Keith Paul Bishop

Keith Paul Bishop

Keith Bishop works with privately-held and publicly-traded companies on federal and state corporate and securities transactions, compliance, and governance matters. He is highly-regarded for his in-depth knowledge of the distinctive corporate and regulatory requirements faced by corporations in the state of California. While many law firms have a great deal of expertise in federal or Delaware corporate law, Keith’s specific focus on California corporate and securities law is uncommon. A former California state regulator of securities and financial institutions, Keith has decades of experience navigating the regulatory-intensive state’s rules. For companies with substantial operations in California but incorporated elsewhere, Keith is an exceptional resource. He is frequently called in to help with issues arising under California’s “blue sky” and lender laws. An avid writer, Keith’s blog, www.calcorporatelaw.com, covers a diverse collection of California corporate and securities law issues and has served as a valued resource for other attorneys, business executives, judges, and media, nationwide.

Recent Posts

Does Incorporation In Delaware Constitute "Abuse Of The Corporation"?

Until I happened upon a working paper by Professors Martin Gelter and Lécia Vicente, I had not encountered the notion of abusing a corporation merely by choosing where to incorporate it.  The authors describe abuse as follows:

The CSL And Foreign Subsidiaries

I suspect that many lawyers do not give a great deal of thought to the application of the California Corporate Securities Law of 1968 to the issuance of shares in connection with the incorporation of a wholly owned subsidiary. Section 25102(i)(2) is...

Exceptions To Section 2115

Yesterday's post concerned the application Section 2115 of the California Corporations Code to parent and subsidiary corporations. A foreign corporation that satisfies the business and shareholder tests of the statute will be subject to numerous...

Parents, Subsidiaries And Section 2115

California famously applies many of the provisions of its General Corporation Law to foreign corporations that meet the specific tests set forth in Corporations Code Section 2115. The first of these tests is a business test - the average of the...

Is There Securities Fraud Without Reliance And Causation?

Section 25401 of the Corporations Code is California's securities fraud statute.  Readers of this space will know that that scienter was not required under the former version of the statute but that the legislature rewrote Section 25401 to conform to...

CeDe - Acronym, Initialism or Portmanteau?

The Depository Trust Company provides depository and book-entry services and operates a securities settlement system. The DTC's nominee is CeDe & Co. which is generally pronounced as the letters "C" and "D". The name is an abbreviation of...

Voting Rights Versus Voting Power - A Distinction With A Difference?

Yesterday's post raised the question whether California Corporations Code Section 400(a) precludes tenured voting. That statute requires that all shares of any one class have the "same voting, conversion and redemption rights . . . unless the class...

Stockholder Tenure And Voting Rights

A recent post by Broc Romanek linked to a MarketWatch article critiquing the new Long Term Stock Exchange.  The article mentions that "The LTSE has also proposed 'long-term voting rights,' wherein a shareholder’s voting power is commensurate with how...

The PUHCA, A Long Time Passing

Before initializations were clever, there was PUHCA, the Public Utility Holding Company Act of 1935. The Securities and Exchange Commission administered the PUHCA mostly by reviewing applications by registered public holding companies for...