The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu The leading online blog in the fields of corporate governance and financial regulation. Sun, 28 Jun 2026 11:30:54 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.5.8 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/wp-content/uploads/2024/02/cropped-photography-4-e1706898544564-1-32x32.png Delaware Court of Chancery Interprets New Section 144 and Applies Heightened Presumption of Director Independence – The Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu 32 32 Delaware Court of Chancery Interprets New Section 144 and Applies Heightened Presumption of Director Independence https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2026/06/28/delaware-court-of-chancery-interprets-new-section-144-and-applies-heightened-presumption-of-director-independence/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=delaware-court-of-chancery-interprets-new-section-144-and-applies-heightened-presumption-of-director-independence https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2026/06/28/delaware-court-of-chancery-interprets-new-section-144-and-applies-heightened-presumption-of-director-independence/#respond Sun, 28 Jun 2026 11:30:54 +0000 https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/?p=182142?d=20260626164458EDT Posted by Amy Simmerman, Brad Sorrels, and Jordan Cramer, Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati, on Sunday, June 28, 2026
Editor's Note:

Amy Simmerman and Brad Sorrels are Partners and Jordan Cramer is an Associate at at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. This post is based on a Wilson Sonsini memorandum by Ms. Simmerman, Mr. Sorrels, Ms. Cramer, Daniyal Iqbal, and Shannon German, and is part of the Delaware law series; links to other posts in the series are available here.

On June 15, 2026, the Delaware Court of Chancery issued an Opinion interpreting Section 144 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (the DGCL), the landmark statutory measure adopted last year to provide safe harbors for certain conflicted transactions and address director independence, among other reforms.[1] The Opinion arose in a common context in Delaware stockholder litigation: claims over director and management compensation. In the decision, Vice Chancellor Lori W. Will applied, for the first time, the statute’s heightened presumption of independence for directors of public companies determined by the board to be independent under the relevant NYSE or Nasdaq listing standards to dismiss derivative claims on demand futility grounds.

(more…)

]]> https://corpgov.law.harvard.edu/2026/06/28/delaware-court-of-chancery-interprets-new-section-144-and-applies-heightened-presumption-of-director-independence/feed/ 0