Rafael Zahralddin Pens ABA Article on Delaware Chancery Court Decision in BuzzFeed Employee Stock Options Suit

Wilmington, Del. (January 20, 2023) - Wilmington Partner Rafael X. Zahralddin, Contributing Editor of ABA's Business Law Today, recently penned an article for the publication titled “BuzzFeed Employee Suit Governed by Corporate Charter, Not Arbitration Clause.” The article discusses a Delaware Chancery Court decision that rejected an arbitration clause due to a contrary corporate charter provision in the ongoing BuzzFeed, Inc. employee stock options suit.

Mr. Zahralddin begins the article by explaining that the Delaware Court of Chancery recently denied a motion to dismiss filed by Buzzfeed employees in the company’s suit concerning stock conversions. The article goes on to describe that employees previously filed an arbitration demand – based upon a mandatory arbitration clause in their employment agreements – alleging various claims against Buzzfeed related to the company’s 2021 special purpose acquisition company (SPAC) transaction. 

In the article, Mr. Zahralddin explains that the company subsequently filed suit in the Delaware Court of Chancery seeking an injunction against the arbitration and a declaration that the forum selection clause in the company’s charter controlled. Next, Mr. Zahralddin reviews the Chancery Court’s analysis of the parties’ arguments, explaining that the court held that because certain Buzzfeed directors "were not signatories to the employment agreements, they were not bound by the arbitration provision.”

Mr. Zahralddin is a member of Lewis Brisbois’ Corporate, Bankruptcy, Complex Business & Commercial Litigation, Digital Asset, and Ukraine Conflict Response Practices. He is a skilled business lawyer and litigator with significant experience advising clients in corporate and commercial litigation, insolvency, distressed M&A, compliance, corporate law and entity formation, corporate governance, commercial transactions, cyber law, regulatory actions, and cross-border issues. 

Read Mr. Zahralddin’s Business Law Today article here. Mr. Zahralddin’s colleague, Wilmington Partner Sean M. Brennecke, also recently authored an article for Business Law Today. Both articles appeared in the publication’s December 2022 issue.