancellor that could provide trusted corporate law rulings that all would respect, it was fortunate to have Bill Allen in that critical position.
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