OREGON’ NEW BENEFIT COMPANY STATUTE 

Combining Pursuit of Profit with Public Benefit

June 25 – Noon to 1:15 pm (video on YouTube)

Oregon’s new Benefit Company legislation (HB 2296) will take effect January 1, 2014.  As of that date, an Oregon benefit company will be any Oregon corporation or LLC organized as or electing to be a benefit company.  The election has the following effects:

1. Purpose.  The company has adopted an obligation to provide a “general public benefit,” and may elect to provide “special public benefits,” from its business and operations.

2. Duty.  The company’s directors, officers and managers are obligated to consider the impact of decisions on multiple stakeholders.

3. Accountability.  The company must annually report on how it fared against an independent third-party standard in delivering public benefits.

This new form of business entity will be of great interest within the Oregon business community because it provides a vehicle expressly combining work for profit with a charter obligation to pursue a public benefit.  But clients interested in the “benefit” status must understand important details.  What is the nature and required scope of the public-purpose commitment?  How is it enforced?  What does it mean to the board, managers, and owners of the business entity?

To brief us on this new statute and what it might mean to the business and legal communities in Oregon, we invited Bill Campbell, partner (emeritus) at Ater Wynne LLP, and Jeff Wolfstone, a shareholder with Lane Powell PC, two lawyers deeply involved in drafting specifics of this new Oregon law, to discuss this new statute.

We are pleased to announce that the Section’s CLE about Oregon’s new Benefit Company statute is available on YouTube.  If you missed this popular CLE from June 25, don’t fret: you can watch the video of the CLE on YouTube, including the Q&A session.

Bill Campbell is a Principal at Equilibrium Capital Group, LLC, a global asset management platform investing in sustainability-driven real assets.  Bill joined Equilibrium in 2008, after practicing for three decades as an attorney specializing in capital formation and company growth with Ater Wynne LLP.

Jeff Wolfstone is a business lawyer whose practice is focused on corporate law and governance, mergers and acquisitions, corporate finance, commercial finance, venture capital and private equity, sustainability, and nonprofit corporations.  He is co-chair of Lane Powell’s Corporate Finance/M&A Practice.

Details:

Date/Time: Tuesday, June 25, noon to 1:15 pm

Location: Lane Powell, 601 S.W. Second, Suite 2100, Portland, Oregon

Lunch: Lunch will be provided

Cost: No cost for SFS members, $10 at the door for others

Materials:

• Benefit Company Statute Presentation
• GIIRS Assessment Weightings & Star Ratings
• Greyston Bakery Benefit Corporation annual report 2012
• Mob Rules Games Annual Benefit Report
• Patagonia B Corp score from B Lab.

Phone: If you must participate by phone, let Ms. Williams know by email, and she will send the call number and pass code.