Securities

  • July 03, 2024

    Chancery Tosses Challenge To $3B AstraZeneca Viela Bio Sale

    AstraZeneca PLC and a U.K. affiliate beat late Tuesday a Delaware Court of Chancery stockholder suit accusing the company of orchestrating an underpriced, $3 billion sale of clinical stage biopharmaceutical venture Viela Bio Inc. in order to clear the way for AstraZeneca's purchase of a larger competitor.

  • July 02, 2024

    Ozy's Watson Says He's No Fraudster, Judge Accused Of Bias

    Ozy Media founder Carlos Watson on Tuesday sought to rebut claims of deceiving financial backers of the media and entertainment company, denying any involvement in a ploy to impersonate a YouTube executive in order to secure funding from Goldman Sachs, while defense counsel continued to accuse the trial judge of bias.

  • July 02, 2024

    Ex-Senior Apple Atty To Pay SEC $1.1M For Insider Trading

    Apple's former director of corporate law must pay $1.1 million to securities regulators stemming from criminal insider trading charges to which he pled guilty in 2022, a New Jersey federal judge said Tuesday, finding that his "egregious" violations warrant the penalty since "his very job" was to ensure compliance with securities laws.

  • July 02, 2024

    DraftKings Must Face Securities Suit Over NFTs

    A Massachusetts federal judge won't toss a proposed class action claiming that DraftKings Inc. sold unregistered non-fungible tokens on its marketplace, ruling that the suit plausibly alleges that the company falsely advertised that its NFTs would appreciate in value.

  • July 02, 2024

    Judge Expedites Briefing For Consensys SEC Challenge

    Crypto firm Consensys' preemptive case against the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is set to move forward on an expedited basis after a Texas federal judge allowed the parties to brief any potential bids from the regulator to toss the case at the same time as Consensys' motion for a judgment in its favor.

  • July 02, 2024

    Prosecutors Rest In Chinese Exile's $1B Fraud Trial

    Manhattan federal prosecutors on Tuesday concluded their case-in-chief in the $1 billion fraud trial of Chinese dissident Miles Guo, and the defense team began putting on its own witnesses to rebut the charges that the businessman convinced his followers to invest in sham companies.

  • July 02, 2024

    Even If There's A Better Reading, Follow Arbitrator, 9th Circ. Says

    The Ninth Circuit has affirmed an arbitration award requiring two venture capital funds to dissolve in a suit alleging the funds' general partners breached their fiduciary duty, saying "even if there is a better interpretation, the arbitrator's interpretation controls, 'however good, bad, or ugly.'"

  • July 02, 2024

    Harvest Capital Class Ends Chancery Merger Suit For $3.85M

    Stockholder attorneys who secured a $3.85 million pretrial class settlement for an allegedly unfair Harvest Capital Credit Corp. merger deal won an above-average 25% share of the award Tuesday, in what a Delaware vice chancellor indicated was a move to reward top-flight attention to smaller-stakes litigation.

  • July 02, 2024

    Pharma Co. Scores Exit In Investor Suit Over Primate Imports

    A Massachusetts federal judge tossed every claim in a proposed class action claiming that pharmaceutical company Charles River Laboratories and its executives concealed their involvement in the illegal importation of nonhuman primates for research, ruling that the disputed statements are not false or misleading.

  • July 02, 2024

    Levi & Korsinsky Appointed Lead In Instacart Pre-IPO Action

    Levi & Korsinsky LLP has been appointed lead counsel for the investors in a suit alleging the grocery delivery company Instacart misrepresented its growth potential in the lead-up to its initial public offering.

  • July 02, 2024

    Chancery Cuts Sears Shareholders' $18.3M Award To $8.7M

    Minority stockholders of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores saw their class award in Delaware Chancery Court litigation trimmed from $18.3 million to $8.7 million Tuesday after former Sears CEO Edward S. Lampert and his co-defendants protested that the court had erred in its calculations.

  • July 02, 2024

    Bond-Rigging Suit Revived Over Judge's Wife's Stock Conflict

    The Second Circuit on Tuesday revived a proposed class action accusing big banks of rigging corporate bonds, ruling that the New York federal judge who previously dismissed the suit should have recused himself due to his wife's ownership of Bank of America stock.

  • July 02, 2024

    FTC Challenges Tempur Sealy's $4B Mattress Firm Deal

    The Federal Trade Commission moved Tuesday to block Tempur Sealy International Inc.'s planned $4 billion purchase of Mattress Firm Group Inc., saying the world's largest mattress supplier intends to use the deal to block its rivals from accessing the largest retail mattress chain in the U.S.

  • July 02, 2024

    Justices Skip Highland Capital Ch. 11 Plan Look After Purdue

    The Supreme Court declined to weigh in Tuesday on the exculpations in the Chapter 11 plan from venture capital firm Highland Capital after parties in the case argued that more clarity was needed following the high court's recent rejection of third-party claims releases in the Purdue Pharma reorganization.

  • July 01, 2024

    High Court's 1-2 Punch Sets Up Long-Standing Regs For KO

    By ending its term with a stinging combination against federal agencies, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative bloc left behind a bruised bureaucracy and a regulatory system that's now vulnerable to a barrage of incoming attacks.

  • July 01, 2024

    Ex-Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson Takes Stand, Denies Fraud

    Former Ozy Media CEO Carlos Watson on Monday testified that he is not guilty of charges that he deceived financial backers of the media and entertainment company about its allegedly dire financial state, while casting himself as the founder of an idealistic and scrappy startup that had more value than the government claims.

  • July 01, 2024

    SEC's High Court Loss May Sting For Banking Enforcement

    The U.S. Supreme Court's latest rebuke to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is poised to complicate enforcement for the federal banking agencies, providing new ammunition for challenges to the validity of their administrative proceedings, attorneys say.

  • July 01, 2024

    NJ Hospital Dodges $14.7M In Damages Over Audits

    An accounting firm for the former operator of Hoboken University Medical Center has dodged more than $14.7 million in malpractice liability damages even though a New Jersey federal jury found it had violated professional accounting standards in audits of the financially struggling hospital.

  • July 01, 2024

    GoDaddy Shareholders Balk At Further Chancery Delay

    A special litigation committee that GoDaddy Inc. created in September 2023 in response to shareholder litigation over an $850 million tax asset buyout has 30 days to convince a Delaware Chancery Court judge that it is conducting a good-faith investigation and cooperating with the suing shareholders.

  • July 01, 2024

    CFPB, Loan Trusts Push Back On PIMCO Deal Objections

    The U.S. Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and multiple student loan trusts have urged a Pennsylvania federal judge to ignore objections from investment giant PIMCO to a proposed $5 million settlement of claims tied to alleged servicing violations by Pennsylvania's Higher Education Assistance Agency.

  • July 01, 2024

    Silvergate To Pay $63M Over Internal Monitoring 'Deficiencies'

    The business behind now-defunct crypto-focused bank Silvergate has agreed to pay $63 million in combined penalties from regulators to settle claims its internal transaction monitoring and risk assessment of its customers, including of collapsed crypto exchange FTX, weren't up to par, regulators announced Monday.

  • July 01, 2024

    Wash. Law Firm, Ex-Atty Aided In $20M Fraud, Suit Alleges

    A Washington attorney and her former law firm are accused of lending "an air of legitimacy" to an alleged scheme to bilk an asset management firm out of $20 million by using forged invoices to obtain financing for computer equipment, according to a complaint filed in Washington state court.

  • July 01, 2024

    Carvana Seeks Toss Of Chancery Suit Alleging Faulty Sales

    An attorney for online used-car sales giant Carvana Inc. on Monday urged Delaware's chancellor to toss or stay what he described as a derivative damages case "repackaged" from past or pending federal securities actions that "have not fared well."

  • July 01, 2024

    Justices Told Clarity Needed On Ch. 11 Exculpations

    Highland Capital and parties opposed to the venture capital firm's Chapter 11 plan asked the U.S. Supreme Court to clear up how the high court's recent rejection of third-party claims releases in the Purdue Pharma reorganization applies to Chapter 11 exculpations.

  • July 01, 2024

    Caribou Bio Inks $3.9M Deal In Investors' Cancer Therapy Suit

    Caribou Biosciences Inc. has agreed to pay $3.9 million to settle a proposed class action alleging it misled investors about the durability of its most advanced cancer-fighting therapy before and after the gene-editing biotechnology company went public, investors told a California federal judge on Friday.

Expert Analysis

  • 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 at Finnegan.

  • Arbitration Implications Of High Court Coinbase Ruling

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    The U.S. Supreme Court's recent Coinbase v. Suski ruling not only reaffirmed the long-standing principle that arbitration is a matter of contract, but also established new and more general principles concerning the courts' jurisdiction to decide challenges to delegation clauses and the severability rule, say Tamar Meshel at the University of Alberta.

  • Banks As Crypto Custodians May Rest On SEC Bulletin's Fate

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    Banks' willingness to accept custody of cryptocurrency assets, like the exchange-traded funds approved by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission this spring, may hinge on whether a 2022 SEC accounting bulletin directing banks to track customers' digital assets on their balance sheets can survive Congress' attempts to strike it down, says Roger Chari at Duane Morris.

  • After A Brief Hiccup, The 'Rocket Docket' Soars Back To No. 1

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    The Eastern District of Virginia’s precipitous 2022 fall from its storied rocket docket status appears to have been a temporary aberration, as recent statistics reveal that the court is once again back on top as the fastest federal civil trial court in the nation, says Robert Tata at Hunton.

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