It would be helpful for the Supreme Court to resolve the circuit split, but in the meantime, Delaware remains a solid option for companies incorporated there, said Joseph Grundfest, a professor of law and business at Stanford Law School and former Commissioner of the SEC.

“After all, those courts will be the most expert and authoritative when it comes to interpreting and applying the relevant law,” he said in an emailed statement.

The Ninth Circuit opinion “also observes, correctly I think, that the Exchange Act does not bar litigating the derivative claim in a Delaware court where the plaintiffs have available to them all of the remedies that could be obtained in federal court, and where a substantial body of precedent requires that the claim be heard.”