David Berger, Amy Simmerman, and Brad Sorrels are partners at Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati. This post is based on a WSGR publication by Mr. Berger, Ms. Simmerman, Mr. Sorrells, Katherine Henderson, Lori Will, and Shannon German, and is part of the Delaware law series; links to other posts in the series are available here.
In 2017, the Delaware courts once again issued many substantive corporate law decisions covering a wide range of issues critical to boards, stockholders, and officers. In addition, decisions from recent years continued to impact Delaware litigation, especially in the reduction of disclosure-based, settlement-driven M&A litigation as a result of the Court of Chancery’s Trulia decision. At the same time, the Delaware judges’ dockets remained so busy with other types of litigation that a proposal to increase the five-member Court of Chancery by two judges is currently under consideration. Alongside developments from the Delaware courts, we continue to see various trends in practice relating to Delaware law issues.
This post covers these important trends, which will shape practice in 2018.