LLC Operating Agreements: Drafting Precision and Information-Rights Strategy Before Litigation Strikes

Kinsey Lenehan, Counsel | Richard, Layton & Finger

Kinsey Lenehan is Counsel at Richards, Layton & Finger, P.A. in Wilmington, Delaware, where she focuses her practice on transactional matters relating to Delaware alternative entities, including limited liability companies, limited partnerships, and general partnerships. Kinsey renders advice and legal opinions in connection with structured finance transactions, investment funds, and other matters relating to issues of formation, operation, governance, dissolution, and enforceability involving alternative entities.

• Education & Credentials

Kinsey earned her J.D. from the University of Kansas School of Law in 2016, where she served as Managing Editor of the Kansas Journal of Law and Public Policy, and holds a B.A., magna cum laude, in Political Science and International Studies from Seton Hill University. She is admitted to the Delaware Bar.

• Recognition & Leadership

Kinsey was named to the Delaware Business Times 40 Under 40 (2025), received the Delaware State Bar Association Young Lawyer’s Distinguished Service Award (2025), and earned the Atlas Award from the Leadership Council on Legal Diversity (LCLD) Pathfinders Program (2023). She serves as Secretary on the Board of Trustees of the Fund for Women and as Secretary of Friends of Wilmington Parks.

• Professional Involvement

Kinsey is deeply involved in the Junior League of Wilmington, a nonprofit focused on improving the lives of adolescent girls in the greater Wilmington area, and serves on the Development Committee of the Ronald McDonald House of Delaware. In law school, she was a member of the Transactional LawMeet team.

• Experience

Kinsey’s practice covers fund finance, legal opinions, private equity funds, structured finance, and limited liability company and partnership advisory. She advises on the formation, operation, governance, dissolution, and enforceability of Delaware alternative entities across a wide range of structured finance transactions and investment fund matters.

Jane Trueper, Partner | Lathrop GPM

Jane Trueper is a Partner at Lathrop GPM LLP in the firm’s Kansas City office, where she advises privately held companies — including emerging growth businesses, founder-led organizations, and fund sponsors and managers — on transactional matters across the full lifecycle of a business. Her work includes entity formation, capital raising, mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships, and restructuring for succession planning. Jane brings deep experience in Delaware law, advising clients across technology, manufacturing, professional services, and life sciences on fiduciary duty, entity structuring, and governance matters.

• Education & Credentials

Jane earned her J.D. from the University of Pennsylvania Law School in 2014, where she served as Executive Editor of the Journal of Business Law. She also holds an M.B.A. and B.A. from the University of Missouri – Columbia. She is admitted to the Delaware, Missouri, and Pennsylvania Bars.

• Recognition & Leadership

Jane has been selected among The Best Lawyers in America, “Ones to Watch,” from 2021 to 2026, named a “Top Lawyer” in Banking Law by Delaware Today (2019, 2022), and received the Delaware State Bar Association Young Lawyers Distinguished Service Award (2022) and the Christopher W. White Distinguished Access to Justice Achievement Award (2019).

• Professional Involvement

Jane is a member of the Delaware State Bar Association’s Commercial Law Section. She authored “Avoiding Merger Disputes Via Careful LLC Agreement Drafting” in Law360 (October 2024) and “Four Mistakes to Avoid When Advising Clients on Assignments of Equity in LLCs and LPs” in WealthManagement.com (August 2024), and co-presented “Mitigating Merger Disputes With Precise LLC Agreements: Implications of the Default Rules of the Delaware LLC Act” for Strafford (April 2025). She also co-authored “House Passes BiPartisan Bill That May Present More Opportunities for Private Fund Formation” in Westlaw Today (March 2026).

• Experience

Jane has advised a developer of senior living communities on a $330 million portfolio loan refinancing involving the restructuring of twenty percent of the client’s portfolio, represented a fast-growing restaurant franchise in the equity transfer component of a $36 million intellectual property sale, and advised a fund sponsor on a $50 million private placement in public securities.

Janel M. Dressen, CEO | Anthony Ostlund

Janel M. Dressen is an Attorney, Shareholder, CEO, and Executive Committee Member at Anthony Ostlund Louwagie Dressen & Boylan P.A. in Minneapolis. With over 24 years of experience representing business owners and their companies, Janel is a tenacious business litigator whose clients, colleagues, and competitors describe her as the most prepared person in the room. In 2021, she was selected as only the second Chief Executive Officer in the firm’s history, making her the first woman to lead the firm. Her specialty is shareholder, ownership, and business valuation disputes, and she was lead counsel for what has been reported to be the largest Minnesota trial award in a shareholder buyout case in Lund v. Lund.

• Education & Credentials

Janel earned her J.D. from the University of South Dakota School of Law. She is admitted to practice before the U.S. District of Minnesota, the U.S. Supreme Court, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, and the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit.

• Recognition & Leadership

Janel was named a Minnesota Attorney of the Year (2017), one of the “Top 50 Women: Minnesota Super Lawyers” (2019 to present), a 2024 Minnesota Lawyer Top Woman in Law, and to Minnesota Lawyer’s 2025 Business Power 30. She was featured in Minnesota Lawyer’s The Power 30 (October 2021) and has been recognized for shaping Minnesota law on shareholder rights and closely held company disputes.

• Professional Involvement

Janel is a frequent author and presenter locally and nationally on business litigation topics, most notably shareholder oppression, fiduciary duties, and business divorces. She is a co-author of chapters in the Ongoing Businesses and Minnesota LLCs Deskbooks published by Minnesota CLE, including “Ownership Disputes in Privately Held Companies” (Chapter 12) and “Member Rights, Fiduciary Duties, Oppression, Liability, Remedies & Indemnification” (Chapter 6). She is also a contributing author to the American Bar Association’s Business Divorce Litigation, Chapter 26 of Recent Developments in Business and Corporate Litigation, 2020 Edition.

• Experience

Janel represents business owners and businesses in all types of complex business disputes, with a specialty in shareholder, ownership, and business valuation disputes. Her representations have included leading the Holmes et al. v. O’Connor and Taco John’s International et al. matter representing three owners in the family-owned Taco John’s business, and securing what is believed to be the first decision granting a fair value buyout award on motion to a member of an LLC under Minnesota’s Revised Limited Liability Company Act, Minnesota Statutes Chapter 322C.

Cory D. Olson, Shareholder | Anthony Ostlund

Cory D. Olson is an Attorney and Shareholder at Anthony Ostlund Louwagie Dressen & Boylan P.A. in Minneapolis, where he is an experienced and effective litigator with a proven record of helping clients solve a wide range of legal and business problems. Cory has litigated in state and federal courts across the country, stretching from Minnesota to Alabama and California to Connecticut, and has arbitrated before every major arbitration service, including FINRA, NFA, AAA, and JAMS. His practice focuses on securities arbitration, disputes between business owners, shareholder litigation, non-compete agreements, breach of fiduciary duty, fraud, breach of contract, and wrongful termination.

• Education & Credentials

Cory earned his J.D. from the University of Minnesota Law School and a B.A. from Hamline University.

• Recognition & Leadership

Cory was named a 2024 Attorney of the Year by Minnesota Lawyer in the Teams of Two category for his work in Collins v. RBC Capital Markets LLC, in which an Anthony Ostlund client was awarded $9.7 million by a FINRA arbitration panel, including $2.0 million in punitive damages and nearly $1.6 million in costs and legal fees. He has also been recognized as a Super Lawyer in Business Litigation.

• Professional Involvement

Cory is an active member of the Hennepin County Bar Association and has served on the Executive Committee of the Fund for Legal Aid. He has authored numerous articles on shareholder, securities, and employment matters, including “A Full, Fair, and Thorough Investigation: The Story of Cinda Collins and her $9.8 Million Arbitration Award” (Lying, Cheating & Stealing Seminar 2025), “Cutting the Cost of Derivative Claims: The Role of the Special Litigation Committee” in Bench & Bar of Minnesota, and “Compelling Circumstances: The Need to Clarify the Availability of Arbitral Subpoenas” in Minnesota Lawyer.

• Experience

Cory has helped special litigation committees investigate and report on allegations of corporate abuse and mismanagement, and represents clients in a wide range of business disputes with a particular emphasis on real estate, small to mid-size businesses, family businesses, and securities disputes. His representations have included obtaining a preliminary injunction enjoining a claimant from continuing to pursue FINRA arbitration, dismissing a client from a $150 million securitization fraud lawsuit, and securing a unanimous jury verdict on claims of civil conspiracy, tortious interference, and alleged Sherman Antitrust Act violations.

SESSION 1 – Governance Architecture and Drafting Precision | 1:00pm – 2:00pm

Examine how operating agreements structure authority and how courts interpret governance provisions, including manager-managed versus member-managed structures, voting thresholds, deadlock resolution, manager removal, fiduciary duty modification, and common drafting ambiguities that trigger litigation.

BREAK | 2:00pm – 2:10pm

SESSION 4 – Information Rights and Dispute Escalation | 2:10pm – 3:10pm

Focus on how disputes over access to company information serve as the first stage of broader ownership conflicts, including books-and-records requests as litigation omens, information access and control dynamics, and transparency disputes escalating into fiduciary-duty claims.