CFPB Pitches Plan For Tighter Regulation Of Data Brokers

By Jon Hill

In a late push before the Biden administration's end, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau moved Tuesday to clamp down on the so-called data broker industry with a new draft rule that pivots off existing credit reporting protections for consumers.  

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Texas Judge Blocks 'Quasi-Orwellian' Anti-Laundering Law

By Jon Hill

A Texas federal judge on Tuesday halted the Biden administration's roll-out of new reporting requirements aimed at unmasking anonymous shell companies, granting a nationwide preliminary injunction sought by business interests challenging their constitutionality.

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AmEx Loses Arbitration Bid Due To 'Ironic' Unpaid $17M Bill

By Dorothy Atkins

A Rhode Island federal judge on Monday rejected sending a proposed antitrust class action over American Express Co.'s swipe-fee rules back to arbitration after the company refused to pay arbitration fees totaling $17 million, observing that AmEx's actions created its own "ironic dilemma: a credit card company not paying its bills."

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Ex-Lender Agrees To $1M FDIC Order After Enforcement Battle

By Emilie Ruscoe

A retired small business financier has agreed to pay $1 million in restitution to end administrative Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. allegations of a fraudulent bridge loan scheme, with the agreement coming after his most recent constitutional challenges to the agency's structure fell flat in October.

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Coinbase Says It Won't Use Firms That Hire Crypto Enforcers

By Aislinn Keely

Cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase made clear that it won't work with law firms that employ former U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission attorneys who led the charge on crypto enforcement suits, singling out Milbank LLP for its hiring of ex-SEC enforcement director Gurbir Grewal.

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Top Ex-SEC Officials Warn Of Enforcement Upheaval

By Stewart Bishop

Former top U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission officials on Tuesday predicted a sea change in the agency's enforcement approach in the coming second administration of President-elect Donald Trump, with a lighter touch for corporate wrongdoers and a whole new ballgame with respect to cryptocurrency.

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Unit Of World's Largest Bank Avoids SEC Penalty In Cyber Case

By Sarah Jarvis

A broker-dealer subsidiary of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China will escape civil penalties in a settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over its books and records because of the firm's remediation and cooperation, the agency says.

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Celsius Founder Cops To Fraud That Sunk $25B Crypto Lender

By Pete Brush

Celsius Network founder Alex Mashinsky told a Manhattan federal judge Tuesday that he lied when he told the public that the fallen $25 billion crypto lender's tokens were a safe investment, pleading guilty to fraud charges ahead of a January criminal trial.

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Fla.'s 'Mother Teresa' Gets 20 Years For Ponzi Scheme

By Carolina Bolado

A Florida federal judge on Tuesday accused the U.S. attorney's office of "abdicating its responsibility" by agreeing to a maximum of 20 years in prison for Johanna Garcia, the former MJ Capital CEO known as "Mother Teresa" who pled guilty to running a $190 million Ponzi scheme.

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Investor Attys Seek $6.6M Cut Of $20M Metal Price-Fixing Deal

By Katryna Perera

Attorneys for investors settling platinum and palladium price-fixing claims against Goldman Sachs and others for $20 million have asked a New York federal judge to award them fees equivalent to a third of the settlement amount, or more than $6.6 million, a below-lodestar request that they said is, "clearly, not a windfall situation."

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Customers Bancorp Hid AML Shortcomings, Investor Suit Says

By Sydney Price

Bank holding company Customers Bancorp Inc. faces a shareholder suit in Pennsylvania federal court alleging it failed to disclose shortcomings in its anti-money laundering compliance, causing shares to decline when the Federal Reserve and state banking authorities brought enforcement actions tied to the lender's work with crypto firms.

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Bonus Spotlight

Wilkinson Stekloff Exceeds BigLaw's Year-End Bonuses

By Anna Sanders

Associates at trial boutique Wilkinson Stekloff will receive year-end bonuses as much as $57,500 higher than those given across BigLaw on top of special bonuses matching those offered by other firms, founding partners said Tuesday.

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BigLaw's China Exodus Continues With Paul Weiss Closure

By Aebra Coe

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP will close its Beijing office at the end of the year, a spokesperson confirmed to Law360 Pulse Tuesday, ending the firm's physical presence in mainland China after more than 40 years amid a wider exodus of U.S. law firms from the country.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Tunheim Advises Other Jurists

For more than a decade, U.S. District Judge John Tunheim has counseled judges from other countries on quandaries jurists face internationally, from artificial intelligence to court administration to judicial independence.

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Lockheed Martin Taps Carrier CLO And DOJ Veteran As GC

By Gina Kim

Lockheed Martin has hired Carrier Corp.'s chief legal officer and U.S. Department of Justice veteran Kevin O'Connor as its new general counsel to succeed Maryanne Lavan, who is retiring after more than 30 years at the aerospace giant.

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Exelon Promotes Ex-FERC Commissioner To Top Legal Role

By Daniel Connolly

Utility company Exelon Corp. announced Tuesday that a former Reed Smith LLP partner and former member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has been named its next chief legal officer, and also said it's also expanding the top legal role.

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Brief

It's Not Your Imagination, SDNY Attys: PACER Really Is Slow

By Pete Brush

Recent mid-morning slowdowns of the federal courts database known as PACER in the Southern District of New York are caused by a profusion of data miners that ply their trade around the same time each day, a district official confirmed Tuesday.

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Microsoft Asks FTC Watchdog To Look Into Leaked Probe

By Lauren Berg

A Microsoft deputy general counsel on Tuesday asked the Federal Trade Commission's inspector general to look into whether commission management improperly told a news outlet that the FTC had opened a broad antitrust investigation of the tech giant.

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Senate Confirms Ex-Public Defender For Mass. Federal Court

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate voted 47-45 Monday night to confirm Brian Murphy, a former public defender, as a U.S. district court judge for the District of Massachusetts.

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New Judges Include One Who Aided Puerto Rico Bondholders

By Courtney Bublé

The Senate on Tuesday confirmed two federal judges for Pennsylvania and one for the District of Columbia, who came under scrutiny during her confirmation hearing for her work at Jones Day.

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Analysis

Wheeling & Appealing: The Latest Must-Know Appellate Action

By Jeff Overley

December's appellate forecast calls for a squall of showdowns in a tiny time period before the holidays, including arguments involving recent U.S. Supreme Court cases, Big Tech's patents and popular purveyors of health food. In addition, winds of change are swirling around the White House's litigation posture and judicial nominations, and we'll quiz you on the latter in this edition of Wheeling & Appealing.

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Trump Argues Immunity Extends To Local Prosecutions

By Frank G. Runyeon

President-elect Donald Trump told the New York state judge presiding over his hush money case that the criminal charges and guilty verdict should be thrown out, arguing in an expansive motion released Tuesday that allowing a local prosecution to proceed would upset the republic's balance of power.

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Judge Mulls Whether DA Willis Must Comply With Subpoenas

By Kelcey Caulder

A Fulton County judge on Tuesday considered whether a Georgia state Senate committee can force Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to testify or turn over records as part of its investigation into her prosecution of President-elect Donald Trump.

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Tech Giants Seek Firm's Communications With Elusive Client

By Ryan Boysen

Apple and Amazon want Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP to turn over texts and emails with a client who disappeared from a putative class action against the tech giants, to determine whether the plaintiff consented to the case continuing in his absence.

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2nd Recount Underway In North Carolina Supreme Court Race

By Hayley Fowler

Election officials in North Carolina will embark on a second recount of votes in a close race for a state Supreme Court seat, at the behest of a Republican Court of Appeals judge hoping to unseat his Democratic opponent. 

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