OPINION
Delaware Chancery Court Vice Chancellor Laster Commenting Publicly on an Active Court Case? Sounds Like Everyday Potential Corruption That We Worry About in Delaware!
Dear Friends,
I’ve become a star on LinkedIn these last few months, folks. Posting regularly and getting emails from LinkedIn every week telling me how well my Coastal Network columns are doing on LinkedIn, is indeed flattering. Recently, I noticed Travis Laster posting on LinkedIn and I’ve been reading those posts.
Travis Laster, who is Vice Chancellor of the Delaware Court of Chancery, but claims to not be posting as Vice Chancellor Laster from the Delaware Chancery Court, is letting the world see a glimpse of the boundless concerns about the potential corruption that resides within his workplace. That’s how I see it, folks!
For example, although the TransPerfect case remains active in his Court and judges take a solemn oath to not “…make public comment on the merits of a matter pending in any court,” Mr. Laster made his opinion public on the growing movement to bring transparency to Delaware’s Courts.
Shocking to none of our readers, the Vice Chancellor discredits the disdain and mistrust that everyday Delawareans feel towards our Court system that is run by the same elitist lawyers and judges that spin round and round through the revolving metaphorical door and is seemingly propped up by the Delaware Bar Association who collects fees and funds from the financial success of these same individuals.
From the onset of the case, it’s clear to me that former Chancellor Bouchard possibly saw a cash cow for his former employer Skadden Arps and his former colleague Robert Pincus. Folks, as I see it, like most judges who will join the firms that will try cases in front of their former colleagues on the bench, he saw the reputation he could script for his resume to return to litigating. I truly believe with ego and money on the docket, there’s no chance for justice.
Even though Supreme Court Justice Valihura bravely dissented on the forced sale that Bouchard secured, in my view, folks, the fix was in and there was money to be made by Bouchard’s cronies to the tune of $50 million. Justice Valihura stated in her dissent that, “…the chancellor did not consider the possibility of appointing a custodian for a period of time or expanding the board to include independent directors,” in her 36-page dissent. “if these less drastic remedies failed, the custodian could petition the court for more drastic relief… But absent consent, however, I do not believe a forced sale is a statutorily authorized option.”
Not only has Chancellor Kathaleen McCormick continued Bouchard’s overreaching precedent, in my view, Vice Chancellor Laster is picking up the baton to dismiss the real concerns of those to whom they are supposed to serve, and is publicly pushing a campaign to magically misdirect the concerns. By attacking the founder of the movement (TransPerfect leadership and employees), Laster and the Delaware State Bar Association, don’t have to address what I’ve been seeing as the growing contempt for what many think is a form of corruption. Many Lawyers in Delaware jokingly call Delaware’s once respected Equity Court, “The Court of Inequity.”
Folks, we’ve seen this game before… pour more mud in the murky waters so that no one can swim toward the light. Just recently, the “astroturf” group Citizens for Judicial Fairness, as claimed by the Bar Association and repeated by Vice Chancellor Laster, led a rally to call on the Governor to appoint a diverse Chancellor to the all-white Court. This rally was led by long-time Delaware activist Keandra McDole and had every layer of Delaware’s elected officials speak at the event. From a City Council member to a Mayoral Candidate to the State Delegation to two candidates for Governor, the group called on transparency and diversity in the Court System that Laster defends to the “thank you’s”, “yes’s” and “let’s go’s” of the crowd.
Enough said about this for now. Keep your feedback coming in on this folks, and share whether you believe that sitting judges should be dismissing genuine constituent calls for a recall on the very power Laster is using here to disobey the law or not!
Respectfully Yours,
JUDSON Bennett-Coastal Network
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