Daniel V. Folt maintains a national corporate and commercial litigation practice, including trial and appellate work, concentrating on corporate, securities and partnership matters. Mr. Folt represents clients in litigation involving public and closely held corporations and corporate officers, directors and shareholders, and regularly appears before the Delaware Court of Chancery and U.S. District Court. His numerous representations include litigation involving management, corporate control and governance issues, books and records actions, deadlocks, fiduciary duty claims, shareholder appraisal rights, contract disputes, employment agreements, covenants not to compete, financial transactions, and insurance coverage disputes. In addition, Mr. Folt represents partnerships, partners and sole proprietors, as well as limited liability companies and their members in similar types of commercial litigation. In the course of these representations, Mr. Folt regularly provides opinions and counsel concerning the structure and impact of various transactions and decisions under the Delaware General Corporation Law.

Mr. Folt also handles several types of complex commercial cases in state and federal courts both inside and outside of Delaware. These cases include disputes involving the Uniform Commercial Code, contracts, business dissolutions, leveraged buyouts, disclosure claims, deceptive trade practices, unfair competition, patent infringement, civil RICO, white collar crime, antitrust actions, fee disputes, adversary claims in bankruptcy, construction disputes and other matters. Mr. Folt has handled more than 70 civil, criminal and administrative trials and, as an alternative to trial, he routinely prosecutes and defends declaratory judgments, preliminary injunctions, alternative dispute resolutions, arbitrations, mini-trials and mediation proceedings.

A member of the Delaware, Philadelphia and American bar associations, Mr. Folt is admitted to practice before the state courts of Delaware and Pennsylvania. He is active within the ABA as a member of the Trial Practice, Evidence and Commercial Litigation committees. Mr. Folt also has been appointed as a member of both the Delaware CJA Blue Ribbon and Domestic Violence Coordinating Project panels. In addition, he served two years as a special prosecutor for the Delaware Department of Justice.

Mr. Folt is a 1992 graduate of the University of the Pacific McGeorge School of Law, a graduate of California State University, where he received his master's degree, and a graduate of the University of Great Falls. He also served a judicial clerkship to the Honorable Andrew G.T. Moore II of the Delaware Supreme Court.

The listing of areas of practice in the foregoing profile does not represent official certification as a specialist in those areas.

Areas Of Practice

Securities and Antitrust Litigation
Corporate and Partnership Litigation
Intellectual Property Litigation
Construction Litigation
Civil RICO and White Collar Crime
Complex Commercial Litigation
Broker-Dealer Litigation
Insurance Bad Faith

Representative Matters

Corporation and Partnership Litigation. Mr. Folt represented the CEO, CFO and COO of a publicly-traded and internationally-based pharmaceutical company in a successful battle over control of the board of directors, the managing director of a deadlocked Delaware Limited Liability Company in an action to compel liquidation of the company, and the general partner of several Pennsylvania, Texas and Maryland partnerships in an action defending claims based upon breach of fiduciary duty. Mr. Folt successfully represented the CEO of a major energy company in a battle for control of that company in litigation arising both in Delaware and Texas, and he also won early dismissal of an action brought against directors of a Delaware real estate partnership on novel statutory grounds. Mr. Folt has successfully represented clients in anti-trust litigation involving the gray-market sale of commercial telephone equipment, the implementation of municipal waste disposal plans, and allegations of price fixing among orthopedic surgeons.
Securities Litigation. Mr. Folt successfully won dismissal of an action brought under Rule 10b-5 in connection with the sale of certain delinquent residential mortgage loans and real estate obtained through foreclosures. Mr. Folt regularly represents broker-dealers in regulatory .enforcement and civil actions based upon various breaches of federal and state securities laws. In a recent representation, Mr. Folt won an immediate dismissal with prejudice of a federal court action based upon claims of unsuitability and unauthorized trading. Mr. Folt also recently advised the board of directors of a corporate shareholder concerning various proxy disclosure issues effecting control of an international beverage producer, and he successfully represented a national video chain in defense of a shareholder action alleging securities violations in the context of a proposed merger.
Intellectual Property Litigation. Mr. Folt represented a major credit card provider in litigation concerning the right to use the mark "Platinum" in connection with a premium credit card solicitation. He has also advised and represented clients in litigation and business negotiations concerning the patents for commercial telephone equipment, industrial filter design, specialized hydraulic lifts, software programs involving web-based rental real estate search engines, software programs used in industrial applications to monitor and provide reporting on air, water, and solid waste emissions, software and systems integration services for the food service industry; and in patent litigation concerning the devices used to monitor the structural integrity of suspension bridges.
Construction Litigation. Mr. Folt won early dismissal of an action brought against a Norwegian company by a general contractor to recover for substantial overcharges incurred during construction of a power station in Alberta, Canada. He also successfully represented a large national water bottling company in defense of an action brought to recover excessive expenses incurred in the construction of its manufacturing facility.
Civil RICO and White-Collar Crime. Mr. Folt, an active member of the Criminal Justice Act panel for the District of Delaware, has represented defendants in such diverse areas as bank fraud and ocean dumping prosecutions. Mr. Folt also has defended Civil Rico claims in software litigation and prosecuted those claims in insurance fraud litigation.
Complex Commercial Litigation. Mr. Folt recently won an $8 million dollar verdict in federal court for a former CEO of a major electronics firm who had been hired by an investment banking firm to consult on retail transactions in exchange for options promised but never paid. He also won dismissal of $35 million worth of Y2K-related claims in an action brought by an international computer company against its insurers. Mr. Folt has represented major companies in connection with many multi-million dollar disputes including, among others, a post-sale dispute between health companies over nondisclosure of HCFA payments, a dispute between an international cosmetic company and its former CEO for golden parachute payments, and a battle between an NHL team and a group of investors over control of a minor league affiliate. Mr. Folt was one of the trial attorneys who successfully represented the State of Delaware in landmark desegregation litigation, ultimately winning a finding of unitary status that restored local control over education policy. He has also successfully represented other governmental agencies in connection with various Commerce Clause, contract, and other state-law based actions. Mr. Folt regularly represents companies who have been sued because they are incorporated in Delaware, and has achieved successful outcomes in many UCC, franchise, and contract-related settings.

Professional Activities

American Bar Association
- Member, Trial Practice, Evidence and Commercial Litigation Committees
Delaware State Bar Association
Philadelphia Bar Association

Admissions

Pennsylvania
Delaware
U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit
U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware
U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania

Education

University of the Pacific, McGeorge School of Law, J.D., 1992

Experience

Duane Morris LLP
- Partner, 2002-present
Cozen O'Connor, Wilmington, Delaware
- Member, 1998-2002
Pepper Hamilton, Wilmington, Delaware
- Associate, 1995-1998
Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom, Wilmington, Delaware
- Associate, 1993-1995
Delaware Supreme Court, Wilmington, Delaware
- Law Clerk, Honorable Andrew G.T. Moore II, 1992-1993

Civic and Charitable Activities

Delaware CJA Blue Ribbon Project Panel
Domestic Violence Coordinating Project Panel

The listing of areas of practice in the foregoing profile does not represent official certification as a specialist in those areas

Selected Publications

Co-author, "Delaware Court of Chancery Revisits Directors' Duty of Good Faith and Obligation to Maximize Sale Value," Duane Morris Alert, August 27, 2008