Capital One on Friday received the last regulatory sign-offs needed for its $35 billion purchase of Discover, putting the megadeal on track to close for the former while also clearing the decks of a more than $1 billion enforcement matter for the latter.
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Capital One's Discover Deal Gets Bank Regulators' Approval

By Jon Hill

Capital One on Friday received the last regulatory sign-offs needed for its $35 billion purchase of Discover, putting the megadeal on track to close for the former while also clearing the decks of a more than $1 billion enforcement matter for the latter.

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CFPB Mass Layoffs Blocked Again In DC Court

By Jared Foretek

A D.C. federal judge once again halted the layoffs of more than 1,000 employees of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, saying at an emergency hearing Friday morning that she needed a full record to determine whether the firings complied with a D.C. Circuit order from last week.

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FDIC Eases Big Banks' 'Living Will' Requirements

By Jon Hill

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. moved Friday to spare large banks from certain requirements for what should go into the next version of their so-called living wills, saying it wants to put more emphasis on planning for quicker, potentially weekend sales of failing banks.

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Feds Seek Up To 6 Years For Ex-Bank GC's $7.4M Theft

By Aaron Keller

A former general counsel for a Webster Bank predecessor should serve between 51 and 71 months behind bars and pay full restitution after admitting he spent eight years embezzling $7.4 million, federal prosecutors argue.

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POLICY & REGULATION

JPMorgan, BofA Face GOP Pressure Over Chinese Co.'s IPO

By Sarah Jarvis

The chair of a China-focused U.S. House committee has urged Bank of America and JPMorgan Chase & Co. not to underwrite a Hong Kong initial public offering of Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. over concerns the Chinese electric car battery maker is affiliated with the Chinese military.

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ENFORCEMENT & COMPLIANCE

Murdaugh's Banker Pleads Guilty To Fraud Ahead Of Retrial

By Cara Salvatore

A former bank CEO accused of helping ex-lawyer and convicted murderer Alex Murdaugh steal client money pled guilty Friday to fraud ahead of a retrial, months after his initial conviction was overturned based on jury irregularities.

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Ohio AG Accuses Mortgage Lender Of Deceiving Borrowers

By Carolyn Muyskens

Ohio's attorney general has hit United Wholesale Mortgage LLC with a lawsuit in state court accusing the Michigan-based lender of colluding with mortgage brokers to steer loans to UWM.

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CFTC Details Violation Materiality After Cooperation Guidance

By Sarah Jarvis

Divisions of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission have offered details on their materiality standards for assessing supervision and noncompliance issues, following February guidance on how much money regulated entities can expect to save for cooperating with agency investigations.

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LITIGATION

Santander Not Responsible For Customer's Bad Crypto Buys

By Julie Manganis

Santander Bank is not liable for more than $750,000 lost by a customer to a cryptocurrency scam, a Massachusetts intermediate appellate court said Friday.

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Cannabis Co. Says Lender Lied About Default To Steal Funds

By George Woolston

A cannabis company with facilities in New Jersey and Pennsylvania has alleged in Garden State federal court that its lender lied about the company being in default in order to steal funds out of two of the company's bank accounts and claims it shows no sign of stopping.

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DEALS

Castlelake, Invictus Partner For $2B Residential Loan Venture

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Global alternative investment manager Castlelake LP announced that it has formed a partnership with alternative credit asset manager Invictus Capital Partners to invest up to $2 billion in newly originated residential mortgages.

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Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Simpson Thacher

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, Global Payments Inc. buys Worldpay from GTCR and FIS, Intel Corp. sells a stake in its Altera business to Silver Lake, KKR acquires OSTTRA from S&P Global and CME Group, and Canada's Capital Power Corp. nabs two U.S. natural gas power plants.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

Ban On Reputation Risk May Help Bank Enforcement Defense

The Comptroller of the Currency and Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.’s recent commitment to stop examining banks for reputation risk could help defendants in enforcement actions challenge unfavorable assessments and support defendants' arguments for lower civil money penalties, says Brendan Clegg at Luse Gorman.

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Traversing The Shifting Sands Of ESG Reporting Compliance

Multinational corporations have increasingly found themselves between a rock and a hard place attempting to comply with EU and California ESG requirements while not running afoul of expanding U.S. anti-ESG regimes, but focusing on what is material to shareholder value and establishing strong governance can help, say attorneys at MoFo.

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An Unrestrained, Bright-Eyed View Of Legal AI's Future

Todd Itami at Covington offers a bright-eyed, laughing-all-the-way, skydive look at what the legal industry could look like after an artificial intelligence revolution, which he believes may happen much sooner and more dramatically than we expect.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

WilmerHale, Feds Dispute Reach Of Trump Order Against Firm

By Jack Karp

WilmerHale and the U.S. Department of Justice traded salvos in the BigLaw firm's challenge to President Donald Trump's executive order targeting it, with the firm and the government offering "starkly different" versions of what's at stake in the dispute.

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Ex-Katten Partner Hits Firm With $67M Age Bias Suit

By Lauren Berg

A former Katten Muchin Rosenman LLP partner launched a $67 million discrimination lawsuit against his one-time firm in New York federal court, alleging he was pushed out of the aircraft-finance practice group, pressured to resign and then fired because of the firm CEO's "stereotyped views of lawyers in their 60s."

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Joel Katz, Music Law's Longtime Power Broker, Dies At 80

By Chart Riggall

Joel Katz, the powerful music industry lawyer who co-founded Greenberg Traurig LLP's media and entertainment practice and helped bring the firm to the Atlanta market, has died at the age of 80, Law360 confirmed Friday.

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Sunoco Accused Of Age Bias By Ex-Chief Counsel

By Gina Kim

A former chief counsel for Sunoco LP sued her ex-employer in Texas state court Wednesday, alleging she was denied promotional opportunities and later terminated due to her age, while also accusing the company of replacing attorneys older than 50 with significantly younger attorneys with less experience.

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How They Won It

How Manatt Beat A Crypto Trader's 'Code As Law' Defense

By Aislinn Keely

After a crypto user exploited a software bug to create millions of dollars' worth of new tokens from a blockchain network, a Manatt Phelps & Phillips LLP team defeated his claim to the tokens — and won an award worth millions — by showing that faulty code can't stand in for rule of law.

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Justices Temporarily Block Removals Under Wartime Law

By Britain Eakin

The U.S. Supreme Court on Saturday ordered the Trump administration to halt removals of alleged Venezuelan gang members detained in Texas under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, pending further input from the court.

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High Court's Pause Of Removals Was 'Premature,' Alito Says

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court's decision early Saturday morning to prohibit the Trump administration from using a 1798 wartime law to remove alleged Venezuelan gang members detained in northern Texas to an El Salvadoran prison was hasty and premature, Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent joined by Justice Clarence Thomas.

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Ex-DOJ Atty Convicted In 1MDB Case Ordered Disbarred In NY

By Craig Clough

A New York appellate court ordered Wednesday that a former U.S. Department of Justice attorney be disbarred due to his felony conviction as part of a sprawling, billion-dollar fraud scandal connected to 1Malaysia Development Berhad and Fugees founder Pras Michél.

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Judge Nixes Feds' DQ Bid In Migrant Kids Legal Funding Case

By Ryan Boysen

A California federal judge has denied the Trump administration's bid to remove her from a lawsuit challenging funding cuts that prevent attorneys from representing child migrants, ruling her employment at one of the plaintiffs nearly seven years ago doesn't undermine her impartiality.

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PTAB Judge Heads To Boutique, Citing Return-To-Office Order

By Andrew Karpan

An outgoing Patent Trial and Appeal Board judge based in Austin, Texas, tells Law360 that President Donald Trump's return-to-office order was a "significant factor" in her decision to return to private practice, joining boutique patent firm Smith Baluch LLP as a partner.

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Judiciary Faces Security Risks Amid Spending Freeze

By Courtney Bublé

The federal judiciary is warning congressional appropriators that funding shortfalls could threaten courthouse security.

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Wis. Sens. Renew Bipartisan Judicial Nomination Commission

By Courtney Bublé

The Republican and Democratic senators from Wisconsin announced Friday they are renewing their bipartisan commission to recommend U.S. attorney and judicial nominees to the president.

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Up Next At High Court: Preventive HealthCare & LGBTQ Books

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear arguments in five cases this week, including disputes over the constitutionality of a task force that sets preventive healthcare coverage requirements, a school district's introduction of LGBTQ-themed storybooks and whether parties can establish standing based on harms affecting third parties. 

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Google and its chief legal officer have now lost two major antitrust cases to DOJ prosecutors after a federal judge ruled Thursday the search engine monopolized markets and servers related to display advertising. Meanwhile, a new study shows companies are disclosing their business risks, and how they are trying to mitigate those risks, amid changing tariffs and the uncertainty of the U.S.-China trade war. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Schlichter Bogard LLC and the University of Virginia School of Law Supreme Court Litigation Clinic lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court revived a class action from Cornell University workers who said their retirement plans were saddled with excessive fees.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Accenture PLC

Advanced Flower Capital Inc.

Advanced Micro Devices Inc.

American Airlines Group Inc.

American Bar Association

American Civil Liberties Union

Amperex Technology Ltd.

Bank of America Corp.

CME Group Inc.

Capital One Financial Corp.

Capital Power Corp.

Castlelake LP

Community Legal Services in East Palo Alto

Cornell University

DePuy Synthes Cos.

Dell Technologies Inc.

Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu Ltd.

Discover Financial Services Inc.

EMI Group Ltd.

Fairway Independent Mortgage Corp.

Federal National Mortgage Association

GTCR LLC

Global Payments Inc.

GoDaddy Inc.

Google LLC

Harvard University

Hudson Valley Holding Corp.

Intel Corp.

JPMorgan Chase & Co.

Johnson & Johnson

LinkedIn Corp.

Match Group LLC

Meta Platforms Inc.

Metropolitan Commercial Bank

Molson Coors Beverage Co.

Monster Beverage Corp.

National Treasury Employees Union

NuStar Energy LP

Public Citizen Inc.

Rocket Mortgage LLC

S&P Global Inc.

SVB Financial Group

Santander Holdings USA Inc.

Sony Music Publishing LLC

Sterling National Bank

Sunoco LP

T-Mobile US Inc.

Telefonaktiebolaget LM Ericsson

The City University of New York

The Recording Academy

Tupperware Brands Corp.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce

United Wholesale Mortgage LLC

Universal Music Group NV

University of Virginia

Vital Pharmaceuticals

Warner/Chappell Music Inc.

Webster Financial Corp.

Worldpay LLC

e.l.f. Beauty Inc.

eBay Inc.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Alston & Bird

Baker & Hostetler

Baker Botts

Ballard Spahr

Barnes & Thornburg

Boies Schiller

Clement & Murphy

Covington & Burling

DLA Piper

Davis Polk

Dynamis LLP

Foley & Lardner

Gibson Dunn

Greenberg Traurig

Greenspoon Marder

Gupta Wessler

Habush Habush

Hueston Hennigan

Jenner & Block

Jones Day

Katten Muchin

Kilgore & Kilgore

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Latham & Watkins

Lewis Brisbois

Loevy & Loevy

Luse Gorman

Manatt Phelps

Maynard Nexsen

Morris Nichols

Morrison Cohen

Morrison Foerster

O'Melveny & Myers

Olshan Frome

Patterson Belknap

Paul Hastings

Paul Weiss

Perkins Coie

Pierson Ferdinand LLP

Quinn Emanuel

Reed Smith

Saul Ewing

Schlichter Bogard

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP

Skadden Arps

Smith Baluch

Sullivan & Cromwell

Susman Godfrey

Vinson & Elkins

Wachtell Lipton

WilmerHale

Yankwitt LLP

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality

California Air Resources Board

Commodity Futures Trading Commission

Commonwealth of Massachusetts

Consumer Financial Protection Bureau

Dallas County, Texas

Equal Employment Opportunity Commission

European Commission

European Union

Executive Office of the President

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.

Federal Judicial Center

Federal Reserve System

Federal Trade Commission

Internal Revenue Service

Judicial Conference of the United States

New York State Division of Human Rights

Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

Ohio Attorney General's Office

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

Texas Legislature

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Connecticut

U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of South Carolina

U.S. Copyright Office

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit

U.S. Department of Defense

U.S. Department of Health and Human Services

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. Department of the Treasury

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Connecticut

U.S. District Court for the District of New Jersey

U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina

U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency

U.S. General Services Administration

U.S. Office of Personnel Management

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Senate

U.S. Sentencing Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

U.S. Tax Court