Legal & Litigation Risk · SECTION 5

Section 5 of 12

The litigation-risk migration matrix

Long-form source as of 2026-08-10

Risk migrates; it does not disappear. The matrix below maps eight risk vectors from the Delaware baseline to the Texas / Nevada change, names the counsel action each requires, and rates the risk shift. The hardest cases — fiduciary standard, derivative access, and controller transactions — all carry High shifts. Forum and federal-claims posture shift Low, because Salzberg and the federal anti-waiver rules preserve a federal-securities lane that state-law forum clauses cannot reach.

Figure 5

Litigation-risk migration matrix — Delaware to Texas / Nevada, eight risk vectors.

Risk migrates; it does not disappear. Counsel action and risk-shift rating are first-order checks at the start of every engagement.

Risk vector Delaware baseline TX / NV change Counsel action Shift Forum Court of Chancery / Del. Supreme Court Tex. Business Court (post-H.B. 19 / H.B. 40) or Nev. district court Confirm forum bylaw + claim-accrual date Mod Fiduciary standard Common-law BJR; entire fairness; enhanced scrutiny (Revlon / Unocal / Blasius) Codified BJR (TBOC § 21.419 listed/ opt-in; NRS § 78.138(3),(7)) Is claim statute-covered? Is statute elective? High Derivative access DGCL § 327 contemp.; no ownership threshold TBOC § 21.552 elected threshold (≤ 3%) + § 21.553 universal demand Confirm bylaw threshold + holder aggregation High Books & records Post-SB 21 DGCL § 220: enumerated categories + compelling-need for extras TBOC § 21.218 narrowed (no emails / texts unless effectuating action) Pre-effective-date § 220 strategy Mod Controller transactions Post-SB 21 DGCL § 144 safe harbors + MFW / entire- fairness gap-filling TX / NV mapping unsettled (no MFW-equivalent; no § 144 analog) Do not assume MFW or § 144 maps automatically High Appraisal DGCL § 262 broad access; post-Dell / Aruba deal-price-with-synergy Transaction-form dependent; NRS § 92A.380 market-out Confirm transaction form before advising Mod Forum — federal claims Salzberg permits Securities Act FFPs (internal-affairs scope) State forum clauses may not control federal securities claims Treat internal-affairs + federal-securities forums separately Low D&O insurance Established Delaware market pricing TX / NV repricing not yet documented in published market data Pre / post policy review; do not assume repricing absent data Low

Sources: TBOC §§ 2.115, 2.116; § 7.001; §§ 21.218, 21.401, 21.419, 21.552, 21.553; NRS §§ 78.138, 78.7502; NRS § 92A.380; DGCL §§ 102(b)(7), 144 (post-SB 21), 220, 251, 262, 266, 327; Salzberg v. Sciabacucchi, 227 A.3d 102 (Del. 2020).

Reading the shift column

High shifts. The fiduciary-standard, derivative-access, and controller-transaction vectors all carry High shifts because the statutory regime is materially different and Texas / Nevada appellate authority is thin. Counsel cannot rely on Delaware reasoning to predict outcomes on the same facts in either destination state. The codified BJR (TBOC § 21.419(c) for listed corporations; NRS § 78.138(3), (7) by default) restructures the pleading-stage analysis; the elective § 21.552(a)(3) threshold restructures derivative standing where adopted; and the absence of an MFW-equivalent procedural cleansing protocol restructures controller-transaction defense.

Moderate shifts. Forum, books-and-records, and appraisal shift Moderate. The Business Court is statutorily new and equity remedies are governed by ordinary Texas equity practice rather than Chancery’s specialized procedures; § 21.218 narrows inspection of electronic records but the post-SB-21 DGCL § 220 rewrite shrank the gap meaningfully; appraisal is transaction-form dependent and counsel must confirm structure before advising. None of these requires an entirely new analytical framework.

Low shifts. Federal-claims forum and D&O insurance shift Low. Salzberg v. Sciabacucchi validates Securities Act federal-forum provisions within their internal-affairs scope; federal anti-waiver rules under Securities Act § 14, 15 U.S.C. § 77n and Exchange Act § 29(a), 15 U.S.C. § 78cc(a) preserve federal substantive rights for federal-securities claims, and state-law forum bylaws do not override them (the Exchange Act jurisdiction provision is at § 27, 15 U.S.C. § 78aa; Securities Act § 28, 15 U.S.C. § 77z-3, is exemptive authority, not anti-waiver). On D&O insurance, the published market data does not yet support a general claim of systematic TX/NV repricing — pricing differentials may exist at the policy level, but neither Aon, Marsh, Willis Towers Watson, nor Woodruff Sawyer has published a sector-wide repricing dataset. Counsel should review the specific policy, not assume the market.

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