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Full-Text Articles in Law
Corporate Natural Law: The Dominance Of Justice In A Codified World, Stuart R. Cohn
Corporate Natural Law: The Dominance Of Justice In A Codified World, Stuart R. Cohn
Stuart R. Cohn
One tends to think of corporate law as quite formalistic, bound by corporate statutes, articles of incorporation, bylaws, and customary rules of commercial conduct. While many aspects of corporate law are indeed so rule-bound, the truth is that the major issues facing directors, officers and shareholders, ranging from fiduciary duties to minority rights, are generally determined by much more amorphous principles of equity. Hence the notion of “corporate natural law.”
Tender Offers And The Sale Of Control: An Analogue To Determine The Validity Of Target Management Defense Measures, Stuart R. Cohn
Tender Offers And The Sale Of Control: An Analogue To Determine The Validity Of Target Management Defense Measures, Stuart R. Cohn
Stuart R. Cohn
The hostile tender offer phenomenon has spawned wholesale defensive measures adopted by target company management. In recent years, confrontations like those of Occidental Petroleum-Mead Corporation and American Express-McGraw-Hill have resulted in target management causing the eventual withdrawal of the tender offer by employing a variety of defensive measures known colloquially as “scorched earth” tactics. The “urge to merge” among major corporations will continue to produce unsolicited, nonnegotiated tender offers at varying scales of size. Consequently, strategies and techniques have been created at a pace faster than the process of litigation, causing a discernible lag between the ingenuity of corporate management …
Stock Appreciation Rights And The Sec: A Case Of Questionable Rulemaking, Stuart R. Cohn
Stock Appreciation Rights And The Sec: A Case Of Questionable Rulemaking, Stuart R. Cohn
Stuart R. Cohn
A stock appreciation rights (SARs) program is a form of deferred incentive compensation. Grantees are awarded SAR-units representing an equal number of the grantor’s equity shares currently being traded in public markets. SARs provide grantees the benefit of stock ownership without equity interest, investment, or risk of loss. Stock appreciation rights programs offer various advantages over other forms of executive compensation and have grown rapidly in number. These advantages include the availability of benefits without the requirement of monetary payments, the utilization of SARs as an interest-free form of financing the purchase of stock under tandem stock option programs, the …
Demise Of The Director's Duty Of Care: Judicial Avoidance Of Standards And Sanctions Through The Business Judgment Rule, Stuart R. Cohn
Demise Of The Director's Duty Of Care: Judicial Avoidance Of Standards And Sanctions Through The Business Judgment Rule, Stuart R. Cohn
Stuart R. Cohn
Courts love the so-called business judgment rule. It dispenses quickly and easily with derivative actions against corporate directors and officers, and other challenges to corporate conduct. Unfortunately, the business judgment rule has come to mask its underlying premise, i.e. that there must have been a business judgment made. This article examines the dominance of the business judgment rule over the underlying requirement of the duty of care and suggests reform measures that will bring the duty of care back to its appropriate role in determining the merits of management decision-making processes.
The Non-Merger Virtual Merger: Is Corporate Law Ready For Virtual Reality?, Stuart Cohn
The Non-Merger Virtual Merger: Is Corporate Law Ready For Virtual Reality?, Stuart Cohn
Stuart R. Cohn
The term virtual mergers describes the relatively recent phenomenon of companies entering into contractual arrangements that are functionally, but not legally, equivalent to mergers prescribed by corporate statutes. Virtual mergers usually involve the shared use of assets contributed by each of the companies. A central element of the transaction is that the two companies remain legally independent, each with its own directors, officers, and shareholders. The arrangements can usually be terminated by either party, allowing each company to return to the status quo ante or exercise buyout rights if contractually provided. Although virtual mergers have occurred among public companies in …