Publications

02 Sep 2010
What Do You Think?

How Transparent Should Boards Be?

will be accompanied by a "quitclaim" letter settling the case with an agreement that the CEO will make no further statement about the matter. This group argues that if the CEO is fired for cause, it will almost certainly result in a View Details

Keywords: by Jim Heskett

January 1994 (Revised April 1994)
Case

EMC Corporation: Response to Shareholder Litigation (B)

By: Josh Lerner

Reports EMC's decision concerning the second shareholder class-action suit and its implications. Legislative efforts to reform securities litigation are also discussed. View Details

Keywords: Decisions; Lawsuits and Litigation; Going Public; Policy; Management Teams; Business and Shareholder Relations; Technology Industry; United States

January 2008 (Revised August 2008)
Case

AT&T v. Microsoft (A): IP Litigation Strategy

By: Willy Shih

This case examines a hard fought litigation over a patent that originated at Bell Labs. It illustrates the challenges that technology companies face today innovating in a complex intellectual property environment in fields where there is a high amount of... View Details

Keywords: Technological Innovation; Patents; Lawsuits and Litigation; Conflict and Resolution; Strategy; Technology Industry

January 1998
Case

Meinhard v. Salmon: Court of Appeals of New York (1928)

By: Henry B. Reiling

Meinhard and Salmon were joint venturers who had a 20-year lease on the Hotel Bristol in New York City. Salmon was the managing party. Four months before the lease was to end, the owner approached Salmon and offered to lease all the property, of which the Bristol was... View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Joint Ventures; Partners and Partnerships; Decisions; Asset Pricing; Leasing; New York (city, NY)

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September 2009 (Revised August 2011)
Case

Urban Decay: A Great Idea

By: Lena G. Goldberg

Casual discussions of ideas for a new business can have unintended legal consequences and expectations about founder status and ownership shares may diverge widely. Using facts from a litigated case, the concept of inadvertent formation of a partnership is explored. View Details

Keywords: Business Startups; Spoken Communication; Lawsuits and Litigation; Ownership Stake; Partners and Partnerships

March 2019
Supplement

Gender and Free Speech at Google (B)

By: Nien-hê Hsieh and Sarah Mehta

In November 2018, 20,000 Google employees participated in a walkout to protest the company’s decision to grant a $90 million exit package to a former executive accused of sexual misconduct. The case explores organizers’ demands and asks how the company’s senior leaders... View Details

Keywords: Free Speech; Ethnicity; Gender; Race; Employees; Employee Relationship Management; Recruitment; Labor; Employment; Lawsuits and Litigation; Technology Industry; United States; California

January 2002
Case

Price-Fixing Vignettes

By: Guhan Subramanian and Michelle Kalka

This case escribes the antitrust prosecutions in the United States and abroad of the international bulk vitamins cartel. Both the civil and criminal fines were historically high, and it was the first time the United States prosecuted foreign nationals for U.S. criminal... View Details

Keywords: Price; Lawsuits and Litigation; Governance Compliance; Auctions; Laws and Statutes; Monopoly; Globalized Markets and Industries; Retail Industry; Health Industry; United States

September 2002 (Revised May 2003)
Case

X-IT and Kidde (A)

By: Constance E. Bagley and David Lane

Involves a start-up, X-IT Products LLC, whose founders had designed an innovative, lightweight, and easy-to-use--yet strong--escape ladder. After X-IT had filed a patent application for the ladder in the United States, X-IT was approached by Kidde PLC, one of the... View Details

Keywords: Patents; Negotiation Process; Agreements and Arrangements; Ethics; Lawsuits and Litigation; Business Startups; Consumer Products Industry

19 Jan 2011
Research & Ideas

Activist Board Members Increase Firm’s Market Value

two organizations jointly filed a lawsuit against the SEC, arguing that the rule violated the Administrative Procedure Act and that the SEC failed to properly assess the rule's effects on "efficiency, competition and capital... View Details

Keywords: by Carmen Nobel

July 1999 (Revised October 2001)
Case

Quickturn Design Systems, Inc. (D)

By: Jay W. Lorsch and Katharina Pick

Supplements the (A) case. View Details

Keywords: Patents; Governing and Advisory Boards; Behavior; Lawsuits and Litigation; Organizations; Acquisition; Corporate Governance; Service Industry

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March 2008 (Revised June 2012)
Background Note

ADR Choices

By: Michael Wheeler, James Sebenius and Marjorie Aaron

Six different business disputes, all in the shadow of pending litigation, are described. Students are asked to recommend the appropriate method of dispute resolution (mediation, arbitration, mini-trial, etc.) for each one, depending on the circumstances, especially to... View Details

Keywords: Lawsuits and Litigation; Managerial Roles; Negotiation; Agreements and Arrangements; Conflict Management

23 Dec 2013
Research & Ideas

Just How Independent are ‘Independent’ Directors?

unique case, with most of its companies owned by either the state or large families, and lacking checks and balances such as shareholder voting and class action lawsuits that, in the United States and Europe, can help control companies'... View Details

Keywords: by Michael Blanding

07 Mar 2000
Research & Ideas

Putting Health Care Consumers in the Driver’s Seat

employees, rapidly rising health-care costs, and the likely loss of existing protection against lawsuits for pain and suffering from medical events. She then disclosed the results of a 1999 KPMG survey of CEOs and consumers about... View Details

Keywords: by Staff; Health

November 2017
Case

Third Point Paints a Target on Sotheby's

By: Lena G. Goldberg

When faced with the increasing accumulation of its stock by activist investors led by Daniel Loeb’s Third Point LLC and the activists’ stated objective to replace management and at least some Sotheby’s Board members, Sotheby’s, the world’s oldest auction house,... View Details

Keywords: Fiduciary Duties; Activists; Activist Investors; Rights Plan; Poison Pills; Takeover Defenses; Corporate Governance; Laws and Statutes; Lawsuits and Litigation; Ownership Stake; Value Creation; Crisis Management