A Miscellany For The Head Of The Year

Unincorporated Associations

Does California's Anti-Waiver Statute Void Choice Of Forum Agreements?

California Corporations Code Section 25701 is derived from Section 410(g) of the Uniform Securities Act (1956). Section 25701 voids any condition, stipulation or provision purporting to bind any person acquiring any security to waive compliance with...

Court of Appeal Decides Buy-Out Questions Under Re-RULPA

California's Uniform Limited Partnership Act of 2008, commonly known as Re-RULPA, established a mechanism by which partners can avoid a judicial dissolution of the partnership by purchasing for cash the partnership interest owned by the partners...

Thinking About Joining A Club? You May Want To Consider These Corporations Code Provisions First

In Democracy in America, Alexis de Tocqueville devoted an entire chapter to the propensity of Americans to form associations.  In particular, he observed:

California's Fairness Opinion Requirement For Interested Party Proposals

In 1968, Congress enacted the Williams Act to regulate tender offers. Two decades later, the California legislature enacted Corporations Code Section 1203 to impose additional requirements on tender offers and other specified transactions by an...

Without Knowing The Reasons, Issuers Can't Take Account Of Say-on-Pay Votes

The recently completed proxy season has yielded a virgin crop of shareholder "say-on-pay" votes, as required by Section 951 of the Dodd-Frank Act. Although not required by Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission amended Item 402(b)(1) of...

Confession Is Good For Soul And Equilibrium But Maybe Not Justice

Recently, I read this article about how the Department of Labor, the Internal Revenue Service and states are targeting pay practices of home builders. This got me thinking about how industry enforcement sweeps can be a very effective enforcement...

The Missing Link In LLC Formations

When a corporation is formed under the California General Corporation Law, an incorporator (or incorporators) signs the initial articles of incorporation and files them with the California Secretary of State. Corporations Code § 200(a). The articles...

Why Corporations Receive Shareholder Proposals

Recently, I spoke at an "essentials" program presented by the Society of Corporate Secretaries and Governance Professionals. I was asked to speak on "what is corporate governance"? In my view, practitioners are so caught up in the details of...