Capital Markets

  • February 20, 2025

    Musk's X Seeks Cash At $44B Valuation, Plus More Rumors

    Elon Musk is seeking to raise money for his social media platform X at a $44 billion valuation — the same price he paid to buy the site in 2022 — while BP is considering selling its Castrol lubricants unit for $10 billion and KKR could inject $5 billion into ailing British utility Thames Water. Here, Law360 breaks down the notable deal rumors from the past week.

  • February 19, 2025

    'Death Knell' For SEC Dealer Rule As Regulator Drops Appeal

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday dropped its bid to revive its expansion of the dealer definition at the Fifth Circuit after industry groups representing private funds and crypto firms successfully challenged the rule in Texas federal court last year.

  • February 19, 2025

    Robinhood Says It Faces New Scrutiny From States, FDIC

    Online brokerage Robinhood is facing investigations from Massachusetts' state securities regulator and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. alongside an ongoing probe from the New York attorney general, the firm disclosed in its latest filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.

  • February 19, 2025

    SEC Says Duo Ran $1.5M Scam To Fund Deal With Red Flags

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has accused two California insurance brokers and their firm of fraudulently raising $1.5 million from an investor and then losing the money to an overseas investment scheme that the agency said presented many red flags. 

  • February 19, 2025

    Crypto Group Urges Rollback Of IRS Broker Rule

    A coalition of members of the cryptocurrency trade group Blockchain Association urged congressional leaders Wednesday to repeal a final U.S. Treasury Department rule implementing additional reporting requirements for decentralized finance brokers.

  • February 19, 2025

    WaPo Can't Blame Source In Libel Suit, Trump Media Says

    Trump Media & Technology Group Corp. has told a Florida federal court that the Washington Post can't blame a source for providing false information published in a story alleging the company committed securities fraud, saying that reason isn't sufficient to dismiss a $3.8 billion defamation lawsuit against the newspaper.

  • February 19, 2025

    Complex Financial Instruments Group Of The Year: Dentons

    Dentons attorneys represented JPMorgan in its $6 billion acquisition of Flagstar Bank's residential mortgage warehouse business, and advised the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. on the issuance of $43 billion in notes as the agency acted as Silicon Valley Bank's receiver, earning the firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Complex Financial Instruments Groups of the Year.

  • February 19, 2025

    Wu-Tang Album Owner Wants Shkreli To Pay Fees

    The crypto project that holds the only physical copy of a Wu-Tang Clan album that once belonged to Martin Shkreli has asked a Brooklyn federal court to make him pay for months of noncompliance with a preliminary injunction requiring him to account for all copies of the album he may have made.

  • February 19, 2025

    Mining Giant Glencore Weighs Quitting London Listing For US

    Glencore PLC said Wednesday it could move its underperforming listing on the London Stock Exchange to the U.S., as the Anglo-Swiss mining and commodities heavyweight added that it plans to buy back discounted shares worth $1 billion.

  • February 18, 2025

    Reed Smith Removed In $102M Shipping Group Award Fight

    A New York federal judge granted a request by the purported new owners of Eletson Holdings Inc. and removed Reed Smith LLP as counsel in a $102 million breach of contract suit the firm brought on behalf of the international shipping group in 2023.

  • February 18, 2025

    Coinbase Brass Face Investor Suit Over Firm's Legal Liabilities

    A Coinbase shareholder has sued the crypto exchange's executive officers and board members in New Jersey federal court on allegations they breached their fiduciary duties with disclosure failures and securities law violations that left the firm open to lawsuits and other events that jeopardized its financial condition to the detriment of shareholders.

  • February 18, 2025

    Gas Co. Venture Global Faces Suit Over IPO Disclosures

    Liquefied natural gas company Venture Global was hit with a proposed class action alleging the company raised $1.75 billion in its initial public offering last month without disclosing legal issues it is facing from oil companies Shell and BP.

  • February 18, 2025

    Stablecoin Firm Gets Securities Claim Cut From Class Action

    A New York federal judge has trimmed the securities claim from a putative class action brought by buyers of GMO-Z.com Trust's GYEN stablecoin who argued they suffered losses when the value of the digital asset temporarily fluctuated, but allowed the bulk of the consumer protection claims to move forward.

  • February 18, 2025

    Trump Media Blames Rising Loss Partly On SEC Legal Bills

    The owner of President Donald Trump's social media platform attributed its widening losses in part to rising legal costs from the Biden-era U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's investigations of the merger that took the company public, according to a statement.

  • February 18, 2025

    Compliance Boss Took $9M In Clients, Investment Firm Says

    A Connecticut investment firm with $360 million in assets under management says its former chief compliance officer violated trade secrets and computer fraud laws by taking eight clients worth $9.3 million and secretly joining a competitor, all despite bearing responsibility for his now-former firm's data confidentiality measures.

  • February 18, 2025

    Complex Financial Instruments Group Of The Year: Mayer Brown

    Mayer Brown LLP attorneys advised Goldman Sachs in a first-of-its-kind securities offering backed by capital call lines of credit and helped Sotheby's structure a groundbreaking securitization program made up of loans secured by fine art and collectibles, earning the firm a spot among the 2024 Law360 Complex Financial Instruments Groups of the Year.

  • February 14, 2025

    Judge Slams The Brakes On Peloton Bike Recall Claims

    A New York federal judge threw out, for now, a proposed investor action alleging Peloton overstated the safety of its bikes before 2.2 million products were recalled over a bike seat defect, ruling that the shareholders haven't adequately alleged the exercise company made any misleading statements.

  • February 14, 2025

    CFTC Taps Ex-Whistleblower Chief As Enforcement Head

    The Commodity Futures Trading Commission's acting head announced the appointment of a new enforcement director, naming to the position a former federal prosecutor who recently was the agency's whistleblower chief.

  • February 14, 2025

    Digital Health Co. Beats Some Claims In SPAC Investor Suit

    A New Jersey federal judge has dismissed, with leave to amend, claims in an investor suit against a blank check company that took digital health equipment venture Butterfly Network Inc. public, finding that some of the shares the plaintiffs purchased are not traceable to the registration statement at issue in the suit.

  • February 14, 2025

    ​​​​​​​SEC Says Crypto Task Force Could Resolve Coinbase Case

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told the Second Circuit that its newly formed cryptocurrency task force effort may lead to a resolution in its enforcement case against Coinbase, warranting a brief delay to the regulator responding to the crypto exchange's bid for appellate review of whether securities laws apply to the transactions on its platform.

  • February 14, 2025

    Trump Aims To End Limits On President's Power To Fire

    President Donald Trump has his sights set on taking down a 90-year-old U.S. Supreme Court ruling that protects certain government officials from being fired, a U.S. Department of Justice letter confirms, and he plans to leverage his prior legal victories to deliver the precedent's death knell and expand presidential power.

  • February 14, 2025

    New Delisting Rules Shorten Leash For Distressed Companies

    Distressed companies should take heed of new stock exchange rules that are likely to accelerate delistings for stocks that trade below minimum requirements, particularly targeting businesses that rely on reverse stock splits to inflate their share prices, attorneys say.

  • February 14, 2025

    SEC Can't Nix Black Female Branch Chief's Race Bias Claim

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission must face discrimination and retaliation claims by a Black female supervisor who alleged she was removed from her position after filing workplace complaints, after a D.C. federal judge on Thursday ruled the plaintiff identified other similarly situated managers who remained in their jobs despite documented misconduct. 

  • February 14, 2025

    Alston & Bird Leads PE-Backed Michigan Bank's $151M IPO

    Shares of private equity-backed Northpointe Bancshares Inc. began trading Friday after the Michigan bank priced an upsized $151 million initial public offering below its marketed range, represented by Alston & Bird LLP and underwriters counsel Squire Patton Boggs LLP.

  • February 14, 2025

    Convicted Email Scammer Must Return $1.5M To Victims

    A Connecticut federal judge has ordered Okechuckwu Valentine Osuji to pay $1.5 million in restitution to 16 individuals and business entities in a Valentine's Day order, after a jury found him guilty of operating a $6 million email fraud scheme.

Expert Analysis

  • 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.

  • Mental Health First Aid: A Brief Primer For Attorneys

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    Amid a growing body of research finding that attorneys face higher rates of mental illness than the general population, firms should consider setting up mental health first aid training programs to help lawyers assess mental health challenges in their colleagues and intervene with compassion, say psychologists Shawn Healy and Tracey Meyers.

  • Series

    Calif. Banking Brief: All The Notable Legal Updates In Q3

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    In the third quarter of the year, California continued to be at the forefront of banking regulation as it enacted legislation on unfair banking practices and junk fees, and the state Department of Financial Protection and Innovation notably initiated enforcement actions focused on crypto-assets and student loan debt relief, say Stuart Richter and Eric Hail at Katten.

  • 2 High Court Securities Cases Could Clarify Pleading Rules

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    In granting certiorari in a pair of securities fraud cases against Facebook and Nvidia, respectively, the U.S. Supreme Court has signaled its intention to align interpretations of the heightened pleading standard under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act amid its uneven application among the circuit courts, say attorneys at V&E.

  • Series

    Collecting Art Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The therapeutic aspects of appreciating and collecting art improve my legal practice by enhancing my observation skills, empathy, creativity and cultural awareness, says attorney Michael McCready.

  • Series

    A Day In The In-House Life: Best Egg CLO Talks Power Of Prep

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    On a typical Monday in her life, Best Egg Chief Legal Officer Amy Thoreson Long chronicles a remote workday in which she makes time for everything from getting ahead on regulatory issues and researching recent Supreme Court decisions to dog walks and podcast breaks.

  • Takeaways From TOTSA Settlement And Critical CFTC Dissent

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's recent settlement with TOTSA highlights the agency's commitment to enforcing market integrity and deterring manipulative practices, while Commissioner Caroline Pham's dissent to the settlement spotlights the need for transparency and consistency in enforcement actions, say attorneys at Davis Wright.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Honoring Your Learned Profession

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    About 30,000 people who took the bar exam in July will learn they passed this fall, marking a fitting time for all attorneys to remember that they are members in a specialty club of learned professionals — and the more they can keep this in mind, the more benefits they will see, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • Payward And The Secondary Crypto Transaction Confusion

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    Following orders in cases against Coinbase and Binance, the recent California federal court ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Payward raises even more questions about regulation of secondary transactions involving crypto-assets, as it tries to sidestep fundamental flaws in the SEC's legal theories, say attorneys at Cahill Gordon.

  • Opinion

    AI May Limit Key Learning Opportunities For Young Attorneys

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    The thing that’s so powerful about artificial intelligence is also what’s most scary about it — its ability to detect patterns may curtail young attorneys’ chance to practice the lower-level work of managing cases, preventing them from ever honing the pattern recognition skills that undergird creative lawyering, says Sarah Murray at Trialcraft.

  • What's In The Cards For CFTC's Election Betting Case

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    A D.C. federal judge's Sept. 12 ruling, allowing KalshiEx to offer derivative contracts trading on the outcome of the U.S. congressional elections over objections from the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission, could mark a watershed moment in the permissibility of election betting if upheld on appeal, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

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