BarBri's Fourth Level of Hell: piercing the corporate whale

I lurrrrrv corporations.  Oh yes I do.  It's so cold and calculating and has such fancy terms of art.  I'm loving corporations a little too much right now - things are starting to look blurry.  But I just got to the part about "piercing the corporate veil," which is the doctrine by which the court will disregard the corporate entity and hold shareholders liable.  Sexy, no?

 

In a corporations class not my own, I heard lore of a European law student who was intent on pontificating on corporations "in [his] country" for 1/2 of the class time.  He would raise his hand, start his lecture by stating, "in my country" and then ramble, thereby alienating all fellow students, permitting them to perform uninterrupted acts of solitaire, spider solitaire, minesweeper, poker, and war games.  But what perked up the ears of these alienated students is when he, in his European accent, would discuss his and his country's views of "piercing ze corporate whale."  Oh, how the students snickered.  And now, every time I see the court disregarding the corporate entity, I have visions of 'piercing the corporate whale' - a large beluga, perhaps, pierced with a mighty pointy harpoon.  Or with a badass gold hoop earring.