| Business Law |
| Companies Listed on the New York Stock Exchange)More... |
| Sarbanes-Oxley Act |
| Most states recognize that corporate directors and upper-level officers owe the corporation the duties of care, loyalty, and obedience. The duty to act in good faith has emerged in some jurisdictions as an equally important fiduciary duty imposed upon directors and officers. Historically, directors and officers were frequently exonerated of personal liability for business decisions because of courts' long-standing deference to the business decision under the business judgment rule or because the transaction was deemed fair to the corporation and its shareholders overall. In the wake of recent corporate scandals, however, officers and directors are under ever-increasing scrutiny by shareholders, the courts, state governments, and the federal government. Many corporate commentators bemoan the fact that conduct once protected under the business judgment rule may not be viewed with such deference in the future. More... |
| Corporate Criminal Liability |
| Corporations were not initially held criminally responsible for corporate activities. A corporation was considered to be a legally fictitious entity, incapable of forming the mens rea necessary to commit a criminal act. The Supreme Court ultimately rejected this notion in 1909 in New York Central & Hudson River Railroad v. U.S. A railroad company employee paid rebates to shippers in violation of federal law. The court upheld the corporation's criminal conviction, finding no reason that corporations could not be held "responsible for and charged with the knowledge and purposes of their agents, acting within the authority conferred upon them." The Supreme Court concluded that criminal liability could be imputed to the corporation based on the benefit it received as a result of the criminal acts of its agents. The case and its progeny have essentially imported the doctrine of respondeat superior from tort law into the corporate criminal realm. A corporation may be convicted for its agent's unlawful acts when the agent acted within the scope of his or her actual or apparent authority. Another theory of corporate criminal liability is the "collective knowledge doctrine." As knowledge of criminal activity is often the scienter element of a particular crime, the requisite knowledge can be imputed to the corporation based on the collective knowledge of the directors and officers. More... |
| Limited Liability Company Basics |
| The limited liability company form of doing business combines some of the best features of the corporate and partnership forms of doing business. Generally, members of a limited liability company enjoy protection against individual liability enjoyed by shareholders of a corporation. At the same time, members of a limited liability company are taxed only once on income to the business when that income is passed through to the members. More... |
| Independent Director Requirements for Nasdaq Listed Companies |
| The Nasdaq Stock Exchange, Inc., has adopted Rule 4350(c)(1), which requires that every company listed on Nasdaq must have independent directors as the majority of the company's board of directors. Each listed company must publicly disclose which of its directors are considered independent by identifying the independent directors in the company's annual meeting proxy statement or in the company's annual report on Securities and Exchange Commission Form 10-K. More... |
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