November 2016

Yesterday, while at the annual SEALSB conference, a group of professors and I ate at Bull City Burgers in Durham, NC. I was somewhat surprised to see a framed B Corp. Certification on the restaurant wall. This restaurant’s main menu items, as the name suggests, were greasy (but tasty) burgers. While the menu did talk about how the cows were grass fed, I think there may be a hot debate over whether burgers are good for “society and environment.”

This got me thinking about whether there are certain industries that should be excluded from the B corp certification process or the benefit corporation legal entity form. If so, which industries and why? My initial reaction is that most companies in most industries – including burger joints – can be run in a socially responsible manner and can do better than their competitors, even if the product can have some negative impacts on society if used incorrectly (as burgers can if not eaten in relative moderation). There may be some industries that are irredeemable, but I am guessing they are few and far between. Most companies, if managed well, can have a positive impact on society, and even though you might…

I have been on hiatus for a few weeks, and had planned to post today about the compliance and corporate governance issues related to Wells Fargo. However, I have decided to delay posting on that topic in light of the unexpected election results and how it affects my research and work.

I am serving as a panelist and a moderator at the ABA’s annual Labor and Employment meeting tomorrow. Our topic is Advising Clients in Whistleblower Investigations. In our discussions and emails prior to the conference, we never raised the election in part because, based on the polls, no one expected Donald Trump to win. Now, of course, we have to address this unexpected development in light of the President-elect’s public statements that he plans to dismantle much of President Obama’s legacy, including a number of his executive orders.

President-elect Trump’s plan for his first 100 days includes, among other things: a hiring freeze on all federal employees to reduce federal workforce though attrition (exempting military, public safety, and public health); a requirement that for every new federal regulation, two existing regulations must be eliminated; renegotiation or withdrawal from NAFTA; withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership; canceling “every unconstitutional executive action…

Prof. Bainbridge the other day commented on the following, which is item 10 from the Modern Corporation Statement on Company Law (available here):  

Contrary to widespread belief, corporate directors generally are not under a legal obligation to maximise profits for their shareholders. This is reflected in the acceptance in nearly all jurisdictions of some version of the business judgment rule, under which disinterested and informed directors have the discretion to act in what they believe to be in the best long term interests of the company as a separate entity, even if this does not entail seeking to maximise short-term shareholder value. Where directors pursue the latter goal, it is usually a product not of legal obligation, but of the pressures imposed on them by financial markets, activist shareholders, the threat of a hostile takeover and/or stock-based compensation schemes.

Bainbridge take a contrary position, citing Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Strine, who says, “a clear-eyed look at the law of corporations in Delaware reveals that, within the limits of their discretion, directors must make stockholder welfare their sole end, and that other interests may be taken into consideration only as a means of promoting stockholder welfare.” Strine further…

Each year, I rethink how I teach fiduciary duties in the corporate law context in my Business Associations course.  My learning objectives for the students are both limited and involved.  On the one hand, there’s little room in my three-credit-hour course for a nuanced understanding of all of the contexts in which corporate fiduciary duty claims typically occur.  In particular, I have determined to leave out the public company mergers and acquisitions context almost completely.  On the other hand, I find myself juggling uncertain classifications of duty components, explanations of seemingly mismatched standards of conduct and liability, and judicial review standards in and outside the Delaware corporate law context.  It’s a handful.  It’s teaching complexity.

Of course, fiduciary duty is not the only complex matter that one must teach in Business Associations.  But it is, for me, one of the topics I am least confident that I “get right” in my interactions with students in and outside the classroom.  Accordingly, as I again head toward the end of the semester, I find myself wondering whether I could have done–or could do–more with the students in my Business Associations course this semester.  This leads me to ask my fellow business law professors (that’s you!) whether…

As we gear up for the final show down and hopefully the end of the 2016 election (please, please, please let it end) I write today about the relationship between the markets and politics.  It is apparently THE business angle in the news cycle this week. This is an admitted punt on substantive work and am instead providing you with a host of hyperlinks to nervously check and re-check in between nervously checking and re-checking polling estimates and vote counts.  Please note, I am passing along a compilation of articles, a list that I have not editted to reflect a certain viewpoint.

Historical Accounts of the Relationship between politics and the markets

Call Levels, History of Past Presidential Elections and Their Effect On Stock Market

Merrill Lynch, How Presidential Elections Affect the Markets

ABC, History on how presidential elections affect stock markets

Predictions regarding market reactions to the outcome of the 2016 election

Forbes, Trump Vs. Clinton: How Will The Stock Market React To The Election?

CNBC, Wall Street reacts: Here’s what the markets will do after the election  

The Street, If Hillary Clinton Is Elected President, Here’s What Will Happen to the U.S. Economy

Market Watch, Here are all…

I’m traveling today so this will be quick (actually, I drafted this in advance to go up automatically and I’m very much hoping that whatever happens, the appeal won’t have been decided before this post appears).

Earlier this year, Chancellor Bouchard decided Sandys v. Pincus, regarding whether demand was excused in a derivative action against the board of Zynga.  And I love this case because it is a shockingly good teaching tool for the concept of demand excusal.  The plaintiffs filed three claims – I edit out the last one and just stick with counts I and II.

The opinion beautifully describes the nature of the inquiry, and it even has a nice chart showing the differences in composition between the board accused of wrongdoing, and the demand board.

In the first two counts, there is a sharp distinction drawn between board members who are potentially interested because of liability due to personal benefits/self-dealing, and board members who are potentially interested because they face personal liability for other reasons.

The court also clearly marches through the question of whether any disinterested board members are nonetheless dependent on interested directors, demonstrating how – despite rather extensive social and business ties…

From Hobby Lobby to Chick-fil-A to Indiana’s RFRA to wedding photographers and wedding cake bakers, “faith and business” has been in the headlines quite a bit over the past few years.

Over the next few weeks, I plan to write a series of posts exploring developments in this area of faith and business. I plan three additional posts, looking at faith and business (sometimes called, “faith and work”) initiatives in (1) universities, (2) churches, and (3) businesses. My comments in this series will have a Christian focus, as that is my faith and is the area with which I am most familiar, but I welcome comments from any faith tradition.

Based on what I have seen around the country, many universities, churches, and businesses seem to be increasing their focus on the integration of faith and business. For some, this is a terrifying development. For others it is long overdue. I submit that both sides should attempt to engage in perspective-taking and nuanced discussion in an attempt to reach common ground.

As someone who prioritizes his faith, I also want to share my personal thoughts on the area of “faith and business” in this introductory post. First, some Christians…

General Electric (GE)  and Baker Hughes (BHI) announced on Monday, October 31st, a proposed merger to combine their oil and gas operations.  GE and Baker Hughes will form a partnership, which will own a publicly-traded company.   GE shareholders will own 62.5% of the “new” partnership, while Baker Hughes shareholders will own 37.5% and receive a one-time cash dividend of $17.50 per share.  The new company will have 9 board of director seats:  5 from GE and 4 from Baker Hughes.  GE CEO Jeff Immelt will be the chairman of the new company and Lorenzo Simonelli,  CEO of GE Oil & Gas, will be CEO. Baker Hughes CEO Martin Craighead will be vice chairman.

Reuters is describing the business synergies between the two companies as leveraging GE’s oilfield equipment manufacturing (“supplying blowout preventers, pumps and compressors used in exploration and production”) and data process services with Baker Hughes’ expertise in ” horizontal drilling, chemicals used to frack and other services key to oil production.”

Baker Hughes had previously proposed a merger with Halliburton (HAL), which failed in May, 2016, after the Justice Department filed an antitrust suit to block the merger. Early analysis suggests that the proposed GE & Baker Hughes will pass regulatory scrutiny because of the limited business overlap of GE and Baker Hughes.

As I plan to tell my corporations students later today: this is real life!  A high-profile, late-semester merger of two public companies is a wonderful gift.  The proposed GE/Baker Hughes merger illustrates, in real life, concepts we have been discussing (or will be soon) like partnerships, the proxy process, special shareholder meetings, SEC filings, abstain or disclose rules, and, of course, mergers.

I often complain about courts and their unwillingness to require plaintiffs to make appropriate claims about veil piercing in the context of limited liability companies (LLCs).  That is, courts too often allow plaintiffs to seek to “pierce the corporate veil” of LLCs, which (of course) do not have corporate veils.  They have limited liability veils, but they are decidedly not corporate.  I will complain about that again, but in the process, I will note that the court does a great job of general veil piercing analysis that is worthy noting.  
 
In Skanska USA Bldg. Inc. v. Atl. Yards B2 Owner, LLC, on Oct. 20, 2016, the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, First Department, New York, decided to dismiss a veil piercing claim based on what I see as very sound reasoning.  I would have like the court to note it was not a corporation, and instead an LLC, that the plaintiff sought to pierce, but nonetheless, I think the court got the rest right.  The court found that the plaintiff failed to plead a sufficient veil–piercing claim and explained, “both parties were very sophisticated, and negotiated in minute detail all aspects of their agreements to build

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