Insights Search

For more than a decade, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) has been able to bring enforcement actions in either federal court or the agency’s internal venue.

In a potentially significant development that may impact the economics of aviation, the California Air Resources Board (“CARB”) is proposing a policy, as we previewed in January 2024, to update the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (“LCFS”) program, whereby CARB would eliminate the existing exemption for intrastate fossil jet fuel from LCFS regulations beginning in 2028.

Stockholder litigation is on the rise both in volume and notoriety.

Texas’ new business court, which the state hopes will make complex litigation more efficient, opens in less than four months. And while there’s still uncertainty about how the court will operate, its structure and the Texas legislature’s mandate can help answer key questions.

In a considerable shift in the law, the Federal Circuit has discarded the long-standing test for determining whether a design patent is invalid as obvious, in favor of the more flexible obviousness test historically applied to utility patents. Eric Klein, Erik Shallman, Patrick Wroe

Yesterday, in a much anticipated decision, the Delaware Supreme Court held in In re Match Group, Inc. Derivative Litigation that every member of a special committee must be independent in order to satisfy the MFW framework and obtain business judgment deference for a conflicted-controller transaction.

On March 19, 2024, the North American Electric Reliability Corporation (“NERC”) asked the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (“FERC”) to approve revisions to NERC’s Rules of Procedure (“ROP”) that would require certain small (over 20 MVA) inverter-based resources (“IBRs”) – like solar and wind power generators – to register with NERC, and eventually be subject to existing and new reliability standards applicable to larger IBRs.

In a key development relating to the Corporate Transparency Act (the “CTA”), on March 1, 2024, U.S. District Judge Liles C. Burke of the Northern District of Alabama issued a memorandum opinion and final judgment ruling the CTA unconstitutional on the grounds that it exceeds the Constitution’s limits on Congress’ power.

A Delaware Court of Chancery opinion issued last week calls into question the common practice of corporate boards approving draft merger agreements.Michael Holmes, Craig Zieminski, Jeff Crough, Christina Peterman

A recent opinion from the Delaware Supreme Court could be viewed by some as expanding plaintiffs’ ability to viably plead a duty of oversight (or “Caremark”) claim against directors.

Vinson & Elkins attorneys discussed commercial real estate loan workouts and amendments: the path most often taken by commercial real estate lenders in 2023 when a borrower is facing a default.

On October 10, 2023, the Securities and Exchange Commission (“SEC”) adopted amendments to the rules governing beneficial ownership reporting under Sections 13(d) and 13(g) of the Securities Exchange Act of 1934 (the “Exchange Act”).