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...

Buying Assets? Have You Considered This Secretary's Certificate?

California Corporations Code Section 1001 requires approval by the outstanding shares (Corp. Code § 152) of the principal terms of a sale of all or substantially all of a corporation’s assets (unless the transaction is in the usual and regular...

Court Rules Indirect Purchaser Claims Against Theranos May Proceed

Theranos' anni horrorum began in October 2015 with the publication of a story by investigative reporter John Carreyrou at The Wall Street Journal.  Lawsuits and government investigations ensued. Although the Theranos recently announced agreements...