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

Surprise! Some CalPERS Board Members Can Attend Meetings And Vote By Proxy

CalPERS' Domestic Principles of Accountable Corporate Governance (United States) unequivocally assert:

Mirabile Dictu! "Common Stock Does not Constitute an Investment in 'Stock'"

Anyone who has picked up a prospectus or a private placement memorandum has undoubtedly seen, if not read, various legends and other warnings.  Recently, I came across the following legend in an offering document:

Are Proxy Access Bylaws Legal?

Proxy Access Meets Private Ordering

The Plain Writing Act of 2010 - It's The Law! (Well, Sort Of)

In an earlier post, I wrote about the ambiguity that inheres in the use of the word "shall".  In researching the topic, I discovered that last fall, President Barack Obama signed the "Plain Writing Act of 2010" into law. Ironically, the Act requires...

Commissioner Orders Crowdfunding Facilitator To Stop

In November, the U.S. House of Represantatives passed the Entrepreneur Access to Capital Act, HR 2930, to create a new exemption under the Securities Act of 1933 for "crowdfunding" meeting specified conditions. About the same time, the U.S. Senate...

Commissioner Revises Broker-Dealer Release

In 2007, a California Court of Appeal upheld the convictions of two officers/directors for engaging in unlicensed broker-dealer activity in violation of Corporations Code Section 25210.  People v. Cole, 156 Cal. App. 4th 452 (2007). Neither...

CalSTRS Gets Two New Board Members

The California State Teachers' Retirement System (aka CalSTRS) claims to be the largest teachers' retirement fund in the United States with assets of $148,000,000,000 at October 31, 2011. A 12 member board administers CalSTRS. The Board is comprised...

Cooperative Corporations - A California Tradition

Earlier this week, Lee Romney wrote this story for the Los Angeles Times about cooperatives.  As I mentioned in this post from last March, California had a strong proponent of worker cooperatives over a century ago in the person of none other than...

The First Fork - Limited Versus Open Qualification

As most securities lawyers know, California requires that the offer and sale of securities in an issuer transaction must be qualified unless the security or transaction is exempt or not subject to qualification. Cal. Corp. Code § 25110. The number...