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Asset Management
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September 30, 2024
MetLife Can't Get Early Win In Pensioners' Mortality Table Suit
MetLife lost its bid for an early win Monday in a federal benefits lawsuit from pensioners alleging the company lowballed their annuity payouts by using outdated mortality data when making conversions, with a New York federal judge concluding that disputes over actuarial assumptions should proceed to trial.
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September 30, 2024
Schwab Nears Deal In Antitrust Suit Over TD Ameritrade Buy
Charles Schwab Corp. has reached "an agreement in principle" with retail investors who filed a proposed class action alleging increased transaction costs for trades and other antitrust injury following the Schwab-TD Ameritrade merger, the parties told a Texas federal judge Friday.
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September 27, 2024
Constitution Permits Blocked Anti-Laundering Law, Panel Told
The U.S. government urged the Eleventh Circuit on Friday to reinstate the Corporate Transparency Act passed in 2021, arguing that the anti-money laundering law is within Congress' powers to regulate economic activity and necessary to have businesses report beneficial ownership to combat crimes like tax evasion and terrorist financing.
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September 27, 2024
Ex-CEO To Pay SEC Fine For Pre-SPAC Disclosure Failures
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Friday it has reached a settlement with the former CEO of an electric vehicle battery company who allegedly concealed its supply chain issues ahead of its merger with a blank check company, leading to a nearly 20% drop in the company's share price once the shortage was revealed.
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September 27, 2024
Juul Stockholder Class Sues In Del. Over Controller Windfall
Two stockholders of e-cigarette venture Juul Labs Inc. sued the company's controllers and board on Friday in a proposed class derivative action seeking damages for an alleged top stockholder scheme to avoid huge liabilities under terms said to have cost the company billions.
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September 27, 2024
CFTC Accuses Firms Of $3.6M Retail Forex Fraud
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission on Friday targeted a commodity trading platform the regulator alleged was behind a scheme that scammed $3.6 million from Asian American customers who thought they were investing in retail foreign exchange and commodity futures contracts.
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September 27, 2024
CFTC Fines Futures Firm $650K For Botched Records, Trades
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has fined CHS Hedging LLC $650,000 to settle allegations that it did not properly record thousands of calls between associates and customers and failed to obtain customer authorizations before entering trades over a four-year period.
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September 27, 2024
Hedge Fund Inks $7.9M Deal In ERISA 401(k) Investment Suit
A Connecticut-based hedge fund that went bankrupt and owner George A. Weiss have agreed to pay $7.9 million to end an ex-worker's suit alleging the company plowed its employees' retirement savings into two substandard proprietary funds, according to filings Friday in Connecticut federal court.
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September 27, 2024
Early Trump Media Backer Dumps Shares As Lockup Expires
An early investor in former President Donald Trump's social media platform has unloaded most of its stake, marking the first divestiture following the expiration of a lockup period that restricted sales after Trump's entity went public earlier this year.
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September 27, 2024
GOP States Sue HHS Over Gender Dysphoria Disability Rule
A group of 17 Republican attorneys general filed suit against the Biden administration seeking to block a rule defining gender dysphoria as a disability under federal law, arguing that Congress explicitly stated that the statutes don't protect gender identity disorders.
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September 27, 2024
Off The Bench: College Sports Dominates Legal Landscape
In this week's Off The Bench, the NCAA and the athletes in the big name, image and likeness settlement try to redo the terms to satisfy the overseeing judge, Reggie Bush says his image has been exploited by his alma mater and the NCAA for years, and the Pac-12 claims that it's being strong-armed by a rival conference for coaxing away its teams.
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September 27, 2024
Life Sciences Firms Energize IPO Market As Recovery Builds
Initial public offerings are closing the year's third quarter on an upswing, led mostly by pre-revenue drug developers and select large companies that are seizing opportunities in friendlier capital markets buoyed by interest-rate cuts, generating momentum that experts say could carry over into next year.
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September 27, 2024
TPG Sues In Del. For Control Of Md. Data Center Project
An affiliate of global asset manager TPG sought a fast-tracked declaratory judgment in Delaware's Court of Chancery late Thursday that Quantum Loophole Inc. was validly removed as manager of a potential multisite, $5 billion "gigawatt" data center project near Frederick, Maryland.
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September 27, 2024
NFL Retirement Plan Can't Dodge Ex-Player's Benefits Suit
The National Football League's retirement plan can't fully toss a retired player's suit alleging he was illegally denied retirement benefits after the plan found his rookie season didn't qualify him for it, a Texas federal judge ruled, rejecting the argument that he didn't properly appeal the denial.
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September 27, 2024
MetLife's 3rd Circ. Win Won't Stop ERISA Health Fee Suits
The Third Circuit's recent decision upholding MetLife's escape from a lawsuit accusing the company of pocketing $65 million in pharmacy rebates instead of using the funds to lower employee healthcare costs hands additional authority over to employers facing a new wave of class action litigation over excessive health fees, attorneys say.
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September 27, 2024
Sen. Bill Would Curb ESG Factors In Retirement Fund Choices
A bill in the Senate would prohibit asset managers from prioritizing environmental, social and governance, or ESG, factors over financial gain when selecting retirement investments.
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September 27, 2024
Ault Disruptive To Dissolve After Failing To Ink SPAC Deal
Blank check company Ault Disruptive Technologies Corp. said on Friday that it plans to dissolve and liquidate because it will not be able to complete an initial business combination before Dec. 20.
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September 27, 2024
Taxation With Representation: Kirkland, Skadden, Cleary
In this week's Taxation With Representation, Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners acquire Smartsheet Inc., Macquarie Asset Management takes a stake in D.E. Shaw Renewables Investment Group, and Apogee Enterprises Inc. buys UW Interco LLC from Heartwood Partners.
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September 27, 2024
Womble Bond Adds Holland & Knight Business Litigator
Womble Bond Dickinson has added a former Holland & Knight LLP business litigation partner to its office in Nashville who before his more than 20-year legal career was a U.S. Navy lieutenant on the USS Gettysburg, the firm announced Thursday.
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September 27, 2024
Fried Frank-Led StepStone Clinches $7.4B Secondaries Fund
Private equity shop StepStone Group Inc., advised by Fried Frank Harris Shriver & Jacobson LLP, on Friday announced that it clinched its fifth secondaries opportunities fund and separate related accounts with around $7.4 billion of total investor commitments.
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September 26, 2024
Spain Can't Escape $26M Award, DC Judge Rules
A D.C. federal judge on Thursday enforced a €23.5 million ($26.3 million) arbitral award issued against Spain after the country dialed back its renewable energy incentives, rejecting Madrid's argument that the tribunal had infringed the authority of European Union courts.
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September 26, 2024
FinCEN Withdraws Plan To Bar Now-Defunct Latvian Bank
The U.S. Treasury Department's financial crimes unit indicated Thursday that it intends to withdraw its previous finding flagging Latvian bank ABLV Bank AS for money laundering concerns, in light of its "advanced stage of liquidation" and improvements to Latvia's financial regulatory regime.
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September 26, 2024
5th Circ. Dusts Off FDIC Challenge In Jarkesy's Wake
The Fifth Circuit moved Wednesday to pick back up with a former bank CEO's challenge to Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. enforcement proceedings, taking the case off pause now that the U.S. Supreme Court has upheld a similar challenge involving the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
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September 26, 2024
SEC Accuses NC Business Owner Of $28M Ponzi-Like Fraud
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has filed a suit in North Carolina federal court accusing an investment firm owner of defrauding investors through a $28 million Ponzi-like manufacturing debt investment scheme.
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September 26, 2024
Obesity Drug Developer Leads 2 Upsized IPOs Totaling $310M
Obesity-focused drug developer BioAge Labs Inc. gained in debut trading Thursday after raising $198 million through an upsized initial public offering, leading one of two new listings that netted a combined $310 million under the guidance of four law firms.
Expert Analysis
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'Outsourcing' Ruling, 5 Years On: A Warning, Not A Watershed
A New York federal court’s 2019 ruling in U.S. v. Connolly, holding that the government improperly outsourced an investigation to Deutsche Bank, has not undercut corporate cooperation incentives as feared — but companies should not completely ignore the lessons of the case, say Temidayo Aganga-Williams and Anna Nabutovsky at Selendy Gay.
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Series
Serving In The National Guard Makes Me A Better Lawyer
My ongoing military experience as a judge advocate general in the National Guard has shaped me as a person and a lawyer, teaching me the importance of embracing confidence, balance and teamwork in both my Army and civilian roles, says Danielle Aymond at Baker Donelson.
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Big Business May Come To Rue The Post-Administrative State
Many have framed the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent decisions overturning Chevron deference and extending the window to challenge regulations as big wins for big business, but sand in the gears of agency rulemaking may be a double-edged sword, creating prolonged uncertainty that impedes businesses’ ability to plan for the future, says Todd Baker at Columbia University.
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Will Texas Stock Exchange Provide Regulatory Haven?
While the newly proposed Texas Stock Exchange may represent a market reaction to increasingly complex regulations, those looking to list on a national securities exchange should consider that their choice of an exchange may not relieve them of some of the most burdensome public company requirements, say Elizabeth McNichol and Ryan Lilley at Katten.
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A Midyear Forecast: Tailwinds Expected For Atty Hourly Rates
Hourly rates for partners, associates and support staff continued to rise in the first half of this year, and this growth shows no signs of slowing for the rest of 2024 and into next year, driven in part by the return of mergers and acquisitions and the widespread adoption of artificial intelligence, says Chuck Chandler at Valeo Partners.
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Opinion
Discount Window Reform Needed To Curb Modern Bank Runs
We learned during the spring 2023 failures that bank runs can happen extraordinarily fast in light of modern technology, especially when banks have a greater concentration of large deposits, demonstrating that the antiquated but effective discount window needs to be overhauled before the next crisis, says Cris Cicala at Stinson.
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Series
After Chevron: Creating New Hurdles For ESG Rulemaking
The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper Bright decision, limiting court deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, could have significant impacts on the future of ESG regulation, creating new hurdles for agency rulemaking around these emerging issues, and calling into question current administrative actions, says Leah Malone at Simpson Thacher.
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A Timeline Of Antisemitism Legislation And What It Means
What began as hearings in the House of Representatives Committee on Education and the Workforce has expanded to a House-wide effort to combat antisemitism and related issues, with wide-ranging implications for education, finance and nonprofit entities, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.
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Opinion
States Should Loosen Law Firm Ownership Restrictions
Despite growing buzz, normalized nonlawyer ownership of law firms is a distant prospect, so the legal community should focus first on liberalizing state restrictions on attorney and firm purchases of practices, which would bolster succession planning and improve access to justice, says Michael Di Gennaro at The Law Practice Exchange.
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50 Years Later, ERISA Remains A Work In Progress
A look at the 50 years since the Employee Retirement Income Security Act’s passage shows that while the law safeguards benefits through vesting rules, fiduciary responsibilities and anti-discrimination provisions, the act falls short in three key areas, says Carol Buckmann at Cohen & Buckmann.
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Series
Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer
Tackling daily puzzles — like Wordle, KenKen and Connections — has bolstered my intellectual property litigation practice by helping me to exercise different mental skills, acknowledge minor but important details, and build and reinforce good habits, says Roy Wepner at Kaplan Breyer.
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Dapper Settlement Offers Rules Of The Road For NFT Issuers
The terms of a $4 million settlement in a class action alleging that Dapper Labs sold its NBA Top Shot Moments as unregistered securities may be a model for third parties that wish to avoid securities liability in connection with offering digital asset non-fungible token collectibles, say attorneys at K&L Gates.
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Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice
The Texas Professional Ethics Committee's recently issued proposed opinion finding that in-house counsel providing legal services to the company's clients constitutes the unauthorized practice of law is a valuable clarification given that a UPL violation — a misdemeanor in most states — carries high stakes, say Hilary Gerzhoy and Julienne Pasichow at HWG.
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In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State
On June 28, the modern administrative state, where courts deferred to agency interpretations of ambiguous statutes, died when the U.S. Supreme Court overruled its previous decision in Chevron v. Natural Resources Defense Council — but it is survived by many cases decided under the Chevron framework, say Joseph Schaeffer and Jessica Deyoe at Babst Calland.
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First-Of-Its-Kind Chancery Ruling Will Aid SPAC Defendants
The Delaware Chancery Court's first full dismissal of claims challenging a special purpose acquisition company transaction under the entire fairness doctrine in the recent Hennessy Capital Acquisition Stockholder Litigation establishes useful precedent to abate the flood of SPAC litigation, say Lisa Bugni and Benjamin Lee at King & Spalding.