Description
Corporations and limited liability entities are formed with the intent to protect shareholders from personal liability for the debts, contractual obligations, and other actions of the corporate entity. However, business dispute litigants often try to reach beyond the corporate form to assert claims against not just their corporate counterparties, but also to related entities and individuals. If you are a corporate lawyer or litigator, this course is a timely opportunity to improve your fluency in pursuing or defending against veil-piercing claims and related theories, as well as understand what protections, like D&O insurance coverage, may be available to shield individual directors and officers from personal exposure.
After taking this course, you’ll have a finer appreciation for when the corporate form may be a shield against liability and when it may be disregarded. You’ll learn how to apply the principles of corporate liability across various stages of business—from formation to dispute resolution—with an eye towards recent caselaw. Finally, you’ll learn how insurance can play a critical role in protecting corporate officers and directors from personal liability if litigants attempt to pierce the corporate form. Join our faculty of experts to explore cutting-edge techniques and best practices. Topics of discussion include:
> Case preparation: Practical plaintiff and defense considerations, including trial strategies, resolution options, and remedies analysis.
> Disregarding the corporate form: The evidence and arguments needed for:
- Piercing the veil
- Successor liability
- Alter-ego theory
- Single business enterprise theory
- Reverse veil piercing
> Caselaw developments: Caselaw trends regarding when the courts may disregard the corporate form.
> Best practices: Building better corporate structures and strengthening corporate separateness with consistent governance and adequate capitalization.
> Client education: Communicating the need for corporate formalities, balancing formalities with client business objectives, and other proactive measures client and counsel can pursue to protect the corporate form.
> D&O liability: Understanding the fundamentals of insurance, particularly directors and officers (D&O) liability insurance, that may be available to protect individual executives and board members from personal exposure in veil-piercing claims.