VIEW WEBINAR

Co-sponsored by Young Conaway, MoFo

Please note: Guests must be fully vaccinated to be in the building and we request that you refrain from attending the event if you are feeling under the weather.

For those unable to attend this session in person, there is a live stream option via Zoom. Please register for the live stream option here. Please note that we will not be able to take questions during the session from the virtual audience. Please direct any questions ahead of the session to: nancy@svdx.org.

Whether you serve on a private or a public board, the litigation landscape is changing. SVDX is pleased to host a session with experts on Delaware law who will bring board members up to speed on Delaware fiduciary duties, to include case studies and best practices in recent months. The headline news you read today isn’t just interesting (for example, the Twitter board and the Elon Musk agreement); it could be a sign of times to come. Additionally, merger disputes, special committees, and general board oversight have cropped up as areas board directors need to pay closer attention to. The ever-changing nature of business practices, social responsibility, and economic challenges requires directors to be more nimble and educated than ever before. Being well-advised and properly informed are just two ways that directors can be sure they are satisfying their fiduciary obligations. Join us for an informative discussion around Delaware law updates and then stay for a networking and general reception afterwards.

SPEAKERS

Colin Davis

Colin B. Davis is a Partner in the Orange County office of Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher where he practices in the firm’s Litigation Department. Mr. Davis’s practice focuses on complex business and commercial litigation, with an emphasis on merger and acquisition and securities litigation.  Mr. Davis represents public and private companies and their officers and directors in stockholder actions and related litigation in both state and federal courts.  Prior to joining Gibson Dunn, Mr. Davis served as a law clerk to The Honorable Janis L. Sammartino of the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of California.

Doru Gavril

Doru Gavril is a Partner at Freshfields. Doru provides innovative, thoughtful solutions to defendants across the full range of shareholder or securities disputes. Doru’s practice often involves high-stakes issues, including the most pressing topics of the moment: ESG disclosures, pandemic-related disclosures, workplace culture, and SPAC-related lawsuits. He frequently litigates in multiple forums simultaneously, across federal and state courts and the Court of Chancery of the State of Delaware.

Linda Grais

Linda S. Grais is an Independent Board Director for biopharma companies of PRA Health Sciences, Corvus Pharma, Zosano Pharma, and Arca Biopharma. She was the President and CEO of Ocera Therapeutics and she received her B.A. from Yale University, magna cum laude, and Phi Beta Kappa, an M.D. from Yale Medical School and a J.D. from Stanford Law School.

Elena Norman

Elena Norman is a partner at Young Conaway. The desire and ability to persuade drives Elena’s approach to advocacy — her oral presentations, her writing, her editing, her work as an expert witness on Delaware law, her work with testifying experts, and especially her frequent appearances before the Delaware Court of Chancery. Clients and co-counsel understand that Elena’s persuasiveness stems from her creativity, her deep understanding of Delaware corporate law, her deep immersion into the facts of a case, and from her sharp command of the law and facts in briefs and in the courtroom.  Having lived and worked in other cultures — as a commercial lawyer in Japan, a human rights lawyer in Russia, and a student in England — Elena brings a wide range of perspectives to her practice. Clients and co-counsel credit her unusually broad background with honing her abilities as a creative and strategic thinker, a clear communicator, a team leader, and an astute reader of the courts and adversaries she seeks to persuade.

Erik Olson

Erik Olson is a Partner at Morrison & Foerster. His practice focuses on the litigation of securities, corporate governance, and intellectual property disputes, with particular emphasis on clients in the biotechnology, medical device, telecommunications, and high-technology industries.  Erik regularly represents executives, directors, and companies in suits arising from actual or potential mergers, acquisitions, and other strategic transactions. Between 2008 and 2016, Erik has directed teams that defeated preliminary injunction motions, obtained dismissals, or favorably resolved more than twenty cases involving challenges by shareholders to public merger transactions. He is one of the primary authors of the Association of Corporate Counsel’s “White Paper” on managing class action merger litigation. Erik currently serves as a member of Morrison & Foerster’s board of directors and serves as Treasurer for the Law Foundation of Silicon Valley, the largest pro bono service provider in Santa Clara County (San Jose, California).

F. Daniel Siciliano, moderator

Dan Siciliano is a successful technology CEO-founder and entrepreneur, as well as Vice Chair of the board of the Federal Home Loan Bank of San Francisco, and a recognized expert in corporate strategy and governance, capital financial markets, executive compensation, and technological disruption (including fintech, AI and cybersecurity). He is currently Chairman of SVDX, board member of the Latino Corporate Directors Education Foundation, chair-elect of the Council of Federal Home Loan Banks, and a fellow at Stanford University.