Representing High Tech Companies


Book Description

This book discusses financing and documenting joint ventures and early-stage strategic partnerships; devising workable nondisclosure agreements and managing an intellectual property portfolio.




Representing the Corporation


Book Description

Representing the Corporation gives you the inside track on understanding the legal services the corporation is really seeking from its counsel. Richard H. Weise shares his 30 years of experience in corporate legal affairs to show you how to develop practices that are in tune with the needs and requirements of the client. Weise offers valuable guidance to in-house counsel and practitioners on: Getting client feedback effectively -- Developing a healthy interdependent relationship with the client -- Implementing an effective dispute resolution strategy...an important client satisfier -- Helping a client with ethics management issues -- Offering the client a "no surprises" covenant. -- Working with the client on important compliance issues and crisis management. -- Plus leading-edge coverage of vital topics such as the law of the Internet, international corporate practice, intellectual property, securities law, government contracting, tax, mergers and acquisitions, and more.Representing the Corporation contains a wealth of adaptable sample forms, checklists, spreadsheets, in-house reports, and manuals for your particular situation.




Representing Corporate Officers and Directors and LLC Managers [formerly Representing Corporate Officers, Directors, Managers, and Trustees], 3rd Edition


Book Description

Representing Corporate Officers and Directors and LLC Managers, Third Edition (formerly titled Representing Corporate Officers, Directors, Managers, and Trustees) is a guide to the practical aspects of corporate governance for attorneys, corporate officers and directors, LLC managers, and trustees. Following the repercussions of past corporate and accounting scandals, new legislation, rules, and standards by governmental bodies and society have greatly increased the focus on the responsibilities and liabilities of directors, officers, managers, and trustees. Increased SEC oversight, new NYSE and NASDAQ listing standards, new cybersecurity compliance guidance, new fiduciary and other duties, and new criminal penalties have all changed the landscape for those who control corporations. By logically laying out the steps to safe corporate governance, the analysis, cases, tables, and checklists guide the veteran and neophyte alike. Representing Corporate Officers and Directors and LLC Managers tells you what to look for...what to look out for...and what steps to take to protect your corporate clients in today's harsh regulatory environment. It's the only up-to-date work of its kind to offer both in-depth analysis and practical guidance on key aspects of this critically important area. This updated Third Edition thoroughly covers: Directors' duties of care and loyalty-- including the different standards which have been imposed on directors regarding the duty of care...the duty of loyalty...the business judgment rule... when directors are entitled to rely on the advice of others...improperly influencing audits under the Sarbanes-Oxley Act... improper distributions...and more. Conflicts of interest--with examples of conflict of interest transactions, and discussion of loans to or by directors and officers...secret profits...and the duty to safeguard confidential or inside information-- plus, how certain transactions considered improper can be ratified and thus become legitimate. Federal securities laws--including everything from overviews of the laws, the SEC, and securities themselves-- to jurisdiction, pleading, remedies, and defenses in securities cases... criminal penalties...and attorneys' responsibilities regarding liability under Sarbanes-Oxley. Indemnification and insurance-- with discussion of mandatory and permissive indemnification and the scope of indemnification in various states... when a director may be indemnified even if not wholly successful in defense of an action...directors' and officers' liability insurance...types and extent of insurance coverage...tax law treatment...and exclusions. Tender offers--including antitakeover measures, two-tier and squeeze-out mergers, and golden parachute agreements, poison pill plans, and greenmail...potential liability in tender offers...and implementing mergers and acquisitions, with securities law, antitrust, tax, accounting, and labor law considerations.




The Anatomy of Corporate Law


Book Description

This is the long-awaited second edition of this highly regarded comparative overview of corporate law. This edition has been comprehensively updated to reflect profound changes in corporate law. It now includes consideration of additional matters such as the highly topical issue of enforcement in corporate law, and explores the continued convergence of corporate law across jurisdictions. The authors start from the premise that corporate (or company) law across jurisdictions addresses the same three basic agency problems: (1) the opportunism of managers vis-à-vis shareholders; (2) the opportunism of controlling shareholders vis-à-vis minority shareholders; and (3) the opportunism of shareholders as a class vis-à-vis other corporate constituencies, such as corporate creditors and employees. Every jurisdiction must address these problems in a variety of contexts, framed by the corporation's internal dynamics and its interactions with the product, labor, capital, and takeover markets. The authors' central claim, however, is that corporate (or company) forms are fundamentally similar and that, to a surprising degree, jurisdictions pick from among the same handful of legal strategies to address the three basic agency issues. This book explains in detail how (and why) the principal European jurisdictions, Japan, and the United States sometimes select identical legal strategies to address a given corporate law problem, and sometimes make divergent choices. After an introductory discussion of agency issues and legal strategies, the book addresses the basic governance structure of the corporation, including the powers of the board of directors and the shareholders meeting. It proceeds to creditor protection measures, related-party transactions, and fundamental corporate actions such as mergers and charter amendments. Finally, it concludes with an examination of friendly acquisitions, hostile takeovers, and the regulation of the capital markets.




The Philadelphia Stock Exchange and the City It Made


Book Description

The Philadelphia Stock Exchange and the City It Made recounts the history of America's first stock exchange and the ways it shaped the growth and decline of the city around it. Founded in 1790, the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, its member firms, and the companies they financed had profound impacts on the city's place in the world economy. At its start, the exchange and its members helped spur the development of the early United States, its financial sector, and its westward expansion. During the nineteenth century, they invested in making Philadelphia the center of industrial America, raising capital for the railroads and coal mines that connected cities to one another and built a fossil fuel-based economy. After financing the Civil War, they underwrote the growth of the modern metropolis, its transportation infrastructure, utility systems, and real estate development. At the turn of the twentieth century, stagnation of the exchange contributed to Philadelphia's loss of power in the national and world economy. This original interpretation of the roots of deindustrialization holds important lessons for other cities that have declined. The exchange's revival following World War II is a remarkable story, but it also illustrates the limits of economic development in postindustrial cities. Unlike earlier eras, the exchange's fortunes diverged from those of the city around it. Ultimately, it became part of a larger, global institution when it merged with NASDAQ in 2008. Far more than a history of a single institution, The Philadelphia Stock Exchange and the City It Made traces the evolving relationship between the exchange and the city. For people concerned with cities and their development, this study offers a long-term history of the public-private partnerships and private sector-led urban development popular today. More generally, it traces the networks of firms and institutions revealed by the securities market and its participants. Herein lies a critical and understudied part of the history of metropolitan economic development.




Non-Pecuniary Private Benefits in Publicly Traded Corporations


Book Description

Non-pecuniary private benefits, a phenomenon in publicly traded corporations, may be extracted by influencing shareholders to the detriment of minority shareholders and corporations. This book, with particular focus on Turkish law and American law, investigates the loopholes paving the way of non-pecuniary private benefit extractions in the context of corporate law. Pehlivanoğlu proposes to use shareholder oppression law’s reasonable expectations standard to expand the reach of involuntary dissolution statutes to cover non-pecuniary private benefit extractions of influencing shareholders.







Women on Corporate Boards of Directors


Book Description

Both the practitioner and academic communities have voiced strong opinions regarding the progress of women in reaching the executive suite and the corporate boardroom. Proponents on each side of the current debate offer evidence suggesting the accuracy of their respective positions. One view holds: "The fight is over. The battle is won. Women are now accepted as outside directors in the preponderance of corporate boardrooms" (Lear, 1994: 10). An alternative perspective, however, suggests there is much progress left. An illustration of the type of remaining barriers is provided by T. J. Rodgers, chief executive officer (CEO) of Cypress Semiconductor Corp. , who has commented that "a 'woman's view' on how to run our semiconductor company does not help us" (Rodgers, 1996: 14). Regardless of where one falls along the spectrum anchored at one end by the view that women have made substantial progress in reaching the upper echelons of corporations and anchored at the other end by the view that women have barely begun to penetrate the "inner sanctum" of corporations, the central issue is the extent to which women have succeeded in cracking the proverbial "glass ceiling. " The glass ceiling is a metaphorical barrier which prevents women from attaining the upper-most organizational positions (e. g. , Karr, 1991; Morrison, White, Van Velsor, and the Center for Creative Leadership, 1992; Powell & Butterfield, 1994; U. S. Department of Labor, 1991).