Corporate control and shareholder conflict
A founding relationship has broken down. A majority holder and a minority bloc no longer agree on the direction of the company, or on who should run it. Positions on the board have hardened, advisers are multiplying, and each formal step now carries consequences for control, value, and reputation at once.
The environment
- Founder and co-founder breakdowns where ownership, employment, and identity are entangled.
- Majority–minority conflict over strategy, distributions, or exit.
- Boardroom power struggles, contested appointments, and competing requisitions.
- Deadlock in private companies and joint ventures where the documents did not anticipate the dispute.
The questions we work on
- Where does control actually sit – legally, commercially, and practically – and how stable is it.
- What sequence of moves preserves position without foreclosing settlement.
- Which forums and instruments serve the principal, and which merely escalate.
- How the dispute is contained while the business continues to operate.
- What an acceptable resolution looks like, and what the principal can credibly hold out for.
How the firm is engaged
Corvian is typically engaged by a principal, a board, or a faction within it – alongside legal counsel, not in place of it. The firm holds the strategic picture across the legal, financial, and personal dimensions of the conflict while counsel conducts the formal steps.
Enquiries are received directly by a principal. Conflicts are checked before any substantive discussion.