Securities

  • September 16, 2024

    Icahn Enterprises Beats Investor Suit Over Dividend Program

    Icahn Enterprises has beaten a proposed investor class action accusing it of propping up its stock price with unsustainably high dividends in order to support founder Carl Icahn's loans and financial interests, with a Florida federal judge saying the plaintiffs hadn't shown any misstatements the company made about the "true motivation" for its dividend program.

  • September 16, 2024

    Pot Co. Execs Go To 9th Circ. In Investment Scam Case

    A California cannabis company and its co-founders on Monday appealed a federal court decision booting them from the securities industry and holding them liable for roughly $6 million tied to a medical marijuana investment scam, the same day that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission asked the court to order a third individual to pay up for his part in the alleged scam.

  • September 16, 2024

    Four Fla. Residents Charged In Insider Trading Scheme

    A Miami-based financial consultant, his father and two friends were criminally charged with securities fraud violations in connection to an insider trading scheme after they used non-public information about a proposed merger to buy stocks, then sold them at a profit when the deal went through, according to federal prosecutors.

  • September 16, 2024

    Michael Best Absorbs 6-Atty Great Plains Startup Boutique

    Michael Best & Friedrich LLP announced Monday it had expanded into the Great Plains region of the U.S. as it combines with a six-attorney Nebraska-based boutique helmed by a former Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati PC attorney.

  • September 16, 2024

    Milbank Taps SEC Chief Litigation Counsel As DC Partner

    Milbank LLP said Monday it has hired the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's chief litigation counsel as a new partner in Washington, D.C.

  • September 16, 2024

    Ex-Cadwalader Litigation Co-Head Among Duo Added By V&E

    Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP's former global litigation group co-chair is one of two ex-partners in New York bringing their practices to Vinson & Elkins LLP, according to a Monday announcement.

  • September 16, 2024

    IRS Cancels Hearing On 'Basket Contract' Transactions Rule

    The Internal Revenue Service canceled a hearing on proposed rules that would flag what are known as basket option contracts as potentially abusive listed transactions, according to a notice released Monday.

  • September 13, 2024

    The 2024 Regional Powerhouses

    The law firms on Law360's list of 2024 Regional Powerhouses reflected the local peculiarities of their states while often representing clients in deals and cases that captured national attention.

  • September 13, 2024

    Wells Fargo Unit To Pay $3M Over Unsuitable Trading Claims

    The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has ordered Wells Fargo Clearing Services to pay roughly $3 million to settle allegations that the firm failed to adequately supervise how its registered representatives were selling certain securities that are subject to potential abuse because of the concessions they pay.

  • September 13, 2024

    Bankman-Fried Lays Blame On Trial Judge In 2nd Circ. Appeal

    FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried on Friday launched an appeal of his fraud conviction over the cryptocurrency exchange's historic collapse, issuing a broadside against the judge who oversaw his trial and saying FTX's debtor counsel Sullivan & Cromwell LLP acted as an arm of the prosecution.

  • September 13, 2024

    Truth Social Founders Take Trump Fight To Fed Court

    A co-founder of Donald Trump's Truth Social website has brought the fight over taking the company public to Florida federal court after several adverse events in state court actions, including the company filing an amended complaint to incorporate securities fraud that the U.S. government alleges.  

  • September 13, 2024

    SEC Inks $100M Deal With FirstEnergy, Sues Ex-CEO

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission reached a $100 million settlement with FirstEnergy Corp. over its role in a $60 million corruption scandal Thursday, the same day the agency sued a former executive who collected tens of millions of dollars in executive perks while the wrongdoing unfolded.

  • September 13, 2024

    SEC Fines Zymergen $30M Over Misleading Pre-IPO Claims

    Now-shuttered biotechnology company Zymergen Inc. has agreed to pay a $30 million fine to settle U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission allegations that it misled investors in its initial public offering when it used "unsupported hype" about the market potential for its technology for foldable touch screens.

  • September 13, 2024

    Trio Of BigLaw Mergers Expected To Drive More Deal Talks

    After months of a relatively steady pace of law firm mergers and acquisitions, the trio of proposed BigLaw tie-ups announced in recent days will likely spur more firms toward entertaining similar deal talks, experts say. Here, Law360 offers a snapshot of the proposed deals.

  • September 13, 2024

    Emergent BioSolutions Pays $40M To Settle COVID Vax Suit

    Emergent BioSolutions has agreed to pay $40 million to settle a consolidated class action alleging it misled investors about how prepared it was to handle two high-profile deals to manufacture COVID-19 vaccines.

  • September 13, 2024

    Dentons Taps Norton Rose For 3 Disputes Pros In Hong Kong

    Dentons has recruited a team of three disputes lawyers from Norton Rose Fulbright in Hong Kong to boost its capabilities representing clients in international construction cases and other high-stakes matters.

  • September 13, 2024

    UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

    This past week in London has seen a football agent sue Chelsea FC after being cleared of allegations he threatened the club’s former director, an ongoing patent dispute between Amgen and Regeneron Pharmaceuticals, and a private school in Edinburgh suing Riverstone Insurance over compensation claims tied to historical abuse allegations made by former pupils. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

  • September 12, 2024

    8th Circ. Nixes $563M Verdict Against BMO Harris Over Ponzi

    The Eighth Circuit on Thursday struck down a $563 million verdict against BMO Harris NA over claims that a bank it acquired had aided and abetted Thomas J. Petters' multibillion dollar Ponzi scheme, ruling that the bank should have been allowed to raise a defense that would have barred the suit in the first place.

  • September 12, 2024

    Wells Fargo Ordered To Overhaul Sanctions, AML Compliance

    Wells Fargo faces fresh restrictions on launching new products and entering new markets, and must beef up its compliance and monitoring efforts around sanctions, anti-money laundering and other international business risks, under an enforcement action announced Thursday by the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency. 

  • September 12, 2024

    Towers Watson Can't Duck Bump-Up Exclusion, 4th Circ. Told

    Towers Watson's latest effort to get its directors and officers insurers to fund a $75 million settlement in a shareholder suit over its merger with Willis should be tossed, the insurers told the Fourth Circuit, saying the bump-up exclusion unambiguously applies to bar coverage.

  • September 12, 2024

    Crypto Wallet Co. Beats Colo. Class Action Over $100M Hack

    The developers and owners of cryptocurrency application Atomic Wallet have beaten a proposed class action over a hack last year that stole roughly $100 million in customers' assets, with a Colorado federal judge saying the suit doesn't have a strong enough connection to the Centennial State to proceed there.

  • September 12, 2024

    Del. Justices Uphold Chancery Toss Of $1.2B NCino Deal Suit

    The Delaware Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Chancery's court's decision to throw out nCino investor claims against company directors and investment firm Insight Venture Partners challenging the financial technology company's $1.2 billion acquisition of mortgage loan platform SimpleNexus.

  • September 12, 2024

    Quinn Emanuel, Cohen Milstein Get $102M In Stock Loan Case

    A judge awarded $102 million in attorney fees to Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP and Cohen Milstein Sellers & Toll PLLC for settling claims from investors that major banks colluded to avoid modernizing the stock loan market.

  • September 12, 2024

    Trading Firm EToro To Limit Crypto Sales, Pay $1.5M SEC Fine

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday ordered trading platform eToro USA LLC to pay a $1.5 million fine and stop U.S. customers from trading in all but the three largest crypto assets to settle the regulator's allegations that the firm operated as an unregistered broker and clearing agency.

  • September 12, 2024

    CFTC Can't Pause Decision To Allow Election Betting

    A D.C. federal judge on Thursday refused to stay a ruling that found the Commodity Futures Trading Commission overstepped its bounds by blocking an online trading platform from allowing users to place bets on the outcome of U.S. congressional elections.

Expert Analysis

  • Best Text Practices In Light Of Terraform's $4.5B Fraud Deal

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    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.

  • Series

    Solving Puzzles Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    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.

  • Dapper Settlement Offers Rules Of The Road For NFT Issuers

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    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.

  • Texas Ethics Opinion Flags Hazards Of Unauthorized Practice

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    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.

  • Navigating The New Rise Of Greenwashing Litigation

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    As greenwashing lawsuits continue to gain momentum with a shift in focus to carbon-neutrality claims, businesses must exercise caution and ensure transparency in their environmental marketing practices, taking cues from recent legal challenges in the airline industry, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

  • In Memoriam: The Modern Administrative State

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    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.

  • How High Court Approached Time Limit On Reg Challenges

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's decision in Corner Post v. Federal Reserve Board effectively gives new entities their own personal statute of limitations to challenge rules and regulations, and Justice Brett Kavanaugh's concurrence may portend the court's view that those entities do not need to be directly regulated, say attorneys at Snell & Wilmer.

  • 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.

  • Roundup

    After Chevron

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court overturned the Chevron deference standard in June, this Expert Analysis series has featured attorneys discussing the potential impact across 36 different rulemaking and litigation areas.

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