Philip R. Shawe

Beginning in 2014, TransPerfect's two co-founders became entangled in a legal fight for control of the company. Since the founding of the company, Shawe and Elting had repeatedly clashed.

Elting and Shawe filed several suits against each other, each seeking injunctive relief and restructuring of TransPerfect.[10]

Elting's action in New York's state courts was ultimately dismissed.[11]

Shawe and Elting's dispute in Delaware Chancery Court set a significant precedent in corporate law. Elting sought a forced sale of the company based on Delaware statutory law. Following significant mediation, and a $300 million offer from Shawe to purchase Elting's shares,[12] Chancellor Andre Bouchard found that the directors of the company were irreparably deadlocked, and that, because both of them effectively held half of the company's shares, the only viable remedy was the appointment of a custodian and a forced sale.[13][14]

In 2016, Chancellor Bouchard sanctioned Shawe for destroying evidence in the case.[15] Bouchard noted that no evidence was actually lost, but the attempt resulted in a $7.1 million fine.[16]

Elting's attorneys at the firm Kramer Levin were also sanctioned for obstruction during a deposition during the case.[17]

Ultimately, Shawe bought Elting's shares for $385 million.[18] Shawe therefore became the sole owner of TransPerfect.[19][20]

Shawe has been outspoken on what he considers to be corruption in the Chancery Court.[21][22] Once he became the sole owner of Transperfect, Shawe moved all of his corporate holdings from Delaware to Nevada.[23][24] Corporate law professors and corporate lawyers have characterized Shawe as a "vindictive litigant" who engaged "in a spiteful personal vendetta" via a public attack ad campaign against Chancellor Brouchard following Bouchard's decision to order a sale.[25]

In December 2021, Martin Russo, an attorney for Shawe, sent a cease-and-desist letter to the Social Science Research Network, demanding that the website remove an article by Ann Lipton, a law professor at Tulane University.[26] The article recounted, via citations to Delaware court findings, how Shawe was alleged to have hid under Elting's bed after she had broken off their engagement, stalked her on an international flight, broken into her office and copied her hard drive, and gained access to Elting's emails, including privileged communications with her attorneys.[27] Claims, Shawe vehemently denied.[28] Lipton suggested that Shawe's behavior was an example of gender discrimination in business.[27] The Social Science Research Network subsequently removed the paper, although it later restored the article and announced a review of its internal policies regarding attempts to "deplatform or cancel" academic articles.[29] Lipton's paper was later published in the Houston Law Review.[30]