Legal News

Laster But Not Least: Your New Big Man in Wilmington

By Ashby Jones

In certain circles down in Wilmington, DE, the big parlor game over the last few weeks has involved who would replace Stephen Lamb, a Vice Chancellor on Delaware’s Court of Chancery, one of the leading courts in the nation on corporate and business law. Vice Chancellor Lamb announced last month he was stepping down from the court to help Paul Weiss start up a Wilmington office.

Well, today, the shape of the Court of Chancery going forward got a little clearer. Governor Jack Markell announced Tuesday that he will nominate J. Travis Laster, a Wilmington attorney, to replace Lamb. Laster (Princeton, UVA Law), practices at Abrams & Laster, a firm he helped found in 2005. Prior to that, Laster practiced at Richards, Layton & Finger. He clerked for Third Circuit Judge Jane Roth.

"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," said Markell, in a statement (link not available). "If confirmed, I think he will be a great addition to a court known for its professionalism, its hard work, and its leadership in matters of corporate law."

We don’t know Laster at all. In fact, we’d never heard of the guy before about an hour ago. That said, we’re going to go out on a limb and say that if the Law Blog had a confirmation vote, we’d vote yay. Laster seems positively jazzed about the law of corporations, both as a lawyer and as an academic. He’s taught at UVA, but the most impressive thing, at least from his Web site: that list of publications. Seriously, check it out.

Full post as published by Law Blog - WSJ.com on August 19, 2009 (boomark / email).