A Tale of Two Business Courts

Paul J. Lockwood is a partner in the Litigation Department of Skadde, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP in Wilmington, Del., where he defends corporations, their directors or their advisers in derivative and class action lawsuits relating to accounting issues, mortgage-backed securities, proxy contests, public offerings, and mergers and acquisitions. He also has litigated disputes concerning bond indentures, partnerships, joint ventures, trusts and LLCs.

A few of the cases that Mr. Lockwood has participated in have included defending UBS AG and its affiliates in a securities class action and two derivative suits in Puerto Rico arising out of underwriting, financial advisory and broker-dealer services; defending UBS AG in litigation in federal court in New York relating to mortgage-backed securities; defending Bank of America in shareholder derivative suits arising out of its foreclosure practices; defending Horizon Lines, Inc. in securities class action and derivative suits in Delaware and North Carolina arising out of antitrust allegations; representing Deloitte LLP in partnership disputes in Delaware; defending Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Merrill Lynch in securities litigation relating to auction rate securities; defending Merrill Lynch in litigation arising out of its acquisition by Bank of America; and defending Merrill Lynch in lawsuits arising out of Merrill Lynch’s strategic investment in the Philadelphia Stock Exchange, Inc., and lawsuits arising out the merger between Merrill Lynch and Bank of America Corp. Mr. Lockwood also has overseen the judicial dissolution of numerous Delaware corporations through proceedings in the Delaware Court of Chancery.

In addition, he frequently provides advice on issues of corporate governance, federal securities laws and Delaware corporation law. Mr. Lockwood was selected for inclusion in Chambers USA: America’s Leading Lawyers for Business in 2015 and 2016. He also repeatedly has been listed in The Best Lawyers in America.

Mr. Lockwood received his B.S. from Cornell University in 1990 and his J.D. summa cum laude from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 1994, where he was elected to the Order of the Coif and won the William M. Maurer Award for Criminal Law.

Hon. Joseph R. Slights III is a Vice Chancellor of the Court of Chancery in Wilmington, Del., sworn in on March 28, 2016. Before his appointment, he was a partner in the Delaware law firm of Morris James LLP, where he practiced corporate and business litigation and chaired the firm’s Alternative Dispute Resolution practice group.

Before that, he served a 12-year term as a judge on the Superior Court of Delaware, where, among other assignments, he was instrumental in forming the court’s Complex Commercial Litigation Division.

Prior to his appointment to the Superior Court, Vice Chancellor Slights worked as a litigator in the Delaware law firms Sidney Balick PA and Richards, Layton & Finger PA. He is a member of the American Law Institute, the American Bar Association and the Delaware Bar Association, and he is a Fellow of the American Bar Foundation and a past-president of the Richard S. Rodney Inn of Court.

Vice Chancellor Slights received his B.S. in political science from James Madison University in 1985 and his J.D. from Washington & Lee University School of Law in 1988.

Hon. Brendan L. Shannon is the Chief Judge of the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the District of Delaware in Wilmington, appointed as judge in 2006. He manages a full chapter 11 docket and also handles all chapter 13 consumer bankruptcy cases filed in Delaware. In 2015, Chief Judge Shannon was appointed by Chief Justice John G. Roberts to serve on the Committee on the Administration of the Bankruptcy System, which advises the Judicial Conference of the United States on matters relating to consumer and corporate insolvency, and bankruptcy policy.

Prior to his appointment to the bench, he was a partner with Young Conaway Stargatt & Taylor, LLP in Wilmington, where he specialized in representing large corporate debtors and official committees in chapter 11 cases. Chief Judge Shannon is a member of the Delaware and American Bar Associations, ABI and the Rodney Inns of Court, and is also a member of the board of directors of the Delaware Council on Economic Education. He is also an adjunct professor of law in the LL.M. in Bankruptcy program at St. John’s University School of Law and at Widener School of Law in Delaware, and is a member of the National Bankruptcy Conference and serves on the board of editors of Collier on Bankruptcy, the advisory board for the ABI Law Review, and the editorial board of the American Bankruptcy Law Journal.

Chief Judge Shannon received his undergraduate degree from Princeton University and his J.D. from the Marshall-Wythe School of Law at the College of William and Mary.

Hon. Kent A. Jordan is a U.S. Circuit Court Judge for the Third Circuit Court of Appeals in Wilmongton, Del., appointed in 2006. Prior to this appointment, he was a U.S. District Judge for the District of Delaware from 2002-06. From 1984 to 1985, Judge Jordan was a law clerk for Hon. James L. Latchum, a judge on the district court where Judge Jordan later served. He is a former Assistant U.S. Attorney for the District of Delaware, and from 1991-92 was chief of the Civil Division in that office.

Prior to taking the bench, Judge Jordan served as an officer and as a member of the boards of directors of privately held businesses, and was a partner in a Wilmington, Del., law firm with a practice focused on intellectual property, corporate and commercial litigation. He is an adjunct professor of law at the University of Pennsylvania and Vanderbilt University, and is a member of the American Law Institute. He also serves as an officer and trustee of American Inns of Court Foundation.

Judge Jordan received his B.A. in economics in 1981 from Brigham Young University and his J.D. in 1984 from Georgetown University, where he was an articles editor for the Georgetown Law Journal.