Understanding the Corporate Veil: Strategies to Maintain and Pierce Limited Liability (2026 Edition)

Shahrokh Sheik, Partner & Chair of Litigation | Weinberg Gonser

Shahrokh Sheik is a Partner and Chair of WG’s Litigation Practice, focusing on business and trademark law. He serves as outside general counsel and trial counsel for clients handling both corporate and litigation matters. He is dedicated to providing value to his clients and maintaining long-term relationships, striving to identify their goals, objectives, and constraints in order to facilitate business transactions and resolve disputes efficiently and effectively.

• Education & Credentials

Sheik earned his J.D. from Southwestern Law School and a B.S. from California State University, Long Beach. He is admitted to the California bar and to the California state courts and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California. During law school, he served as President of Southwestern’s student government and Associate Editor of the University’s Law Review.

• Recognition & Leadership

Sheik serves on the Board of Governors of the Association of Business Trial Lawyers (ABTL). He is a former Trustee At-Large on the Los Angeles County Bar Association (LACBA) Board of Trustees, Past Chair of LACBA’s Entertainment & IP Section, and Past Chair of the Southwestern Entertainment and IP Alumni Association Board of Directors. He served on the Board of Directors of Susan G. Komen Los Angeles County from 2013 to 2019 and on the Board of Directors of the Institute of Neuro Innovation.

• Professional Involvement

Sheik’s industries served include business litigation, intellectual property litigation, cannabis and the cannabis ecosystem, corporate transactions, trademark and copyright, entertainment contracts and disputes, hospitality and restaurant, media, marketing and distribution, and personal and outside general counsel.

• Experience

Prior to joining Weinberg Gonser, Sheik founded the business and intellectual property firm Kramer Holcomb Sheik LLP in 2012, and before that served as Counsel at the Independent Film & Television Alliance (IFTA), producer of the American Film Market (AFM). His representative matters include obtaining a jury verdict of over $3.15M (including $1.25M in punitive damages) for an international manufacturer in a three-week breach of fiduciary duty and fraud trial in Orange County, and securing a unanimous jury verdict of over $1.5M for an international event travel company in a Las Vegas federal trademark infringement and breach of contract trial. He has also represented film producers, internet service providers, restaurant and hospitality groups, cannabis operators, and entertainment clients across litigation, trademark, securities, and outside general counsel matters.

Lee Weinberg, Founding Partner | Weinberg Gonser

Lee Weinberg is a Founding Partner at Weinberg Gonser LLP. He has helped a wide range of clients meet their personal, financial, and business goals, including “Business Divorces,” first-time liquidity events, and domestic and international financings and transactions. His practice areas include business divorces and partner disputes, CEO and board counseling, C-suite employment and board agreements, M&A, joint ventures and partnerships, financings, liquidity and cash-out transactions, entity selection and structuring, private equity and venture capital, licensing, NIL endorsements, IP, software and government contracts, and outside general counsel.

• Education & Credentials

Weinberg earned his J.D. from Yale Law School and a B.A., summa cum laude, from the University of Rochester. He is admitted to the California bar and to the California state courts and the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California.

• Recognition & Leadership

Weinberg has been published or quoted by Bloomberg, Thomson/Reuters, Euromoney, Investor’s Business Daily, The Los Angeles Times, Yale University Press, Business Law News, The National Law Journal, and SoCal Tech. He has lectured and served as a panelist on first-time sellers and liquidity events, “Business Divorces, Marriages and Spin-offs,” media and technology, music publishing, start-ups, entity selection and structuring, and business and investing—including for USC’s Marshall School of Business, USC’s Annenberg School of Communications, UCLA’s Anderson School of Business, the CFA Society of Los Angeles, and the Los Angeles Venture Association (LAVA)—and has been a featured guest on business radio broadcasts.

• Professional Involvement

Weinberg’s representative industries include brand-focused products and services; technology, mobile and communications; aerospace and electronics; hospitality and restaurant; media, marketing and distribution; fashion and beauty; food and beverage; health and wellness; cannabis and the cannabis ecosystem; and entertainment and sports. His community service includes serving as a former board member of the March of Dimes and on the Yale Alumni Schools Committee.

• Experience

Weinberg has served as a Director on the board of Umami Restaurant Group, as a Director and Officer of YouMail, and as an advisor to AEi Systems in space electronics analysis. He was co-founder and CEO of SalesMountain, a mobile and internet infomediary, and worked with SMG, an artist management and music publishing firm. His prior firm experience includes Alschuler Grossman Stein & Kahan LLP (later Dreier Stein Kahan Browne Woods George LLP), Riordan & McKinzie, Debevoise & Plimpton, and Sullivan & Cromwell.

Jamison Gilmore, Senior Associate | Weinberg Gonser

Jamison Gilmore represents clients in complex commercial disputes from pre-litigation through trial and arbitration. His practice spans trade secret misappropriation, breach of contract, copyright infringement, and unfair business practices matters across a variety of industries, including media and entertainment, technology, healthcare, energy, and construction. He handles all aspects of disputes, including pleadings, discovery, dispositive motions, depositions, and trial and arbitration preparation, and maintains a robust dispositive motion practice that includes motions to dismiss, demurrers, motions to strike, anti-SLAPP motions, and motions for summary judgment. His practice areas include business litigation, trade secret litigation, trademark litigation, copyright litigation, contract disputes, and unfair business practices.

• Education & Credentials

Gilmore earned his J.D. from Southwestern Law School and a B.A. from California State University, Long Beach. He is admitted to the California bar and to the California state courts and the U.S. District Courts for the Central, Eastern, Northern, and Southern Districts of California.

• Recognition & Leadership

Gilmore has prevailed at each trial and arbitration he has handled, securing permanent injunctions, judgments, and significant attorneys’ fees awards.

• Professional Involvement

Gilmore serves as an Officer of the Barristers/Young Attorneys Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, as an Executive Committee Member of the Entertainment Law and Intellectual Property Section of the Los Angeles County Bar Association, and as an Executive Committee Member of The Southwestern Law School American Inn of Court.

• Experience

Before entering private practice, Gilmore externed for U.S. Magistrate Judge Michael Wilner (ret.) and clerked for Los Angeles Superior Court Judges Christopher Lui, Theresa Traber, and Daniel Crowley, where he prepared over 3,000 tentative orders—none of which were reversed on appeal. Prior to joining Weinberg Gonser LLP, he practiced at King & Spalding LLP and Blank Rome LLP. His representative matters include securing a permanent injunction under five states’ unfair business practices statutes for a pharmaceutical company after a four-day bench trial, obtaining summary judgment for a major drug manufacturer in a failure-to-warn case, prevailing in a trade secret arbitration with a six-figure attorneys’ fees award, and obtaining a dismissal of copyright infringement claims against a publicly traded media client.

SESSION 1 – Piercing the LLC Veil After Dewberry | 1:00pm – 1:20pm

Examine how the Supreme Court’s 2025 Dewberry decision reframed corporate separateness, affiliate profits, and joinder. Track current doctrine and court trends, and learn what true-financial-gain evidence now controls when creditors reach through the entity.

SESSION 2 – Common Factors Leading to Veil Piercing in a Post-CTA Environment | 1:20pm – 1:40pm

Apply the classic factors—alter ego, commingling, undercapitalization, and failed formalities—against shifting transparency obligations. Understand how beneficial-ownership filings surface in diligence and discovery, and why compliance with the Corporate Transparency Act never establishes separateness.

SESSION 3 – Reverse Veil Piercing and Single-Member LLC Exposure | 1:40pm – 2:00pm

Confront the creditor remedy targeting single-member LLCs as the softest entry point. Weigh charging orders against reverse piercing, and analyze adequate-remedy tests, bad-faith control, and innocent-member equities that decide whether owners’ assets stay protected.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 4 – Veil Piercing in Multi-Member LLCs and Corporations | 2:10pm – 2:30pm

Map entity-by-entity treatment across complex structures where fiduciary-duty breaches and affiliate liability raise the stakes. Assess how Dewberry changed exposure for parent companies, subsidiaries, and co-owners, and where domination claims still pierce.

SESSION 5 – Litigation Strategies: Defending Against Veil-Piercing Claims | 2:30pm – 2:50pm

Build separateness and joinder defenses, and distinguish fraud-based from domination theories before trial. Deploy expert witnesses, § 187 judgment-amendment arguments, issue preclusion, IPAC bankruptcy angles, and discovery-sanction strategy—then weigh settlement against the risk of an adverse alter-ego finding.

SESSION 6 – Prevention and the State Transparency Patchwork | 2:50pm – 3:10pm

Structure operations and draft governing documents that withstand scrutiny. Allocate capitalization, insurance, and state-by-state beneficial-ownership compliance, and maintain intercompany pricing, related-party ledgers, capitalization memos, and distribution discipline using a separateness checklist that holds up in discovery.