Author Archives: Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation

TravelCenters of America LLC v. Brog

Chancellor Chandler in litigation captioned TravelCenters of America LLC v. Brog, et al., C.A. No. 3516-CC decided, among other issues, two significant legal questions worthy of broader publication. Since both rulings are contained in memorandum opinions, they will not be reported officially. The first ruling was contained in a pre-trial memorandum opinion and dealt with […]

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Corporate Governance Update: Advice for Directors in Complicated Times: The Fundamentals Still Apply

My colleague Laura A. McIntosh and I have written an article entitled Corporate Governance Update: Advice for Directors in Complicated Times: The Fundamentals Still Apply. The article considers directors’ oversight responsibility in a volatile business environment, including directors’ obligations as a company approaches the zone of insolvency and the extent to which directors are entitled […]

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The Changing Dynamics of Global Capital Markets

In light of all of the recent market turmoil, the importance of transparency and risk management has certainly been elevated. These issues along with some of the shifts in global capital markets activity are at the center of a speech delivered by my CEO at Ernst & Young, Jim Turley, to a Washington D.C. audience […]

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The Geography of Block Acquisitions

Our forthcoming article in the Journal of Finance entitled The Geography of Block Acquisitions, extends the literature on geographic proximity by studying how corporate governance activities of block acquirers in targets and target announcement returns are affected when the acquirers are located near the targets. Using a sample of 799 partial acquisitions in the U.S. […]

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Dangerous Dithering

It is often said of Congress that it can’t act on anything important except in a crisis. What is seldom noticed is the corollary that Congress puts off acting until ordinary problems develop into crises. For years, Congress has had before it two serious problems—the gradual loss of U.S. preeminence in financial transactions and the […]

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Litigation Kennel?

Vice Chancellor Lamb’s recent memorandum opinion in the Delaware Court of Chancery, In Re SS&C Technologies, Inc. Shareholders Litigation, adds an interesting twist to the “readily available plaintiff” question. The SS&C opinion and order imposes sanctions on the plaintiffs and their counsel for filing, in bad faith, a motion to withdraw. The defendants contended, and […]

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JANA Master Fund, Ltd. v. CNET Networks, Inc.

In a decision issued on March 13, 2008, the Delaware Chancery Court in JANA Master Fund, Ltd. v. CNET Networks, Inc. held that CNET’s advance notice bylaw applied only to shareholder proposals that are sought to be included in the company’s proxy materials pursuant to Rule 14a-8 under the Securities and Exchange Act of 1934, […]

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Diller vs. Malone

The Delaware Chancery Court has issued its decision in the closely watched trial between Barry Diller and John Malone and their respective companies, IAC and Liberty Media. Liberty owns all the high-voting stock and a majority of the votes in IAC but it has granted Diller, IAC’s CEO, an irrevocable proxy to vote these shares. […]

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JCPenney Joins Firms Agreeing to Adopt my Poison Pill Bylaw

Editor’s Note: This post is from Lucian Bebchuk of Harvard Law School. JCPenney became the third company this proxy season to reach an agreement with me to amend its by-laws to limit the adoption of poison pills. The adopted by-law is based on a shareholder proposal to amend the company’s by-laws that I submitted for […]

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Delaware General Corporation Law

Editor’s Note: This post is from Lawrence A. Hamermesh of Widener University School of Law. This post is part of the Delaware law series, which is cosponsored by the Forum and Corporation Service Company; links to other posts in the series are available here. The materials generated in the drafting of the 1967 revision to […]

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