Corporate and Chancery Litigation Practice Group
Fish & Richardson has been steadily
expanding its Corporate and Chancery litigation
practice group, as well as its patent litigation
and prosecution practices, in the Delaware
office, which serves both national and regional
clients. The firm’s growing corporate practice
dovetails with and augments its world-class
intellectual property practice, providing a full
range of corporate services for its IP rich clients,
including IPOs, financings, mergers, acquisitions,
and buyouts, and IP due diligence and
planning. Fish’s Corporate and Chancery
Litigation practice provides fast-paced resolution
of corporate and technology disputes in the
Delaware Court of Chancery and in federal and
state courts throughout the country.
Why choose Delaware?
The best overall legal environment
For the sixth straight year, Delaware was ranked as
the nation’s best legal environment by the U.S.
Chamber of Commerce. It also ranked first in nine
out of 12 individual categories, including judges’
impartiality and judges’ competence.
The best judges
Delaware’s judiciary is one of the most respected in
the country.
The most influential courts
The Delaware courts have received high marks
from the press. The Associated Press named the
Delaware Court of Chancery "the most influential
business court in the nation."
The home of the Fortune 500
Delaware is the corporate home to 61 percent of
Fortune 500 companies as well as half the companies
trading on the NYSE and NASDAQ.
Consequently, a majority of business litigation
occurs in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Why choose Fish & Richardson?
Fish started a corporate practice to complement its
broad-based intellectual property practice. The corporate
attorneys work side by side with our patent
attorneys to form the premier hybrid of corporate
and technology law. The synergy of that combination
results in corporate advice enriched by our
deep understanding of intellectual property strategy.
The group has grown to include about two dozen
attorneys spread among seven of the firm’s national
offices.
Founded in 1878, our firm has more than 400 attorneys
in ten offices nationwide, among them former
law clerks of the U.S. Courts of Appeals (including
the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit),
U.S. District Courts, Delaware Supreme Court, and
the Delaware Court of Chancery. Fish is known for
having an excellent track record; our firm handles
more patent litigation than any other firm in the
United States. We were rated among the top firms
in ITC patent litigation in 2006. Our litigation victories
have been included in The National Law
Journal’s biggest winners list for four straight years.
Fish is also one of the most active firms in helping
to capture the value of clients’ intellectual property
through patent, trademark, copyright, and trade
secret protection.
Why choose Corporate and Chancery Litigation
at Fish & Richardson?
Fish’s Corporate and Chancery litigation team
comprises attorneys who have been involved in
some of the largest corporate cases of the last
decade:
- Norfolk Southern’s hostile $10.5 billion bid for
Conrail
American General Corporation’s $6 billion hostile
takeover attempt of Unitrin
- The $9 billion merger of the NYSE and Archipelago
Fish’s Corporate and Chancery litigation team has
also been involved in some of the largest federal
securities actions:
- In re Tyco Int’l, Ltd. Sec. Litig. (D.N.H.)
- In re America Online/ Time Warner, Inc. Sec. Litig.
(S.D.N.Y.)
- In re Adelphia Commnc’s, Inc. Sec. Litig. (S.D.N.Y.)
- In re Pfizer Inc. Sec. Litig. (S.D.N.Y.)
- In re Parmalat Sec. Litig. (S.D.N.Y.)
Fish attorneys have appeared on CNBC and written
for Fortune, Barron’s, Investor’s Business Daily,
Directorship, and The M&A Journal regarding business
and corporate issues. The firm’s attorneys are
consistently selected as the top litigators in
Delaware by Chambers USA: America’s Leading
Lawyers for Business and by Delaware Today magazine.
Corporate governance counseling
Fish offers corporate governance advice and litigation
to corporate boards and their committees on the
following:
- Their fiduciary obligations in connection with various
transactions, including mergers, acquisitions,
and asset sales
- Compliance with the provisions of the Delaware
- Best practice guidelines and reporting and information
systems and controls, particularly with respect
to intellectual property assets
- Defending shareholder suits alleging breaches of the
fiduciary duties of care, loyalty, disclosure, oversight,
and good faith (or other business torts)
Fish’s attorneys have brought and defended statutory
actions under the DGCL, including the following:
- Actions relating to the advancement of litigation
expenses and indemnification of officers and
directors
- Suits to compel the issuance of new stock certificates
or the registration of stock transfers
- Actions to compel annual meetings of stockholders
- Actions to break a deadlocked vote of shareholders
- Actions to enforce the rights of shareholders and directors to inspect and copy corporate books and
records
- Actions to determine the rightful directors of a corporation
following a contested corporate election
- Appointment of custodians of solvent corporations
to resolve director of shareholder deadlocks
- Appraisal proceedings to determine the fair value of
the shares of stock of minority shareholders in a
force-out merger
- Corporate dissolution and insolvency proceedings
Fish’s attorneys have considerable expertise in expedited
proceedings in the Delaware Court of Chancery:
- Actions for TROS and preliminary and permanent
injunctions
- Actions for rescission or rescissory damages to
unwind a transaction
- Actions for reformation of an agreement or corporate
document
- Actions for specific performance of an agreement
- Actions for an accounting as to the assets held by a
fiduciary
- Actions for constructive or resulting trusts or equitable
liens on misappropriated property
Fish’s attorneys also handle technology cases in the
Delaware Court of Chancery:
- Actions to enforce confidentiality or nondisclosure
agreements and to enjoin or remedy misuse of
information obtained thereby
- Actions related to technology licensing agreements
and equitable relief (e.g., injunctions, constructive
- Actions to recover stolen technology
Fish & Richardson’s Corporate and Chancery Litigation Team
William Marsden
William is the founder of and Managing Principal
in Fish & Richardson’s Delaware office. His practice
is focused on intellectual property, corporate, and
commercial litigation. William was recognized as
one of the Top Ten Litigators in Delaware by The
National Law Journal (1999), was selected by his
peers for recognition in the 2006 and 2007 editions
of The Best Lawyers in America, and has been recognized
as one of America’s Leading Business Lawyers
by Chambers USA. He has also been listed as one of
Delaware’s "Top Lawyers" in intellectual property
law by Delaware Today magazine.
Cathy Reese
Cathy is a Principal in the Delaware office of Fish
& Richardson and heads the firm’s Corporate and
Chancery Litigation practice. According to
Chambers USA: America’s Leading Business
Lawyers, Cathy is among a small group of lawyers
ranked as the leading litigators in Delaware in the
areas of business litigation and the handling of
matters before the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Cathy has also been selected by Delaware’s legal
community and a "Blue Ribbon Committee" of
retired Delaware judges as one of the top ten
corporate litigators in Delaware, according to a poll
of 2,700 members of the Delaware State Bar
Association published in Delaware Today magazine.
Brian Rostocki
Brian is an Associate in Fish & Richardson's
Delaware office. His practice emphasizes corporate
and complex business litigation, primarily in the
Delaware Court of Chancery. Prior to joining Fish
& Richardson, Brian was a securities litigator in
federal courts throughout the country. Brian was a
judicial law clerk to the Honorable Henry duPont
Ridgely, Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware,
and to the Honorable Myron T. Steele, Chief
Justice of the Supreme Court of Delaware.
Kyle Compton
Kyle is an Associate in Fish & Richardson's
Delaware office. Kyle practices in the areas of
patents, patent litigation, and complex business
litigation. Prior to joining Fish & Richardson, Kyle
served as a judicial clerk for Vice Chancellor Leo E.
Strine Jr. in the Delaware Court of Chancery.
Charles Vincent
Charles Vincent is an Associate in Fish & Richardson's Delaware office. His practice emphasizes business and corporate litigation, primarily in the Delaware Court of Chancery. Prior to joining Fish & Richardson, Mr. Vincent was a judicial law clerk to the Honorable Henry duPont Ridgely, Justice of the Delaware Supreme Court. He also served as a Wolcott Fellow extern for Vice Chancellor Donald F. Parsons, Jr. of the Delaware Court of Chancery and spent one summer externing for the Delaware Department of Justice. Prior to law school, Charles worked in higher education administration and also owned and operated a sports photography company.
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Litigation in the Delaware Chancery Court