Delaware law provides parties with significant flexibility to restrict or eliminate fiduciary duties in LLC agreements.  Sophisticated parties regularly take advantage of this flexibility by eliminating fiduciary duties of members and directors of LLCs.  These same parties, however, often choose not to extend these waivers to officers of the LLCs, often stemming from a desire to ensure that officers still have a fiduciary duty to be loyal to the LLC.  A new ruling from the Delaware Court of Chancery highlights the unintended consequences of excluding officers from the scope of the fiduciary duty waiver.

Continue Reading New Delaware Ruling Highlights Unintended Consequences of Excluding Officers from Fiduciary Duty Waivers

Much has been written lately about a circuit split on the question whether a company’s forum selection bylaw mandating shareholder derivative lawsuits be brought in Delaware state court trumps a federal lawsuit asserting a derivative claim under Section 14(a) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (which can only be asserted – if at all – in federal court).  The Seventh Circuit answered this question “no”[1] while the Ninth Circuit sitting en banc answered “yes,”[2] in both cases over vigorous dissents.  Many have speculated that the U.S. Supreme Court may weigh in to resolve this clear circuit split.

Continue Reading Bringing an End to “Derivative” Section 14(a) Claims – Without Waiting for the Supreme Court to Weigh In

On July 26, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC” or “Commission”) adopted rules to enhance and standardize disclosure requirements related to cybersecurity incident reporting and cybersecurity risk management, strategy, and governance.

Continue Reading New SEC Disclosure Rules for Cybersecurity Incidents and Governance and Key Takeaways

Changes Would Multiply Time, Burden, and Expense for All Filings, Even for Transactions With No Competition Concerns

The U.S. FTC and DOJ have proposed sweeping changes to the pre-merger process in the United States under the Hart-Scott-Rodino (HSR) Act.[1] 

The changes would not affect whether a transaction is subject to the reporting requirements.  But for those transactions where an HSR filing is required, the changes would, in a word, be massive.

Continue Reading Sweeping Changes to Premerger (HSR) Process in the United States Proposed by Enforcement Agencies

Earlier this week, the New York State legislature passed a bill banning all non-competes entered into on or after 30 days past the bill’s enactment, including those entered into by employees or in connection with the sale of a business.  If the bill becomes law, it would make New York the fifth state in the U.S. to enact a ban on non-competes.  California, Minnesota, North Dakota, and Oklahoma have also enacted bans on non-competes, but theirs do not go as far as New York’s full ban, instead banning only employee non-competes, but preserving those that are entered into in connection with the sale of a business.

Continue Reading New York Advances Towards Banning All Non-Competes

Minnesota bans new employee non-competes beginning July 1, 2023, and the United Kingdom intends to cap their duration at 3 months

Minnesota Becomes the 4th U.S. State to Ban Employee Non-Competes

Following in the footsteps of California, North Dakota and Oklahoma, Minnesota has banned all employee non-competes beginning July 1, 2023, and bars employers from utilizing choice-of-law or choice-of-venue clauses in an attempt to use a more favorable state’s law as a workaround.  Importantly, the new law is not retroactive and does not affect other employee restrictions, such as confidentiality and non-solicitation covenants. 

Continue Reading Updates on Non-Competes

[Note: This post has been updated to reflect the SEC’s approval of the Nasdaq and NYSE amendments.]

On Friday, June 9, 2023, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) approved, on an accelerated basis, each of the Nasdaq Stock Market’s (“Nasdaq”) and the New York Stock Exchange’s (“NYSE”) proposed listing standards, as modified by the Exchanges’ respective amendments from last week, implementing the requirement for issuers to adopt and disclose “no fault” clawback policies providing for the recovery of erroneously awarded compensation.[1]

Continue Reading Nasdaq and NYSE Propose October 2, 2023 as Effective Date in Amendments to its Proposed Clawback Listing Standards

NLRB GC’s Action Potentially More Far-Reaching than Federal Trade Commission’s Proposed Rule Banning Non-Competes Altogether

On May 30, 2023, the General Counsel to the National Labor Relations Board (the “NLRB”), Jennifer A. Abruzzo, issued a memorandum stating that most non-compete agreements violate the National Labor Relations Act (the “Act”).  In doing so, General Counsel Abruzzo directed the NLRB’s regional offices to investigate employers using non-competes to determine whether their usage is “overbroad” or not.  General Counsel Abruzzo also directed the regional offices to seek make-whole relief for employees who lost employment opportunities because of a non-compete agreement, even where the employer did not enforce the agreement and, if necessary, present evidence of such lost opportunities at trial.

Continue Reading NLRB General Counsel Unleashes Regional Offices to Clamp Down on “Overbroad” Non-Competes

In a May 29, 2023 opinion by the Delaware Chancery Court addressing a claim by sellers for specific performance under a merger agreement following buyer’s termination for breach of the capitalization representation, the court found that sellers breached the capitalization representation under the merger agreement based on the post-signing discovery that a former employee held phantom equity in a subsidiary of the target company.  Despite buyer’s concession that the financial value of the former employee’s interest in the subsidiary was “minor relative to the deal value,”[1]  the court concluded that buyer was entitled to terminate the merger agreement since the capitalization representation was brought down flat at closing (and not subject to any de minimis or materiality qualifier).

Continue Reading Private Equity Buyer Permitted to Walk From Deal Based on Capitalization Representation Breach