Kramer Levin Delivers Oral Arguments Before DE Supreme Court in TransPerfect Dispute

On Jan. 18, Litigation partner Philip S. Kaufman delivered oral argument before the Delaware Supreme Court on behalf of client Elizabeth Elting over the sale of TransPerfect Global Inc., of which Ms. Elting is co-founder, 50% owner, and co-CEO. At issue were decisions by Chancellor Andre G. Bouchard of the Delaware Court of Chancery in favor of Ms. Elting, rendered after trial, appointing a custodian to sell the company and approving the custodian’s plan to implement that sale through a public auction. Mr. Kaufman argued in support of the Chancery Court’s rulings, pointing out, among other things, that settled Delaware law authorizes the sale of profitable corporations in cases of proven deadlock at the shareholder and/or director levels, and that the extraordinary factual circumstances of this case, as determined by the Chancellor, required the unusual remedy of a sale. TransPerfect’s other co-founder and co-CEO, Philip Shawe, had appealed the Court of Chancery’s rulings.

Mr. Shawe is represented by Sullivan & Cromwell LLP; Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A.; Kaplan Rice LLP; Rabinowitz Boudin Standard Krinsky & Lieberman PC; and Alan Dershowitz, Esq.

The proceedings were reported on by Bloomberg, The Associated Press, Law360 and the Delaware Business Court Insider, among other publications.