Legal-Innovation

Standard Oil Attorney Develops Trust Legal Innovation to Circumvent Anti-Monopoly Laws

1879-01-01 00:00:00 +0000 UTC | Importance: 9/10

Samuel C. T. Dodd, chief attorney for Standard Oil Company, developed a revolutionary legal structure in 1879 that adapted the common law instrument of a trust to create the modern business trust, circumventing Ohio’s anti-trust laws and state restrictions on interstate corporate ownership. …

Samuel C. T. Dodd John D. Rockefeller Standard Oil Company corporate-power legal-innovation regulatory-evasion institutional-capture trust-formation