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Capital Markets
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August 12, 2024
Rising Star: WilmerHale's Caroline Dotolo
WilmerHale partner Caroline Dotolo has guided life science research firms and others through major capital offerings, including as lead partner for a $350 million private investment in public equity offering for pharmaceutical developer Arvinas in 2023, earning her a top spot as one of the capital markets attorneys under 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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August 09, 2024
Ex-Twitter Board Member Says X Owes Him $23M From Stock
A former member of Twitter's board of directors who helped oversee the sale of the social media company to Elon Musk in 2022 claimed X Corp. owes him more than $23 million worth of vested and unvested shares, according to a lawsuit filed in California state court.
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August 09, 2024
Ripple Claims Victory In SEC Suit But Paid A Price
Ripple Labs Inc. celebrated the end of its legal battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission as a "clear victory" that cut through the regulator's bid for $2 billion over the exchange's unregistered institutional sales of its XRP token, but experts told Law360 the $125 million fine and injunction Ripple faces is much more than a speeding ticket to end a costly four-year battle.
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August 09, 2024
Gemini Seeks Quick 2nd Circ. Appeal In CFTC Fight
Gemini Trust Co. has asked a New York federal judge for permission to quickly appeal to the Second Circuit a June ruling denying the Winklevoss-led crypto exchange a win in the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's lawsuit alleging Gemini illegally downplayed known risks of its proposed bitcoin futures contract.
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August 09, 2024
Biotech Firms Mull Acquisition Offers Amid Shaky IPO Climate
Amid a shaky outlook for initial public offerings, more private biotechnology firms are exploring acquisition offers from larger pharmaceutical companies as a more certain exit strategy, according to experts who advise emerging drug developers.
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August 09, 2024
6th Circ. Partially Revives Crypto IRS Reporting Challenge
The Sixth Circuit issued a mixed ruling Friday in a suit brought by a group of cryptocurrency users challenging the IRS' pending mandate to report large crypto transactions, reversing the dismissal of the suit's Fourth and First Amendment violation claims but affirming that some of the case's claims are not ripe.
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August 09, 2024
Healthcare-Focused SPAC Voyager Nets $220M IPO
Shares of healthcare-focused Voyager Acquisition Corp. began trading publicly on Friday after the company priced its $220 million initial public offering.
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August 09, 2024
Lucid Narrows Securities Suit Over EV Production Targets
A California federal judge has trimmed a suit alleging electric-vehicle startup Lucid Group Inc. misled investors about its production target, trimming the case down to four out of 30 statements the investors said were misleading.
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August 09, 2024
Virtu Financial Can't Cut Down SEC's Information Security Suit
A Manhattan federal judge declined Friday to trim a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission lawsuit over Virtu Financial Inc.'s protection of customer investment data, saying discovery is needed to determine whether the platform designed reasonable safeguards to wall this information off from its own in-house traders.
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August 09, 2024
CFTC's Proposed Election Trading Ban Garners Mixed Feedback
The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has fielded a range of comments on its proposed rule to ban trading on the outcome of elections, with certain politicians and advocacy groups throwing their weight behind the measure and others accusing the agency of overstepping its authority.
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August 09, 2024
Frat House Ponzi Schemer Must Pay $65K In SEC Suit
A University of Georgia graduate who ran a Ponzi scheme from his fraternity house and defrauded classmates must pay an additional $65,000 in judgment interest after already having paid more than $509,000 to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commision.
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August 09, 2024
Fla. Forex Trader Gets 24 Years For $57M Ponzi Scheme
A purported foreign exchange trader has been hit with a 24-year prison sentence and a $57 million forfeiture order after pleading guilty to wire fraud and money laundering charges in connection with a Ponzi scheme that took in over 1,100 would-be investors.
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August 09, 2024
Investor Can't Drop Fraud Suit Against Crowdfunding CEO
A California cannabis investor cannot withdraw his lawsuit against a CEO he accused of helping to operate a $2 million crowdfunding scheme, a federal judge ruled, saying the investor now needs the defendant's permission.
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August 09, 2024
Rising Star: Wilson Sonsini's Lang Liu
Lang Liu of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC has helped steer companies like DoorDash Inc. and Lyft Inc. to successful initial public offerings in the face of uncertain markets, earning her a spot among the capital market attorneys under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.
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August 08, 2024
Investors, Banks Pitch Next Steps In Saved Bond-Rigging Suit
Investors accusing major banks of conspiring to rig corporate bonds have told a New York federal court they want to file a new complaint after the Second Circuit revived the suit last month over a potential conflict with the previous judge, while the defendants say this would take the case "back to square one."
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August 08, 2024
SPAC Investors Can't Sue Lucid Over Merger, 9th Circ. Says
The Ninth Circuit on Thursday refused to revive investors' proposed class action alleging that Lucid duped them into buying stock in a special purpose acquisition company ahead of the electric-vehicle maker's $11.75 billion merger, saying an acquiring company's investors can't sue the target company over its alleged misstatements before the merger.
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August 08, 2024
Uber's $200M Deal To End Investors' 'Train Wreck' IPO Suit OK'd
A California federal judge granted preliminary approval Thursday to Uber's $200 million class action deal with investors who claim the ride-hailing giant made false and misleading statements ahead of its $8.1 billion initial public offering regarding its passenger safety record, financial condition and the legality of its business model.
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August 08, 2024
Video Game Co. Can't Beat All Of Investors' Fraud Claims
Digital entertainment and e-commerce company Sea Ltd. can't fully defeat a pension fund's lawsuit alleging that the company misled the market to stop a free fall in its share price after a subsidiary lost publishing rights in Southeast Asia to the popular League of Legends video game, among other things.
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August 08, 2024
Fed Hits Customers Bank With Crypto-Related Consent Order
The Federal Reserve said Thursday that it had entered into an enforcement action with Pennsylvania-based Customers Bank, pointing to risk management and anti-money laundering compliance deficiencies tied to the bank's "digital asset strategy."
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August 08, 2024
Mass. Atty, 2 Others Settle SEC Insider Trading Claims
A Massachusetts business lawyer, his friend and his friend's father have agreed to collectively pay more than $230,000 to settle the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's allegations they used intel to trade ahead of an announcement made by the biotechnology company Frequency Therapeutics Inc., the SEC said Thursday.
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August 08, 2024
Fla. Judge Won't Pause E-Scooter Co.'s Ch. 11 Plan
California plaintiffs with tort claims against Bird Global Inc. can't stop a Chapter 11 plan for the bankrupt e-bike and e-scooter rental company while they appeal its confirmation because of the plan's third-party releases, a Florida bankruptcy judge ruled Thursday.
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August 08, 2024
2nd Circ. Won't Rethink Decision On 'Short-Swing' Profits
The Second Circuit won't reconsider its decision to revive a lawsuit against hedge fund Raging Capital Management LLC over claims that it improperly made $5 million in short-swing profits as a corporate insider of retailer 1-800-Flowers.
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August 08, 2024
Nasdaq Seeks To Step Up Delistings For Cheap, Risky Stocks
Nasdaq is proposing to accelerate delisting procedures for companies whose shares fall below $1 for extended periods by tightening compliance deadlines and cracking down on those companies that seek to avoid delisting by enacting reverse stock splits, marking the exchange's latest effort to combat risky stocks.
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August 08, 2024
VC, PE Firm Says Chinese Co. Cost $150M SpaceX Investment
A California-based venture capital and private equity firm has sued a Chinese company in California federal court, claiming Elon Musk's SpaceX rejected its planned $150 million investment after the Chinese company breached its promise to abide by strict confidentiality requirements and instead publicized its involvement in the planned investment.
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August 08, 2024
Deals Rumor Mill: Roche, Thoma Bravo, Klarna
Roche is considering divesting cancer data specialist Flatiron Health, Thoma Bravo is exploring a sale of compliance software maker Cority, and fintech startup Klarna is preparing a secondary-share sale ahead of a planned IPO. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.
Expert Analysis
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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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Equity Rights Offering Considerations As Maturity Cliff Looms
Current market uncertainties make an equity rights offering — involving affiliate backstop investors — a cost-effective, capital-raising transaction for distressed companies looking to manage their leverage ahead of the impending maturity of a substantial number of COVID-era debt issuances, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.
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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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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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Best Text Practices In Light Of Terraform's $4.5B Fraud Deal
Text messages were extremely important in a recent civil trial against Terraform Labs, leading to a $4.5 billion settlement, so litigants in securities fraud cases need to have robust mobile data policies that address the content and retention of messages, and the obligations of employees to allow for collection, say Josh Sohn and Alicia Clausen at Crowell & Moring.
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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.
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How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts
As law firms increasingly rely on generative artificial intelligence tools to produce legal text, attorneys should be on guard for the overuse of cohesive devices in initial drafts, and consider a few editing pointers to clean up AI’s repetitive and choppy outputs, says Ivy Grey at WordRake.
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Supreme Court's ALJ Ruling Carries Implications Beyond SEC
In its recent Jarkesy opinion, the U.S. Supreme Court limited the types of cases that can be tried before the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's in-house administrative law judges, setting the stage for challenges to the constitutionality of ALJs across other agencies, say Robert Robertson and Kimberley Church at Dechert.