In Louisiana Municipal Police Employees’ Retirement System v. Lennar Corp., C.A. No. 7314-VCG, 2012 WL 4760881 (Del. Ch. Oct. 5, 2012), the Delaware Court of Chancery, on a motion for summary judgment, rejected a stockholder’s demand under Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“Section 220”).  Section 220 provides that a stockholder in a Delaware corporation may, under certain conditions, request and cause the corporation to make available for inspection certain books and records, provided the demand has a proper purpose and some credible basis exists for suspecting mismanagement, waste, or wrongdoing.  In this instance, although the court found the purpose of the demand — investigation of the corporation’s compliance with labor law — to be proper, it held that the evidence presented did not amount to a credible showing that legitimate issues of mismanagement existed to warrant an investigation.Continue Reading Delaware Chancery Court Rejects Stockholder’s Section 220 Books and Records Demand Based Upon Failure to Demonstrate “Credible Basis” for Inspection

On September 24, 2012, the IRS issued Proposed Regulations §§ 53.4942(a)-3 and 53.4945-5 in order to reduce barriers to international grant-making made by private foundations. Secretary of State Hilary Clinton announced the guidance during an address at the Clinton Global Initiative. In particular, the new guidance modernizes the process of evaluating whether a foreign non-governmental organization is equivalent to a U.S. public charity for purposes of charitable giving.Continue Reading IRS Issues Proposed Regulations To Make International Grant-Making By Private Foundations Easier

In In re Rigel Pharmaceuticals, Inc. Securities Litigation, No. 10-17619, 2012 WL 3858112 (9th Cir. Sept. 6, 2012), the United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit held that disagreements between plaintiffs and defendants over statistical methodology and study design are insufficient to allege a materially false statement for purposes of pleading a securities fraud claim under Section 10(b) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), 15 U.S.C. § 78j(b), and Securities & Exchange Commission Rule 10b-5, 17 C.F.R. § 240.10b-5, promulgated thereunder. The Ninth Circuit held that merely because the statistical methodology chosen — and disclosed — by the defendant may not have been the best or most acceptable methodology, use of such an allegedly less-than-optimal methodology does not render statements about the results of the methodology false or misleading for purposes of stating a claim. This is a decision of first impression for the Ninth Circuit.Continue Reading Ninth Circuit Holds that Allegations a Defendant Should Have Used a Different Statistical Methodology During Drug Trials is not Sufficient to Allege Falsity Under Section 10(b) and Rule 10b-5

On August 22, 2012, the SEC adopted its final rule related to conflict minerals required by Congress under the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act (“Dodd-Frank”), which will require all public companies to implement complex new controls and procedural mechanisms, and in certain cases, conduct supply chain due diligence that could lead to new public disclosures.
Continue Reading Navigating the SEC’s Recent Conflict Minerals Rules: Threading the Needle Through Complex Controls and Procedures and Complying with New Disclosure Requirements

At an open meeting held on August 29, 2012, the Securities and Exchange Commission approved a proposed rule pursuant to Section 201(a) of the Jumpstart Our Business Startups (“JOBS”) Act that would amend:

  • Regulation D and Rule 506 under the Securities Act to remove the ban on general solicitation and general advertising for offerings sold only to accredited investors
  • Rule 144A to permit offerings to persons other than qualified institutional buyers, including by means of general solicitation or general advertising, provided the securities are sold only to persons that the seller and any person acting on behalf of the seller reasonably believe are qualified institutional buyers

Continue Reading At Long Last, A Divided SEC Publishes Proposals To Enable General Solicitation And Advertising For Regulation D And Rule 144A, But Further Delays Effectiveness

By Jennifer Redmond and Jonathan Sokolowski

In Fillpoint, LLC, v. Maas, Case No. G045057, 2012 Cal. App. LEXIS 914 (Cal. App. Aug. 24, 2012), the California Court of Appeal for the Fourth District recently refused to enforce a covenant not to compete against the former employee and selling shareholder of a video game company. The Court determined that half of a two-part noncompete agreement entered into in the context of the sale of a business was unenforceable, despite the exception for such covenants found in California Business and Professions Code Section 16601 (“Section 16601”). This case answers what had previously been an open question under California law: whether an acquiring company can obtain a non-compete that begins to run upon termination of employment (as opposed to or in addition to a non-compete that begins to run upon closing) from a shareholder who becomes an employee of the buyer. See Hilb, Rogal & Hamilton Ins. Servs. v. Robb, 33 Cal. App. 4th 1812 (1995) (enforcing a noncompete agreement against a selling shareholder that commenced at termination of employment, without any discussion or analysis of whether using termination of employment as the trigger for a noncompete violates Section 16601).Continue Reading California Court of Appeal Refuses to Enforce Non-Compete Against Selling Shareholder

On August 22, 2012, the SEC adopted disclosure rules required by Sections 1502 and 1504 of the Dodd-Frank Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act related to conflict minerals and payments by issuers engaged in resource extraction.

The new rules on conflicts minerals disclosures will apply to all SEC reporting companies for which the identified conflict minerals are “necessary to the functionality or production” of a product manufactured or contracted to be manufactured by the issuer. We will be providing more detailed summaries of these rules in future posts.Continue Reading SEC Adopts Dodd-Frank Rules Regarding Conflict Minerals and Payments by Resource Extraction Issuers and Defers Rules for Implementation of JOBS Act Elimination of Ban on General Solicitation until August 29

In Yudell v. Gilbert, 2012 WL 3166788 (N.Y. App. Div. 1st Dep’t Aug. 7, 2012), the Appellate Division of the New York Supreme Court, First Department, abandoned its prior ad hoc approach to determining whether a stockholder’s claim is “direct” (i.e., on behalf of the stockholder personally) or “derivative” (i.e., on behalf of the corporation as a whole), and held that the test applied by the Delaware Supreme Court in Tooley v. Donaldson, Lufkin & Jenrette, Inc., 845 A.2d 1031 (Del. 2004), provides the appropriate analysis for resolving this inquiry. Under the Tooley test, the court must consider (i) who suffered the alleged harm (the corporation or the stockholder) and (ii) who would receive the benefit of any recovery or other remedy (the corporation or the stockholders individually). If the court determines that the corporation suffered the alleged harm and would receive the benefit of any remedy sought in the stockholder’s claim, then the claim must be brought derivatively, on behalf of the corporation, and is subject to the pre-suit demand requirement. Although the court’s decision appears to provide greater clarity to this often vexing issue under New York law, Delaware cases applying the test show that Tooley is far from the last word on the subject.Continue Reading New York Appellate Court Adopts Delaware Supreme Court’s Tooley Test For Determining Whether a Stockholder’s Claim Is Direct or Derivative

In SEC v. Apuzzo, 2012 WL 3194303 (2d Cir. Aug. 8, 2012), the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit clarified the standard for finding liability for aiding and abetting under Section 20(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (“Exchange Act”), 15 U.S.C. § 78t(e). Under Section 20(e), the Second Circuit held, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) need not show that an aider and abettor “proximately caused” the harm on which the primary violation was predicated. Instead, the SEC need only show that the aider and abettor “in some sort associated himself with the venture, that he participated in it as in something he wished to bring about, and that he sought by his action to make it succeed.” In Appuzo, the Second Circuit has clarified that the SEC need only plead this level of participation — and not proximate causation — to adequately allege that an aider and abettor meets the “substantial assistance” prong of Section 20(e).Continue Reading Second Circuit Holds That SEC Need Not Prove “Proximate Cause” for Aiders and Abettors Under Section 20(e) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934