South Dakota has replaced Delaware as the state with the best overall litigation environment for companies, according to a U.S. Chamber of Commerce survey.
The poll of in-house counsel and business executives ranked Delaware—home to more than half of all U.S. public companies, and over 60 percent of Fortune 500 companies—eleventh. This is the first time since the survey began in 2002 that Delaware wasn’t in first place.
Mike P. Kelly, chairman at McCarter & English LLP in Wilmington, Del., also took issue with the survey’s findings. ‘‘As one who tries cases across the U.S., I can say with confidence that the Delaware Courts remain among the finest,’’ he told Bloomberg BNA in an email Sept. 13.