Earnouts are often described as a way to bridge a valuation gap. But they can just as easily turn into a bridge to the courthouse. The Delaware Court of Chancery’s September 30, 2026 post-trial opinion in ACON Igloo Holdings, LLC v. Dometic Corporation, is a good example, and it should interest founders, sellers, private
If you’ve raised a pre-seed or seed round in the past few years, you likely did it through a SAFE (Simple Agreement for Future Equity). And if the early investor pushed back on your valuation cap, or you didn’t want to set one yet, you may also have agreed to a “Most Favored Nation” clause
There’s a simple truth in Delaware entity law: LLCs and corporations operate on fundamentally different philosophies. Nowhere is that contrast sharper than when it comes to a member’s or stockholder’s right to inspect the company’s books and records. The Court of Chancery’s recent decision in Bengson v. Elevate RCM Holdings, LLC, C.A. No. 2025-1347-DG
If you’ve closed a deal in the past year, there’s a good chance your outside counsel, your counterparty’s advisors or maybe your own team used an AI tool to review part of the data room.
The appeal is obvious. A Series B data room might contain 300 contracts. A middle-market acquisition data room can easily
If you are company counsel advising an early-stage startup, the recent judgment in Gregg v. Cooley LLP should give you pause. On July 27, 2026, the Superior Court of New Jersey entered a judgment of over $25 million against Cooley LLP after a jury found that an attorney-client relationship existed between Cooley and the founder
If you’ve spent any time around startup equity, you’ve probably heard someone describe the standard 90-day post-termination exercise window as a “trap for the well-meaning employee”. That is a little dramatic, but not entirely wrong. When an employee leaves the company, the default rules governing most option plans give them a short runway, typically 90
Having counseled investors through dozens of venture transactions in New York and beyond, I can say with confidence that due diligence isn’t a checkbox exercise. It’s the process of stress-testing every material assertion made during the fundraising process and, just as importantly, surfacing the risks that never made it into the deck.
What follows is
If you’re on the management team of a Delaware corporation or serve as general counsel to one, it’s only a matter of time before a stockholder shows up with a books and records demand under Section 220 of the Delaware General Corporation Law (“DGCL”). What used to be a relatively obscure procedural tool has become
Most ECVC lawyers can recite from memory the basic architecture of venture anti-dilution protection. The standard NVCA formulation adjusts downward the conversion price of preferred stock when the company issues additional equity at a lower price, subject to a familiar list of “Exempt Securities.”
In straightforward scenarios where it’s clear what the price of that
A recent March 20, 2026 letter decision from the Delaware Court of Chancery in Gary T. Turner v. Lam Research Corporation is a stark illustration of how unforgiving Delaware courts can be when stockholders sit on their rights. For venture-backed companies and their stockholders, the case underscores a simple but critical point: stock ownership rights