Wilmington Attorney J. Travis Laster Appointed to the Delaware Court of Chancery

I have known Travis Laster for over a decade, in both professional and personal settings. We met in 1998 when he was an associate at Richards, Layton & Finger and I was working there as a summer associate. [Several years ago Travis and Kevin Abrams left RL&F to form their own corporate litigation boutique firm Abrams & Laster.]

I also had the opportunity while clerking for (then)-Vice-Chancellor Myron Steele to see Travis at work litigating before the court.

The News-Journal now reports on Travis's nomination to the Delaware Court of Chancery :

Laster nominated to Court of Chancery

By MAUREEN MILFORD - The News Journal

J. Travis Laster, a 39-year-old Wilmington corporate lawyer, has been nominated by Gov. Jack Markell for the vacant seat on Delaware’s prestigious Court of Chancery.

“Travis Laster has spent his career litigating in front of the Court of Chancery and has developed an outstanding reputation for his intelligence and integrity,” Markell said.

Laster, a partner with Abrams & Laster, was selected out of an initial field of about seven candidates who applied for the seat left vacant when Stephen P. Lamb retired in July after his 12-year term expired.

“I am honored to be nominated by Governor Markell,” Laster said in a statement. “I have profound respect for the Court of Chancery and for the many jurists who have given that court its national reputation for excellence. If confirmed, I hope to contribute to the court’s tradition.”

Under the Delaware Constitution, Markell must submit a name to the Senate within 60 days after the seat becomes vacant. The Senate is expected to reconvene in September and hold a confirmation vote then.

Travis has an outstanding and comprehensive grasp of the countless nuances of Delaware's corporate laws and jurisprudence, having helped shape many of them over the last 13+ years during which he became a premiere corporate litigator.

He also has an exceedingly just and even-handed temperament accompanying his extensive knowledge and experience as a Chancery litigator.

Laster is a superlative choice to replace Stephen Lamb on the Court of Chancery and I roundly commend Governor Markell's wise decision.

As a member of the Delaware Bar, it is highly reassuring to know that the Court will soon have an attorney of Travis's caliber on its bench.

Given Travis's sterling reputation and track record I am confident his nomination will be unanimously confirmed by the Delaware Senate, and I urge all Senators to vote in the affirmative.

[On a personal note, Travis's life accomplishments are even more impressive given his age of 39! But it also has me (at nearly 38) beginning to feel a bit old. I guess when one's contemporaries begin becoming judges, the feeling is inevitable.]

Best of luck to Travis in his confirmation and eventual tenure on the nation's #1 court for high-stakes and complex corporate dispute resolution!

Comment Rescue (?) and child-related gun violence in Delaware

In my post about the idiotic over-reaction to a New Jersey 10-year-old posing with his new squirrel rifle , Dana Garrett left me this response: One waits, apparently in vain, for you to post the annual rates of children who either shoot themselves or someone else with a gun. But then you Libertarians are notoriously ambivalent to and silent about data and facts and would rather talk abstract principles and fear monger (like the government will confiscate your guns). It doesn't require any degree of subtlety to see why you are data and fact adverse. The facts indicate we have a crisis with gun violence and accidents in the USA, and Libertarians offer nothing credible to address it. Lives, even the lives of children, get sacrificed to the fetishism of liberty. That's intellectual cowardice. OK, Dana, let's talk facts. According to the Children's Defense Fund , which is itself only querying the CDCP data base, fewer than 10 children/teens were killed per year in Delaw

The Obligatory Libertarian Tax Day Post

The most disturbing factoid that I learned on Tax Day was that the average American must now spend a full twenty-four hours filling out tax forms. That's three work days. Or, think of it this way: if you had to put in two hours per night after dinner to finish your taxes, that's two weeks (with Sundays off). I saw a talking head economics professor on some Philly TV channel pontificating about how Americans procrastinate. He was laughing. The IRS guy they interviewed actually said, "Tick, tick, tick." You have to wonder if Governor Ruth Ann Minner and her cohorts put in twenty-four hours pondering whether or not to give Kraft Foods $708,000 of our State taxes while demanding that school districts return $8-10 million each?

New Warfare: I started my posts with a discussion.....

.....on Unrestricted warfare . The US Air force Institute for National Security Studies have developed a reasonable systems approach to deter non-state violent actors who they label as NSVA's. It is an exceptionally important report if we want to deter violent extremism and other potential violent actors that could threaten this nation and its security. It is THE report our political officials should be listening to to shape policy so that we do not become excessive in using force against those who do not agree with policy and dispute it with reason and normal non-violent civil disobedience. This report, should be carefully read by everyone really concerned with protecting civil liberties while deterring violent terrorism and I recommend if you are a professional you send your recommendations via e-mail at the link above so that either 1.) additional safeguards to civil liberties are included, or 2.) additional viable strategies can be used. Finally, one can only hope that politici

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