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Douglas Northup
Senior Litigation and Trial Lawyer at Fennemore Craig
Douglas C. Northup is the Chair of the Commercial Litigation Department at Fennemore Craig, P.C., where he has been a director since 1998. He specializes in complex commercial business litigation, high-risk tort defense, and wrongful death/catastrophic personal injury defense. Northup represents large corporate clients in various disputes, including contractual issues, franchise matters, and real estate litigation. He is known for his extensive trial experience and has a track record of successfully resolving challenging cases, often winning before trial through motions or jury trials.12
Before his legal career, Northup served as a police officer in Oklahoma City. His educational background includes a J.D. from Oklahoma City University School of Law, where he graduated summa cum laude, and a B.A. from New Mexico State University.12 He is also involved in firm management and has contributed to initiatives aimed at improving efficiency in litigation processes.2
Highlights
I apologize this isn’t work related, but I think it’s important. The man in this news story, Serge Zevlever, helped my wife and me adopt our youngest daughter from Ukraine in 2008. He also helped literally thousands of other families adopt mostly special needs and older children who are hard to place, but desperately need homes and a family. Serge was an American citizen, so he could have left. Instead, he stayed to continue his work and apparently was killed by a sniper. This is just one of unfortunately many senseless deaths Vladimir Putin is responsible for, but this one hits close to home. We sure lost one of the good guys this week.
Arizona Supreme Court Clarifies Fiduciary Duties under 2018 LLC Act - Sky Harbor Hotel Properties, LLC v. Patel Props., LLC; In re: Swift Air, LLC, CV-19-0033-CQ; Morris Anderson & Assocs v. Redeye II, LLC, CV-19-0034-CQ (Ariz. 6/25/2019).
Today, addressing certified questions posed by the United States Bankruptcy Court for the District of Arizona, the Arizona Supreme Court held with regard to the 2018 LLC Act (which applies to LLCs formed after September 1, 2019 and to all LLCs after September 1, 2020): (1) managers of LLCs owe fiduciary duties to the LLC; (2) members of LLCs owe fiduciary duties to the LLC, provided that the member is acting as the LLC's agent; and (3) an LLC's operating agreement can waive or limit these fiduciary duties, but the operating agreement cannot eliminate the covenant of good faith and fair dealing implied in every contract.
The Supreme Court generally followed the Restatement (Second) of Agency in answering the questions and the ruling is in accord with many other jurisdictions. The decision does give clarity going forward and is very helpful in that regard.
