Professor Robert Daines explains how lawsuits have become standard when it comes to corporate mergers with Liz Hoffman in the Wall Street Journal. 

Corporate mergers are often fraught with uncertainty over whether the deal will succeed, culture clashes between the two companies and the fate of executives.

But two things are virtual locks: The companies will get sued by shareholders unhappy with some aspect of the deal, and eventually they will settle with the offended parties without significant changes to the transaction.

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“It's Kabuki theater,” said Robert Daines, a former Goldman Sachs Group Inc. GS +0.17% banker and now a professor at Stanford Law School. “Everybody knows the moves.”