Capital Markets

  • January 17, 2025

    Video Game Maker To Pay $20M For Child Privacy Violations

    The maker of the video game "Genshin Impact" has agreed to pay $20 million and block children under 16 from making in-game purchases without parental permission to resolve the Federal Trade Commission's claims that the company misled children and other users about the actual costs of purchases and illegally collected children's personal information.

  • January 17, 2025

    Venezuela Says $2B In Bonds Can't Be Enforced

    More than five years into litigation aimed at enforcing nearly $2 billion in defaulted bonds against Venezuela's state-owned oil company, the country is urging a New York federal judge to nix the case on the grounds that the bonds are illegal under its domestic law.

  • January 17, 2025

    Crypto Coder Sues Feds To Block 'Money Transmitter' Label

    Crypto policy think tank Coin Center is supporting one of its fellows in suing the federal government over its allegedly "mistaken view" of how criminal money transmission statutes apply to crypto software.

  • January 17, 2025

    Michigan Justices Won't Answer Securities Test Issue

    The Michigan Supreme Court on Friday denied an appeal from a developer asking justices to find a state law test rather than a federal one should be used to determine if a promissory note is a security, leaving in place a ruling that keeps the developer liable for notes issued in a $6 million project. 

  • January 17, 2025

    SEC Says Food Tech Startup Overstated Revenue By $550M

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday fined venture-backed food technology startup GrubMarket $8 million for allegedly misleading investors by overstating revenue by more than $550 million, with faulty accounting that regulators say the company should have known was unreliable.

  • January 17, 2025

    Sidley-Led Hennessy Capital's 7th SPAC Raises $175M

    Blank-check company Hennessy Capital Investment Corp. VII began trading publicly on Friday after raising $175 million in its initial public offering, which will be used to merge with a company in the industrial technology or energy transition sectors.

  • January 17, 2025

    Nasdaq Pulls Board Diversity Rules After 5th Circ. Loss

    Nasdaq has moved to formally undo its rules requiring that companies listed on the exchange disclose board diversity data, following a narrow, en banc ruling from the Fifth Circuit last month finding that the rules ran afoul of federal securities law.

  • January 17, 2025

    Drink Maker Celsius Settles SEC's Accounting Claims For $3M

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday fined beverage company Celsius Holdings Inc. $3 million to settle claims that it issued financial statements that were materially inaccurate and misleading due to misreported stock award information.

  • January 17, 2025

    NYC Mall Lenders, Developer Want Foreign Investor Suit Nixed

    Financial backers of a Staten Island mall project are asking a federal judge to toss a suit by foreign investors seeking damages, arguing that the investors are just trying to "claw back" whatever they can from others who lost even more money.

  • January 17, 2025

    SEC Fines Crypto Giant DCG, Ex-Genesis CEO $38.5M

    Crypto venture capital firm Digital Currency Group and the ex-CEO of its bankrupt lending subsidiary Genesis Global Capital LLC agreed to a combined $38.5 million civil penalty Friday to settle claims they misled investors about Genesis' financial condition ahead of its collapse.

  • January 17, 2025

    FDIC Sues Ex-SVB Top Brass For 'Egregious Mismanagement'

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. has sued Silicon Valley Bank's former CEO Gregory Becker and other top brass in California federal court in a bid to put them on the hook for the bank's costly 2023 failure, accusing them of "egregious mismanagement."

  • January 17, 2025

    SEC Fines Unregistered Broker $3M Over Pre-IPO Work

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Friday fined an unregistered broker $3 million to resolve charges for illegally brokering transactions related to the stock of private companies that were expected to conduct initial public offerings.

  • January 17, 2025

    PE-Backed M&A Values, Megadeals Surged In 2024

    Private equity-backed merger and acquisition values jumped nearly 25% year-over-year in 2024, while PE-backed megadeals valued above $5 billion more than doubled, according to S&P Global Market Intelligence.

  • January 17, 2025

    5 Firms Build 180 Degree Capital, Mount Logan Merger

    Investment management company 180 Degree Capital Inc. and alternative asset management and solutions business Mount Logan Capital Inc. on Friday announced plans to merge in an all-stock transaction built by five law firms with an estimated pro forma enterprise value of $139 million.

  • January 16, 2025

    Two Sigma Fined $90M Over Investment, Whistleblower Issues

    New York-based Two Sigma has agreed to pay $90 million in fines and has already refunded $165 million to various funds and accounts to put to rest the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's allegations it failed to deal with known issues with its investment models, the SEC announced Thursday.

  • January 16, 2025

    SEC's General Counsel Barbero To Exit As Trump Takes Office

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that General Counsel Megan Barbero will depart the agency on the day of President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration, capping a nearly two-year run that saw the agency face setbacks to its regulatory powers before conservative courts, but also notch some important wins.

  • January 16, 2025

    Crypto Firm DRW Wants Out Of SEC's 'Scorched Earth' Suit

    The crypto-trading arm of DRW Holdings says it has become the latest target of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's "scorched-earth enforcement campaign against the crypto-asset industry" in its bid to dismiss a suit alleging it engaged in more than $2 billion in unregistered crypto transactions.

  • January 16, 2025

    SEC Hit With Atty Fee Request Over Rare In-House Loss

    A Michigan-based company that convinced the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to retroactively lift a trading suspension is now arguing that the agency should have to pay the company's attorneys because enforcement staff "lied and misled" in order to obtain the suspension.

  • January 16, 2025

    Cleveland-Cliffs Sets Sights On US Steel, And More Rumors

    Cleveland-Cliffs has re-emerged as a potential suitor to purchase U.S. Steel after President Joe Biden blocked Nippon's planned purchase, TikTok could be sold to Elon Musk, and Prada is among potential suitors eyeing Versace. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other notable deal rumors from the past week.

  • January 16, 2025

    Morrison Foerster Adds Tax Group Co-Chair From Jones Day

    Morrison Foerster LLP announced it has added a partner from Jones Day to serve as co-chair of the firm's global tax group in its New York office.

  • January 16, 2025

    Paxton-Tied Developer Pleads Guilty In Bank Fraud Case

    A real estate developer whose ties to Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton were central to his 2023 impeachment case pled guilty Wednesday to unrelated charges of making false statements to a mortgage lender.

  • January 16, 2025

    DOL Proposes Rule On Valuing Stock For Purchase By ESOPs

    The U.S. Department of Labor proposed a rule Thursday to help plan managers determine the value of company stock for purchase by an employee stock ownership plan while also withdrawing a previous rule that the DOL proposed in 1988 but never finalized.

  • January 15, 2025

    DeFi Upstart Brings On Seasoned Crypto Legal Chief

    Veteran crypto in-house attorney Rebecca Rettig will take on the chief legal officer role at Jito Labs, a developer of products on the Solana blockchain, as the firm's first legal hire, the company announced Thursday.

  • January 15, 2025

    Wells Fargo Unit Sued Over Ex-Rep's EB-5 Investment Scheme

    A Wells Fargo subsidiary has been hit with a suit in Nevada federal court by an attorney and real estate developer who claims she and several other entities were hit with a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission enforcement action because the Wells Fargo subsidiary and one of its former employees gave bad investment advice.

  • January 15, 2025

    SEC's Last-Minute Musk Suit Could Be Scuttled Under Trump

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's latest lawsuit against Elon Musk is unlikely to be viewed favorably by the incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump, which may press for a lesser penalty or even move to dismiss the case outright, attorneys told Law360 on Wednesday.

Expert Analysis

  • Use The Right Kind Of Feedback To Help Gen Z Attorneys

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    Generation Z associates bring unique perspectives and expectations to the workplace, so it’s imperative that supervising attorneys adapt their feedback approach in order to help young lawyers learn and grow — which is good for law firms, too, says Rachael Bosch at Fringe Professional Development.

  • Opinion

    Congress Can And Must Enact A Supreme Court Ethics Code

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    As public confidence in the U.S. Supreme Court dips to historic lows following reports raising conflict of interest concerns, Congress must exercise its constitutional power to enact a mandatory and enforceable code of ethics for the high court, says Muhammad Faridi, president of the New York City Bar Association.

  • Series

    The Pop Culture Docket: Justice Lebovits On Gilbert And Sullivan

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    Characters in the 19th century comic operas of Gilbert and Sullivan break the rules of good lawyering by shamelessly throwing responsible critical thought to the wind, providing hilarious lessons for lawyers and judges on how to avoid a surfeit of traps and tribulations, say acting New York Supreme Court Justice Gerald Lebovits and law student Tara Scown.

  • With Esmark Case, SEC Returns Focus To Tender Offer Rules

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent enforcement action against Esmark in connection with its failed bid to acquire U.S. Steel indicates the SEC's renewed attention under Rule 14e‑8 of the Exchange Act on offerors' financial resources as a measure of the veracity of their tender offer communications, say attorneys at MoFo.

  • What FDIC Expansion Of Change In Bank Control Could Mean

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    A recent Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. proposal pertaining to the Change in Bank Control Act has the potential to create uncertainty around investments by mutual fund complexes in banking organizations, which represent a stable source of capital for the banking industry, say attorneys at Sullivan & Cromwell.

  • Can SEC's Consolidated Audit Trail Survive Post-Chevron?

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is currently in a showdown at the Eleventh Circuit over its authority to maintain a national market system and require that the industry spend billions to maintain its consolidated audit trail, a case that is further complicated by the Loper Bright decision, says Daniel Hawke at Arnold & Porter.

  • What's Inside Feds' Latest Bank Merger Review Proposals

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    Recent bank merger proposals from a trio of federal agencies highlight the need for banks looking to grow through acquisition to consider several key issues much earlier in the planning process than has historically been necessary, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

  • State Of The States' AI Legal Ethics Landscape

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    Over the past year, several state bar associations, as well as the American Bar Association, have released guidance on the ethical use of artificial intelligence in legal practice, all of which share overarching themes and some nuanced differences, say Eric Pacifici and Kevin Henderson at SMB Law Group.

  • Making Sure Your Co. Isn't In The Next Section 13(f) Sweep

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    Enforcement actions taken against 11 institutional investment managers for alleged failures to file forms required by Section 13(f) of the Securities Exchange Act serve as a reminder that firms should carefully monitor their obligations to avoid becoming the target of the next enforcement sweep, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • 8 Childhood Lessons That Can Help You Be A Better Attorney

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    A new school year is underway, marking a fitting time for attorneys to reflect on some fundamental life lessons from early childhood that offer a framework for problems that no legal textbook can solve, say Chris Gismondi and Chris Campbell at DLA Piper.

  • Recent Securities Cases Highlight Risks In AI Disclosures

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    Increasing public disclosure about the use and risks of artificial intelligence, and related litigation asserting that such disclosures are false or misleading, suggest that issuers need to exercise great care with respect to how they describe the benefits of AI, say Richard Zelichov and Danny Tobey at DLA Piper.

  • Opinion

    This Election, We Need To Talk About Court Process

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    In recent decades, the U.S. Supreme Court has markedly transformed judicial processes — from summary judgment standards to notice pleadings — which has, in turn, affected individuals’ substantive rights, and we need to consider how the upcoming presidential election may continue this pattern, says Reuben Guttman at Guttman Buschner.

  • Breaking Down CFTC's Novel Theory Driving Uniswap Action

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent enforcement action against Uniswap concerning digital asset liquidity appears to be a unilateral attempt to expand its regulatory authority in the absence of official congressional approval, putting forth a novel theory of liability that will likely be tested through litigation, say attorneys at Troutman Pepper.

  • Series

    Playing Diplomacy Makes Us Better Lawyers

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    Similar to the practice of law, the rules of Diplomacy — a strategic board game set in pre-World War I Europe — are neither concise nor without ambiguity, and weekly gameplay with our colleagues has revealed the game's practical applications to our work as attorneys, say Jason Osborn and Ben Bevilacqua at Winston & Strawn.

  • Applying High Court's Domestic Corruption Rulings To FCPA

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    After the U.S. Supreme Court narrowed the domestic corruption statutes in three decisions over the past year and a half, it’s worth evaluating whether these rulings may have an impact on Foreign Corrupt Practices Act enforcement, and if attorneys can use the court’s reasoning in international bribery cases, says James Koukios at MoFo.

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