Page 8 - Delaware Lawyer - Issue 1 - 2024

FEATURE
the Court of Chancery
The Hon. Collins J. Seitz, Jr.
Brown and
Delawareans who laid the groundwork for segregation’s end
In March, a thousand bankers and lawyers descended on New Orleans for the 2024 Tulane Corporate Law Conference. For two days, the attendees discussed Delaware corporate law and recent Court of Chancery decisions. Although debate was contentious at times, everyone recognized the Court of Chancery’s place in history as the worldwide leader in complex corporate dispute resolution.
6 DELAWARE LAWYER ISSUE 1 2024
Prominent among those that made the Court of Chancery’s reputation was Chancellor Collins J. Seitz. From 1946 to 1966, he made his mark decid- ing some of the earliest iconic corporate disputes — contests for control in Ring- ling v. Ringling Bros-Barnum & Bailey Combined Shows and Campbell v. Loew’s Inc., and the longest trial in Delaware
corporate law history, Bata v. Hill, where he presided over the fate of the Bata Shoe Company. As Richard Kluger de- scribed Chancellor Seitz in his book Sim- ple Justice, he was “pre-eminent among state judges” as the “consummate arbiter of corporate law” and sought after as a judge “capable of untangling particularly labyrinthine disputes.”