Securities

  • July 18, 2024

    Crypto Law Firm's SEC Challenge Met With Doubt At 9th Circ.

    A Ninth Circuit panel appeared skeptical Thursday of a law firm's quest for a judgment that its use of the crypto asset ether doesn't offend securities laws, questioning whether the firm has shown it faces enough of a threat from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to keep its case against the regulator alive.

  • July 18, 2024

    4 Men Cop To $2M 'Instant Deposit' Robinhood Fraud

    Four men have pled guilty in New York federal court to being involved in a scheme to steal millions of dollars from trading firm Robinhood by exploiting a program that gave them access to cash advances.

  • July 18, 2024

    Chancery Awards $6M Stockholder Atty Fee In Moelis Suit

    A Delaware vice chancellor granted a $6 million fee request on Thursday from attorneys who won a Chancery Court strike-down of a stockholder agreement granting Moelis & Co. founder Ken Moelis expansive control over the global investment bank's decisions.

  • July 18, 2024

    LPL Reaps Benefits From Forced Cash Sweep, Suit Says

    LPL Financial was hit with a putative class suit by a customer who claims the broker-dealer automatically moves customers' uninvested cash into its cash sweep programs, primarily benefiting the firm at the expense of its clients.

  • July 18, 2024

    Feds Collar Would-Be 'Smart Ring' CEO For Investor Fraud

    Los Angeles federal prosecutors have charged a Florida woman with securities and wire fraud with allegations detailing a $2 million investment scheme involving a purported "smart ring" company.

  • July 18, 2024

    Investor Signs $897K Settlement Over R. Kelly Show Funding

    After security and credit agreements for the promotion of a concert series at the Foxwoods Resort Casino headlined by R&B artist R. Kelly fell apart, an investor has signed a roughly $900,000 deal in a Connecticut state court to recover an out-of-state settlement.

  • July 18, 2024

    Biopharma Shareholder Sues In Del. For Docs On Akeso Deal

    A shareholder of Summit Therapeutics Inc. sued the Florida biopharmaceutical company in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Thursday, seeking corporate records to investigate whether a $520 million financing arrangement connected to a partnership with Akeso Inc. benefited the company's co-CEOs at the expense of public stockholders.

  • July 18, 2024

    Auto Software Co. Cerence's Brass Sued Over Licensing Woes

    A shareholder of Cerence Inc. has sued the automobile software company's current and former top brass in Delaware Chancery Court, alleging they made misleading and false statements about the company's expected revenue and the types of licensing deals the company was pushing and entering into.

  • July 18, 2024

    Ocugen Execs Hit With Derivative Suit Over Shoddy Controls

    The top brass at biopharmaceutical company Ocugen Inc. were hit with a derivative suit alleging the company's lack of effective internal financial controls caused it to be misvalued and allowed shareholders to approve proposals based on incomplete information.

  • July 18, 2024

    Moody's Says White Ex-Director's Depo 'Fatal' To Bias Suit

    Financial analytics company Moody's on Wednesday told a Pennsylvania federal judge that it was clear a former employee who sued it for discrimination wasn't fired for being white and old, pointing to his "fatal" admission that he'd still be employed had he responded to a company vaccination survey.

  • July 18, 2024

    CEO Firing Case Tied To Mogul Going To Mediation

    A former chief executive and a European IT company tied to convicted mogul Greg Lindberg will head to mediation as part of a back-and-forth case involving allegations of firing without warning and spending company money on women's lingerie.

  • July 18, 2024

    Las Vegas Developer Says SEC's EB-5 Fraud Suit Falls Short

    A Las Vegas developer urged a Nevada federal judge to toss securities regulators' allegations she misappropriated $10 million raised by overseas investors hoping to come to the U.S. to pay down a loan for a project unconnected to their applications, arguing Wednesday the regulators fail to allege a wrongful state of mind.

  • July 18, 2024

    Chancery Strains To Unwrap Shareholder's Amazon Order

    A Delaware Chancery Court vice chancellor struggled on Thursday to wrap her head around a shareholder's demand for corporate documents to probe antitrust allegations at Amazon.com Inc. after a magistrate's report found the shareholder had not presented enough evidence to force the retailer to open its books.

  • July 18, 2024

    American Airlines Hit With Class Action Over Sales Strategy

    An investor launched a proposed class action against American Airlines over the company's botched sales and distribution strategy, saying that American touted its strategy as driving revenue while hiding the fact that the strategy was "driving customers away" in a Texas federal court on Thursday.

  • July 18, 2024

    Cozen O'Connor Targets Penny Stock Co. CEO For Legal Fees

    Cozen O'Connor is asking a Connecticut state court judge to affirm two Pennsylvania judgments against a penny stock company CEO who lost a federal enforcement action, alleging Bernard Findley and two of his companies owe nearly $750,000 in legal fees.

  • July 18, 2024

    Another Enphase Investor Suit Claims Execs Hid Slow Growth

    Enphase Energy's top brass has been slapped with another shareholder complaint in California federal court, alleging they misrepresented the energy technology company's financial outlook by concealing a decrease in battery shipments and slower manufacturing outputs, which artificially inflated its stock price.

  • July 18, 2024

    Ex-Venable Trusts And Estates Partner Joins Stradling In LA

    Stradling Yocca Carlson & Rauth PC announced that it launched a trusts and estates practice with the hiring of an experienced Los Angeles-based partner from Venable LLP.

  • July 18, 2024

    Womble Bond Adds Finance Atty With Latin America Focus

    Womble Bond Dickinson's growing New York office is welcoming a capital markets and structured finance attorney after his more than 10 years with Hogan Lovells, most recently in Brazil.

  • July 18, 2024

    Del. Justices Asked To Undo Firm's 'Malicious' Suit Escape

    Applied Energetics is asking the Delaware Supreme Court to revive a complaint alleging Gusrae Kaplan Nusbaum PLLC and a former partner filed a frivolous federal securities fraud suit in order to hobble other litigation against the company's former chief executive officer.

  • July 18, 2024

    SolarWinds Beats Most Claims In SEC's Data Breach Suit

    A New York federal judge on Thursday delivered a heavy blow to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's case against software developer SolarWinds Corp. by dismissing substantial portions of the lawsuit, including claims that the company committed securities fraud by minimizing the severity of a state-sponsored attack on its flagship product.

  • July 17, 2024

    Politan Sues Masimo Over Delayed Board Election Meeting

    Activist investment firm Politan Capital Management LP launched a lawsuit Wednesday against Masimo Corp. in Delaware Chancery Court just days after the medical technology company accused it of violating securities laws by trying to gain control of Masimo through a proxy contest that duped Masimo shareholders using "lies and deceit."

  • July 17, 2024

    SEC's Peirce Calls For Rule Agenda Reset After Court Rulings

    Hester Peirce, a member of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, called on the agency Wednesday to reconsider its rulemaking agenda given recent court rulings, saying it should "really think about hewing closely" to its statutory mandate, in comments made just weeks after the U.S. Supreme Court's decision to end Chevron deference.

  • July 17, 2024

    Ex-SEC Lawyer's Fellow Penny Stock Fraudster To Pay $1M

    A Texas federal judge handed down final judgment Tuesday to a co-defendant of an ex-SEC lawyer turned fraudster in a civil case involving a penny stock scheme, barring Justin Herman from ever dealing penny stocks again and ordering him to pay over $1 million.

  • July 17, 2024

    SEC Says Ex-CEO Of Trump-Tied SPAC Hid Merger Talks

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday accused the former CEO of Digital World Acquisition Corp. of falsely representing that the special purpose acquisition company had no potential merger targets when he was actually personally discussing a merger with former President Donald Trump's social media company.

  • July 17, 2024

    Defense Contractor CAE Faces Investor Suit Over Overruns

    Defense contractor CAE was hit with a proposed shareholder class action alleging it misrepresented major incurred costs related to contracts the company entered into before the COVID-19 pandemic.

Expert Analysis

  • First-Of-Its-Kind Chancery Ruling Will Aid SPAC Defendants

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    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.

  • How To Clean Up Your Generative AI-Produced Legal Drafts

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    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.

  • Supreme Court's ALJ Ruling Carries Implications Beyond SEC

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    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.

  • Series

    Boxing Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Boxing has influenced my legal work by enabling me to confidently hone the skills I've learned from the sport, like the ability to remain calm under pressure, evaluate an opponent's weaknesses and recognize when to seize an important opportunity, says Kirsten Soto at Clyde & Co.

  • Series

    After Chevron: No Deference, No Difference For SEC Or CFTC

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    The Chevron doctrine did not fundamentally alter the interplay between the courts and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission in the development of the securities and commodities laws — and its demise will not do so either, says Dan Berkovitz at Millennium Management.

  • Opinion

    Industry Self-Regulation Will Shine Post-Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's Loper decision will shape the contours of industry self-regulation in the years to come, providing opportunities for this often-misunderstood practice, says Eric Reicin at BBB National Programs.

  • 3 Ways Agencies Will Keep Making Law After Chevron

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    The U.S. Supreme Court clearly thinks it has done something big in overturning the Chevron precedent that had given deference to agencies' statutory interpretations, but regulated parties have to consider how agencies retain significant power to shape the law and its meaning, say attorneys at K&L Gates.

  • Opinion

    Atty Well-Being Efforts Ignore Root Causes Of The Problem

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    The legal industry is engaged in a critical conversation about lawyers' mental health, but current attorney well-being programs primarily focus on helping lawyers cope with the stress of excessive workloads, instead of examining whether this work culture is even fundamentally compatible with lawyer well-being, says Jonathan Baum at Avenir Guild.

  • Proposed Customer ID Rule Could Cost Investment Advisers

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    A rule recently proposed by FinCEN and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to make financial advisers collect more customer information parallels an anti-money laundering and counterterrorism rule proposed this spring, but firms may face new compliance costs when implementing these screening programs, say attorneys at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • What Passage Of House Crypto Bill Could Mean For Industry

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    While the prospects of the Financial Innovation and Technology for the 21st Century Act, which recently passed the House in a bipartisan fashion, becoming law remain murky, the manner of its passage may give crypto markets a real cause for hope, say Neel Maitra and Dale Beggs at Dechert.

  • What 2 Rulings On Standing Mean For DEI Litigation

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    Recent federal court decisions in the Fearless Fund and Hello Alice cases shed new light on the ongoing wave of challenges to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives, with opposite conclusions on whether the plaintiffs had standing to sue, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

  • Series

    Skiing And Surfing Make Me A Better Lawyer

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    The skills I’ve learned while riding waves in the ocean and slopes in the mountains have translated to my legal career — developing strong mentor relationships, remaining calm in difficult situations, and being prepared and able to move to a backup plan when needed, says Brian Claassen at Knobbe Martens.

  • Advisers Can Avoid Gaps In SEC Marketing Rule Compliance

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    A recent risk alert from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the enforcement history of the marketing rule indicate that advisers have encountered persistent difficulties in achieving compliance — but there are steps advisers can take to mitigate risks of violations, say Scott Moss and Jimmy Kang at Lowenstein Sandler.

  • Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: June Lessons

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    In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy considers two recent decisions from the Third and Tenth Circuits, and identifies practice tips around class action settlements and standing in securities litigation.

  • Unpacking The Circuit Split Over A Federal Atty Fee Rule

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    Federal circuit courts that have addressed Rule 41(d) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure are split as to whether attorney fees are included as part of the costs of a previously dismissed action, so practitioners aiming to recover or avoid fees should tailor arguments to the appropriate court, says Joseph Myles and Lionel Lavenue at Finnegan.

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