Law Commons^™

Attorney-Client Privilege - Corporations - Work Product Doctrine - Administrative Summonses, Dolores Jacobs Krawec

Duquesne Law Review

The Supreme Court of the United States, in a unanimous decision, has held that the control group test for determining the applicability of the attorney-client privilege in the corporate context is overly restrictive and that any future application of the privilege must be on a case by case basis. The Court also held that the work product doctrine is applicable to administrative summonses.

Upjohn Co. v. United States, 449 U.S. 383 (1981).

Corporations - The Court's Independent Business Judgment Will Be Applied To A Decision Of A Committee Of Disinterested Directors To Dismiss A Derivative Suit Alleging A Breach Of Fiduciary Duty By A Majority Of The Corporation's Directors, Leah Levine Tompkins

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Toxic Torts: Workable Defenses Available To The Corporate Defendant, Robert St. Leger Goggin, Thomas A. Brophy

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

"Entrenchment" Under Section 7 Of The Clayton Act: An Approach For Analyzing Conglomerate Mergers, Lawrence K. Hellman

Loyola University Chicago Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Anti-Takeover Actions And Defenses: Business Judgment Or Breach Of Duty, Henry F. Johnson

Villanova Law Review (1956 - )

No abstract provided.

Union Representatives As Corporate Directors: The Challenge To The Adversarial Model Of Labor Relations, Robert A. Mccormick

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article addresses these questions first by discussing the predominant philosophical approach adopted by unions in their dealings with management, and then describing several ways in which the labor laws reflect this traditional model of employment relations by showing, first, that the influence of unions has been limited to circumscribed categories of business decisions. The Article next examines decisions made by the National Labor Relations Board ("NLRB") and the courts that have carefully sought to separate employer from employee, assuming their interests to be inherently antagonistic. Then follows an evaluation of the NLRB's treatment of deviations from the traditional model …

The Case Against Shark Repellent Amendments: Structural Limitations On The Enabling Concept, Ronald J. Gilson

Faculty Scholarship

The tactical history of the tender offer movement resembles an unrestrained arms race. Faced with offeror assaults in the form of Saturday night specials, various types of bear-hugs, godfather offers, and block purchases, target management responded with equally intriguing defensive tactics: the black book, reverse bear-hug, sandbag, show stopper, white knight, and, drawing directly on military jargon, the scorched earth. But however varied the labels given particular defensive strategies, they share the common characteristic of being responsive: They are available only after an offer is made and the battle for the target's independence joined. From the target's perspective, what was …

Arkansas Corporate Fiduciary Standards—Interested Directors' Contracts And The Doctrine Of Corporate Opportunity, Susan Webber

University of Arkansas at Little Rock Law Review

No abstract provided.

Tender Offer Defensive Tactics-Federal Regulation Of Management's Prerogative , James P. Walker

Fordham Urban Law Journal

Management of a corporation has a general duty to determine whether a tender offer is in the best interest of the corporation and its shareholders. When management uses defensive tactics to respond to a tender offer, they are not acting in the best interests of the shareholders, because their actions are misleading. Shareholders seeking to attack the use of defensive tactics during a tender offer may proceed under state corporations laws, or federal securities laws. Under state law, the judiciary typically scrutinizes management activity under the business judgment rule, limiting scrutiny to situations where management decision are influenced by personal …

Contract Law In Modern Commercial Transactions, An Artifact Of Twentieth Century Business Life?, James J. White

Articles

Diligent first year law students study contract law with a passion previously reserved for romantic objects and religious idols. Their professors lead them in extensive and difficult intellectual explorations of the wilds of contract law. There are careful analyses of why damage recovery X will stimulate performance Y, why recovery A is appropriate to encourage the aggrieved party to return to the market, and so on and so forth. Lurking behind this year long analysis are several inarticulate hypotheses: that they make rational evaluations of the threat of legal sanctions; that they respond in other varied and subtle ways to …

Business Judgment Dismissal Of Shareholder Derivative Suits By Board Litigation Committees: An Expanded Role For The Courts, David A. Beyer

Vanderbilt Law Review

This Recent Development examines the legal background of the shareholder derivative suit and the business judgment rule and then traces the evolution of the offensive use of the business judgment rule in board of director terminations of stockholder derivative actions. After examining other derivative suit dismissal decisions, the Recent Development analyzes whether Zapata adequately balances the competing interests of the shareholder and the corporate board. Finally, the Recent Development discusses the potential effect of Zapata on future litigation.

Panterv. Marshall Field & Co.: The Good Faith Standard For Corporate Directors, Lavinia A. James

University of Richmond Law Review

Corporate directors traditionally have been immunized from liability for corporate actions involving questions of policy or "business judgment," if such actions are taken in the exercise of due care, in good faith, and in compliance with applicable fiduciary duties. Judicial review of decisions made by corporate boards of directors in unsolicited takeovers generally has been barred by this business judgment rule. A recent challenge to this precept was brought in Panter v. Marshall Field & Co., a Seventh Circuit decision which highlighted many of the issues surrounding application of the business judgment rule in the context of a take-over attempt.

Resale Price Maintenance And The Ftc: The Magnavox Investigation, Victor P. Goldberg

Faculty Scholarship

Franchise agreements between a manufacturer and a distributor or retail dealer of the manufacturer's products often impose conditions on the dealer regarding items such as price, dealer location, service, and advertising. These vertical restrictions, whether price or nonprice, may violate the Sherman Act, which prohibits every contract, combination, or conspiracy in restraint of trade. Whereas vertical price restrictions historically have been held per se invalid, nonprice vertical restrictions have been permitted, subject to a rule of reason. In United States v. Arnold, Schwinn & Co., however, the Supreme Court articulated a per se rule of illegality for nonprice vertical restrictions, …

Seeking Competitive Bids Versus Pure Passivity In Tender Offer Defense, Ronald J. Gilson

Faculty Scholarship

Responding to my comments in the Stanford Law Review, and to those of Lucian Bebchuk in the Harvard Law Review, Professors Easterbrook and Fischel have reiterated their preference for a rule of pure passivity by target management in response to a tender offer. Unlike my more limited rule barring defensive tactics designed to prevent the offer but not barring the facilitation of competitive bids, Easterbrook and Fischel would prohibit both. Because their response to the points that Bebchuk and I raised goes beyond their initial treatment of the subject, it is appropriate that I respond here by extending …

Disinterested Director Committees And The Shareholder Derivative Suit, Michael Slone

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

Kentucky Law Survey: Corporations, Willburt D. Ham

Kentucky Law Journal

No abstract provided.

A Constitutional Analysis Of The Delaware Director-Consent-To-Service Statute, Susan Grover

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Business Decisions By The New Board: Behavioral Science And Corporate Law, Robert J. Haft

Michigan Law Review

This Article's thesis is that, by reason of its recently secured independence from management domination, the boards of directors of large American corporations are now in a unique position to make business decisions of the highest quality, and that corporate law should respond to this potential appropriately. On the basis of findings in the behavioral sciences, this Article urges a limited rethinking of the role of the chief executive and the board of directors before the model of directors as "monitors" of the chief executive's performance is frozen in place. Already armed with information supposedly received as monitors, the independent …

Corporate Indemnification Of Directors And Officers: Time For A Reappraisal, K.G. Jan Pillai, Craig Tractenberg

University of Michigan Journal of Law Reform

This Article evaluates the benefits and burdens of shifting litigation risk from management to the enterprise. The Article begins by considering the nature of the legal risks confronting the corporate executive, and the principles of common law that developed to counter those risks. The Article proceeds to assess the two statutory responses to threats of personal liability against the corporate executive: indemnification statutes, and director and officer insurance. Finally, after comparing the effective absolute immunity available to corporate executives with the qualified immunity enjoyed by high-level government officials, the Article concludes that indemnification practices have overinsulated the corporate officer from …

Accidents: Causation And Responsibility In Law, A Focus On Coal Mining, J. Davitt Mcateer

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Independent Contractor Safety In The Mines: A Review And Analysis Of Regulatory History With Proposals For Change, Diane C. Chernoff

West Virginia Law Review

No abstract provided.

Ogiony V. Commissioner, 617 F.2d 14 (2d Cir. 1980), Vincent A. Sable

Florida State University Law Review

Taxation-DISREGARDING THE CORPORATE ENTITY-PARTNERS UNABLE TO IGNORE EXISTENCE OF CORPORATION USED FOR FINANCING PURPOSES

Franchise Regulation: Comprehensive State Regulation Now Unnecessary, Robert C. Downs

Faculty Works

Since 1970, there has been an epidemic of state regulatory activity con­cerning the sale of franchises and business opportunities. In addition to those states which actually have adopted franchise regulation statutes, several state legislatures currently are considering pending legislation. Undoubtedly, other states, including Missouri, soon will have the opportunity to protect their un­suspecting citizens from the risks believed to be inherent in the franchising industry.

Nor has the franchising business gone unnoticed by the federal govern­ment. On December 21, 1978, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) published its rule 436, entitled "Disclosure Requirements and Prohibitions Concerning Franchising and Business Opportunity Ventures." …

Capital Expenditures: A Result In Search Of A Rationale, John W. Lee, Nina R. Murphy

Faculty Publications

No abstract provided.

Implied Rights Of Action, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

In Transamerica Mortgage Advisors, Inc. (TAMA) v. Lewis,¹ the United States Supreme Court declined to imply a private right of action for damages under the Investment Advisers Act of 1940.² Transamerica is the most recent of a series of Supreme Court decisions limiting the availability and scope of implied private actions under the federal securities laws.³ It stands in sharp contrast to J.L Case Co. v. Borak,⁴ a 1964 decision in which the Court seemed to extend an open invitation to "private attorneys general" to supplement SEC enforcement with private damage actions.

The Court's withdrawal from …

Investment Company Advertising, Tamar Frankel

Faculty Scholarship

SEC Regulation has changed from specific guidelines for advertisers to a general antifraud provision. Despite greater latitude, conflicts may arise between the commission's regulation and first amendment protection of commercial speech.

Washington's Doctrine Of Corporate Disregard, Thomas V. Harris

Washington Law Review

Corporations are ordinarily recognized as legal entities separate and distinct both from their own shareholders, officers, and directors, and from other corporations. There are, however, situations in which the Washington courts will not recognize this separateness. In such cases, the shareholders, officers, directors, or even wholly separate corporations, are held responsible for the corporation's activities. When they have refused to recognize the corporation as a separate legal entity, Washington's courts have employed the "doctrine of disregard." The consequences of the doctrine are not borne by the corporation. Frequently, its underlying liability has already been established. In other cases, the corporation's …

Washington's Doctrine Of Corporate Disregard, Thomas V. Harris

Washington Law Review

Corporations are ordinarily recognized as legal entities separate and distinct both from their own shareholders, officers, and directors, and from other corporations. There are, however, situations in which the Washington courts will not recognize this separateness. In such cases, the shareholders, officers, directors, or even wholly separate corporations, are held responsible for the corporation's activities. When they have refused to recognize the corporation as a separate legal entity, Washington's courts have employed the "doctrine of disregard." The consequences of the doctrine are not borne by the corporation. Frequently, its underlying liability has already been established. In other cases, the corporation's …

Tax Apportionment Of The Income Of A Unitary Business: An Examination Of Mobil Oil Corp. V. Commissioner Of Taxes Of Vermont, William D. Dexter

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.

The Impact Of The Mobil Case On Apportionment Of Income, Frank M. Keesling

BYU Law Review

No abstract provided.