Skadden and Erskine Chambers recently hosted a series of comparative corporate law events in conjunction with the University of Pennsylvania Law School; Queen Mary University of London School of Law; New York University School of Law; Wachtell, Lipton Rosen & Katz; Slaughter and May; Morris, Nichols, Arsht & Tunnell; and Richards, Layton & Finger.
The mock trials held at Inner Temple, London, offered new insights into contrasting English and U.S. advocacy and judicial opinions on complex cross-border M&A issues. Arguments were made by Richards, Layton & Finger partner Greg Williams and Morris, Nichols partner Bill Lafferty for the Delaware mock trial before Chancellor Andy Bouchard of the Delaware Court of Chancery, and by Erskine Chambers’ James Potts QC and Michael Todd QC for the English mock trial before The Right Hon. Lord Justice David Richards of the Court of Appeal of England and Wales.
Each of the mock trials was based on a hypothetical takeover scenario, involving competing bids, a “poison pill” defence in the form of the Dutch stichting and shareholder litigation brought by an activist investor. Edward Rock (professor of business law at The University of Pennsylvania Law School, and now professor of law at NYU) moderated the trials and discussed the first instance decisions with Delaware Supreme Court Chief Justice Leo Strine and Court of Appeal of England and Wales judge The Right Hon. Lady Justice Gloster.
The following day, Skadden hosted an interactive panel discussion with Skadden partners Michael Hatchard and Scott Simpson; Wachtell, Lipton partner David Katz; Chief Justice Strine; and Slaughter and May partner William Underhill. The discussion was moderated by Professor Rock and Centre for Commercial Law Studies at Queen Mary University of London Professor Rodrigo Olivares-Caminal.
The link to the full publication is available here.