Lisa Stark is a partner in the firm’s Wilmington office. Lisa has over 15 years of corporate experience in such areas as mergers and acquisitions, strategic investments, initial public offerings, proxy contests, and hostile takeovers. She also has experience advising private and public companies and their boards of directors on corporate governance matters. Lisa also advises private equity and venture capital funds in connection with their investments in Delaware corporations.
Lisa began her career as a corporate litigator and worked on some of the most prominent deal-related cases of the past two decades including:
- In re Siliconix Inc. Shareholders Litigation, No. Civ. A. 18700, (Del. Ch. June 19, 2001)
- Loventhal v. Hilton Hotels Corp., C.A. No. 17803 (Sept. 27, 2000)
- Harrah's Entm't, Inc. v. JCC Holding Co., 802 A.2d 294 (Del. Ch. 2002)
- Benchmark Capital Partners IV L.P. v. Vague, C. A. No. 1979 (Del. Ch. July 15, 2002)
- Goldman v. Isaacs, No. C.A. No. 18732 (Del. Ch. Dec. 17, 2001)
- Hollinger Int'l, Inc. v. Black, 844 A.2d 1022 (Del. Ch.), judgment entered, (Del. Ch. 2004), aff'd, 872 A.2d 559 (Del. 2005).
She continues to provide advice and litigate in connection with deal-related litigation.
Lisa is very active in the Business Law Section of the American Bar Association. In addition to being the content director and Jurisprudence Subcommittee co-chair for the Private Equity and Venture Capital Committee, she is a Delaware Court liaison for the Mergers and Acquisitions Committee. Lisa is also vice-chair of the Editorial Board of Business Law Today, the Business Law Section’s monthly business law publication. She also sits on the Business Law Section’s Marketing Board.
Prior to joining the firm, Lisa was a corporate partner at another Wilmington, Delaware law firm.
- Recognized in The Best Lawyers in America® 2023 for work in Corporate Governance Law
- Service to Children Award for 10 years of Pro Bono Work (State of Delaware) (2013)
- Fellow, American Bar Foundation (2017-current)
- Co-Chair, Private Equity and Venture Capital Jurisprudence Subcommittee, American Bar Association
- Past Editor-in-Chief, Preferred Returns, an ABA publication
- Vice Editor-in-Chief, Business Law Today, an ABA publication
- Member, Marketing Board, Business Law Section, American Bar Association
- Delaware State Bar Association
- Attorney Guardian Ad Litem, Delaware’s Office of the Child Advocate
- Delaware Court Liaison, Mergers and Acquisitions Committee
- Recent Changes in Pennsylvania and Delaware Law Affecting Corporations, LLCs and Other Entities, K&L Gates Corporate Practice Speaker Series, 2016
- Negotiating Contractual Indemnity in M&A Deals: Transactional and Litigation Considerations, Strafford Publications webinar, 2015 and 2017
- Appraisal Rights: A Changing New World, Panelist, Deallawyers.com webcast, 2014
- Joint Ventures: Critical Issues, Panelist, Inter-Pacific Bar Association, Vancouver, BC, 2014
- Drafting Shareholder Agreements for Private Equity M&A Deals, Panelist, Strafford Publications webinar, 2015 and 2018
- Key Issues in Corporate Transactions: Lessons Learned from Select Delaware Cases, University of Texas School of Law's 29th Annual Technology Law Conference, 2016
- Business Formation: Start to Finish, National Bar Institute, Wilmington, DE, 2018
- Drafting Shareholder Agreements for Venture Capital Investments, Strafford Publications webinar, 2018
- Shareholder Meetings & Public Companies: Proxy Materials, Shareholder Proposals, Governance Best Practices, Strafford Publications webinar, 2018
- Annual Survey of Judicial Developments Pertaining to Private Equity and Venture Capital, ABA Business Law Section Annual Meeting, 2018
- “Annual Survey of Judicial Developments Pertaining to Private Equity and Venture Capital,” The Business Lawyer, January 2019
- “Author Spotlight: Lisa Stark Interviews Jessica Pearlman on M&A Market Trends,” Business Law Today, November 2018
- “Removing Directors in Private Companies by Written Consent,” Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance and Financial Regulation, 30 April 2018
- "Announcing the ABA’s 2017 Private Target Mergers & Acquisitions Deal Points Study," Business Law Today, January 2018
- “A Fully Informed and Disinterested Stockholder Vote Cleanses Transactions Tainted by Board Conflicts,” ABA Business Law Today, 23 March 2017
- “Chancery Deals A Blow To Supermajority Bylaw Provisions,” Law360, 10 February 2017
- “Five 2015 Private Company M&A Cases for the Deal Lawyers’ Playbook,” Business Law Today, November 2015
- “Annual Survey of Judicial Developments Pertaining to Venture Capital,” Editor and co-author, Business Lawyer, Fall 2015 (subscription required to access link)
- “Lessons On Dueling 'Exclusive Remedy' Clauses In M&A,” Law360, 14 May 2015
- “Disparate Treatment of Bidders in M&A Transactions: Protecting Directors and Officers from Liability after Chen v. Howard-Anderson,” Deal Points, Vol. XIX, Issue 3, 2014
- Contributor, “Annual Survey Pertaining to Judicial Developments in Venture Capital,” Preferred Returns, 2014
- “Side-Stepping Fiduciary Issues in Negotiating Exit Strategies for Preferred Stock Investments after Trados,” Business Law Today, 2013
- “BNA Insights: The Board’s Role in Compliance and Risk Management: Lessons from Recent Decisions Revisiting Caremark and its progeny,” 15 Corporate Governance Report, Bloomberg/BNA 11, at 32, 2012
- “Do Stockholders Have a Say on Pay in Delaware? Lessons from Recent Executive Compensation Cases,” Business Law Today, 2012
- Contributor, “The Corporate Governance Review,” 3rd. ed., 2012
- Contributor, “ABA Handbook for the Conduct of Meetings of Shareholders,” 2nd ed., 2010
- “As the Disney Trial Gets Underway, Two Recent Delaware Cases May Provide a Glimpse of the Outcome,” 13 Corporate Governance Advisor 20, January/February 2005
- “The Seven Deadly Sins of Venture Financing Legal Documents,” 14 Venture Capital Review 25, Winter 2004-2005
