The owners of a public company, its shareholders, can be individual people, institutions, or other corporations. Each of these parties must abide by a shareholder agreement. Shareholders and company directors aren't generally the same. Shareholders typically don't...
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Thomas Whitelaw Legal Blog
What your firm and broker-dealers should know about FINRA audits
As a California business that operates in the financial services sector, you are well aware that your company and the registered investment advisors (RIAs) are subject to significant government oversight. It's not uncommon for the Financial Industry Regulatory...
California contract law & breaches
Contracts are the backbone of any business. They outline the obligations expected from both parties. The terms set therein (and those that California law applies, whether the conditions are in the contract or not) are the basis for managing smooth partnerships. ...
Is your company Foreign Corrupt Practices Act compliant?
Many corporations are at the forefront of innovation, developing technology that aims to revolutionize the world. Some business owners find it necessary to establish relationships abroad to move their company forward. Be careful if you do. You may expose yourself to...
Who is liable in an accident with a self-driving car?
Autonomous, or self-driving, cars have been a hot topic in recent years. More and more automobile companies are adding advanced self-driving features, requiring increasingly less input from a human driver. Waymo, Google's autonomous car subsidiary, even has a limited...
The complexity of commercial litigation
Commercial litigation encompasses a broad range of legal disputes involving business entities and corporate law. In California, a litany of laws regulates business partnerships and fairness practices. It's rare for these matters to have simple answers. Most arguments...
Legal issues relating to artificial intelligence
Artificial intelligence (AI) is any system that imitates human beings in conducting tasks. Such a system improves itself based on its information as it handles different tasks. AI is now used across all industries, from e-commerce sites to education, automobiles,...
Attorney-client privilege in corporate settings
Communications with an attorney are privileged. No one other than the attorney's client has authority to disclose them, and in all but the rarest cases, no one can compel that disclosure. But there are also limits to the attorney-client privilege that can create...
Investment-related declarations fall under safe harbor law
There have been some major developments in federal and state securities law in the past year. One of the developments has been the Ninth Circuit's interpretation of the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act (PSLRA) regarding the safe harbor clause for...
How corporations can deal with conflicts of interest
Conflicts of interest happen when one of the decision-makers in the company has a financial interest in one of the firms doing business with the corporation. To this end, the said director may reveal trade secrets, budgetary allocations or approved designs to managers...