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

More On Real Estate Funds And The Investment Advisers Act

In a previous post, I began to delve into the question of what is a "real estate fund".  See SEC Staff Reports On “Real Estate Funds”, But What Exactly Are They? As noted in that post, a "real estate fund" as defined in Form PF cannot be a company...

Of Section Symbols And Pilcrows

It wasn't so very long ago that the lawyer who typed his or her own documents was a rara avis indeed. Nowadays, there are few attorneys who don't. Therefore, I think most lawyers today share the annoyance of inserting the glyph denoting a section -...

Knowledge Of Loan Extensions Precludes Exoneration

The California Civil Code devotes several sections to the subject of the exoneration of sureties.  Section 2819, for example, intones:

SEC Staff Reports On "Real Estate Funds", But What Exactly Are They?

Yesterday, the SEC staff announced that it had published a suite of new data and analyses of private fund statistics and trends. These data include information with respect to "real estate funds". But what exactly is a "real estate fund"? The answer...

Will California Regulate Lead Generators?

These are the new leads. These are the Glengarry leads. And to you they're gold, and you don't get them. Why? Because to give them to you is just throwing them away. They're for closers. I'd wish you good luck but you wouldn't know what to do with...

Qualification Of Offers And Sales Of Non-Voting Common Stock Is No Snap In California

In March, Snap Inc. announced that it and the selling stockholders had sold of 230 million shares of Class A Common Stock to the public at an initial public offering price of $17.00 per share. The gross proceeds of the offering to the company and...

California And Van Gorkom

As a corporate lawyer, it is hard to ignore the Delaware Supreme Court's opinion in Smith v. Van Gorkom, 488 A.2d 858 (1985) overruled on other grounds Gantler v. Stephens, 965 A.2d 695 (Del. 2009).  Professor Stephen Bainbridge has called it "one of...

The Limited Liability Company Agreement That Has No Name

Practitioners under California's Revised Uniform Limited Liability Company Act will be familiar with the concept of an "operating agreement" (Cal. Corp. Code § 17701.02(s)). Indeed, I expect that nearly every LLC formed under the CARULLCA has, or...

District Court Rules Plaintiff Failed To Plead Real Estate Investment Was A "Security"

Both the Securities Act of 1933 and the California Corporate Securities Law of 1968 provide similar, but not the same, definitions of a "security".  See Making A List Of Securities And Checking It Twice. Although these lists are expansive, courts...