Article: Opportunity Knocks: Proposed Legislative Reform of the Corporate Opportunity Doctrine in Michigan
10/1/2008 Edwin J. Lukas
Directors and officers of Michigan corporations are required to act in the best interests of the corporation and its shareholders. Frequently, individuals serving a corporation in a fiduciary capactiy acquire information regarding a corporate opportunity -- including potential acquisitions, business combinations and prospective agreements, licenses or other relationships with third parties -- that may be beneficial to the corporation and in which the corporation has a legitimate interest. Directors and officers who pursue such an opportunity for private gain or the benefit of another, without having first presented it to the corporation, are said to have "appropriated" or "usurped" an opportunity to which the corporation is entitled.
