Securities

  • October 04, 2024

    Pool Equipment-Maker Sinks Shareholder Suit, For Now

    A New Jersey federal judge Wednesday dismissed a proposed investor class action against pool supply company Hayward Holdings Inc. over claims that the company concealed it was struggling with ballooning inventory and lowered demand, saying the investors do not sufficiently explain why the alleged misstatements cited in the complaint are actionable.

  • October 04, 2024

    Off The Bench: NIL Atty Beef, 'Hard Knocks' Death, MJ Racing

    In this week's Off The Bench, friction over the pending settlement in the vast NCAA name, image and likeness compensation class action fuels an attorney feud, the widow of a "Hard Knocks" production assistant blames the league for his death, and Michael Jordan accuses NASCAR of having a motorsports monopoly.

  • October 04, 2024

    4 Benefits Appellate Arguments To Watch In October

    The Fourth Circuit will consider a drugmaker's challenge to a West Virginia state law restricting access to the abortion drug mifepristone and Ohio pension funds are seeking to revive an investor class action at the Second Circuit, while the First and Ninth Circuits will take up executive compensation disputes. Here are four appellate arguments in October involving employee benefits that attorneys may want to keep on their radar.

  • October 04, 2024

    Mayer Brown Gains NY Corporate Atty From Freshfields

    Mayer Brown LLP announced this week that its corporate and securities group has added a New York-based attorney from Freshfields.

  • October 04, 2024

    Repeat Fraudster Guilty Of Scamming Ex-NBA Players

    A Manhattan federal jury on Friday convicted a Georgia businessman and recidivist fraudster of conning former NBA players Dwight Howard and Chandler Parsons out of $8 million through the use of forged documents and other lies.

  • October 03, 2024

    Swizz Beatz Received Millions From 1MDB Scheme, Suit Says

    Hip-hop producer and rapper Kasseem Dean, known professionally as Swizz Beatz, received $7.3 million in funds that were stolen from Malaysia residents in the multibillion-dollar 1 Malaysia Development Berhad fraud, a lawsuit filed in New York federal court alleges.

  • October 03, 2024

    SEC, Texas Crypto Co. Duel Over Pre-Enforcement Challenge

    In dueling briefs filed Thursday, both the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and a nascent cryptocurrency exchange asked a Texas federal judge to grant an early win, arguing over whether the exchange can preemptively sue the regulator for a determination that its planned business won't offend securities laws.

  • October 03, 2024

    Kohl's Beats Investor Class Action Over Activist Bid, For Now

    A Wisconsin federal judge has dismissed an investor class action alleging that Kohl's attributed positive financial results to executives' strategic planning instead of unrelated, pandemic-related factors in an attempt to defeat an activist at a board meeting, finding that the investors have failed to plead any actionable false or misleading statements.

  • October 03, 2024

    Trump Media's COO Resigns As Stock Is Released To Investor

    The parent of Donald Trump's social media platform had a busy Thursday, announcing that its chief operating officer has resigned and separately disclosing that it released nearly 800,000 shares to a backer of the vehicle that took Trump's entity public in connection with a court order.

  • October 03, 2024

    FibroGen Suit Alleging Disclosure Failures Tossed In Del.

    Biopharmaceutical company FibroGen has beaten a stockholder derivative lawsuit in Delaware's Chancery Court that accused the business and its top officers of fiduciary breaches and insider trading related to its flagship anemia drug, which was once projected to bring in $3.5 billion for the drugmaker before regulators refused to approve its use in the U.S.

  • October 03, 2024

    'Let's Go Brandon' Coin Trustee Knocks Buyers' Class Claims

    The trustee of the meme-inspired cryptocurrency LGBcoin sought to block class action certification from buyers who claim he sold them unregistered securities by leading them to believe the token would take off through a purported partnership with NASCAR.

  • October 03, 2024

    Don't Buy Ex-NBA Star's 'Dumb Athlete' Routine, Jury Told

    A Manhattan federal jury on Thursday prepared to deliberate fraud charges against a Georgia businessman accused of fleecing ex-NBA superstar Dwight Howard out of $7 million, after the defendant's lawyer argued that Howard misleadingly portrayed himself as a naive victim.

  • October 03, 2024

    Ex-Hedge Fund Star Won't Get Additional $14.4M

    A former D.E. Shaw & Co. managing director isn't owed an additional $14.4 million in deferred compensation after winning a $52 million award for defamation from a Financial Industry Regulatory Authority arbitration panel, a New York appeals court affirmed Thursday.

  • October 03, 2024

    12 Lawyers Who Are The Future Of The Supreme Court Bar

    One attorney hasn't lost a single U.S. Supreme Court case she's argued, or even a single justice's vote. One attorney is perhaps "the preeminent SCOTUS advocate." And one may soon become U.S. solicitor general, despite acknowledging there are "judges out there who don't like me." All three are among a dozen lawyers in the vanguard of the Supreme Court bar's next generation, poised to follow in the footsteps of the bar's current icons.

  • October 03, 2024

    CFTC Asks DC Circ. To Hasten Election Contract Loss Appeal

    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission pressed the D.C. Circuit to immediately schedule its appeal of a district court's decision to permit KalshiEx's listing of election-based event contracts, which the trading platform is poised to oppose.

  • October 03, 2024

    Feds Want A Word In Meta, Nvidia High Court Cases

    The federal government is asking to participate in oral arguments in two private investor suits currently before the U.S. Supreme Court, saying that both Meta Platforms Inc. and Nvidia Corp. are wrong about the requirements that shareholders need to meet in order to move forward with lawsuits claiming they were misled about business risks.

  • October 03, 2024

    Hecla Avoids Investor Suit Over $462M Gold Mine Buy

    A gold mining operation secured the permanent dismissal of an investor suit alleging that $462 million in new mines the company bought in Nevada that were supposed to be lucrative turned out to be duds, with a New York federal judge finding the investors failed to plead any actionable false or misleading statements.

  • October 03, 2024

    Symbotic's Top Brass Hid Risks To Earnings Goals, Suit Says

    Symbotic investors sued the supply chain automation company's board of directors and top executives for allegedly downplaying risks in achieving the aggressive financial goals it promised shareholders.

  • October 03, 2024

    Chancery Tosses Barry Diller From Match.com Class Suit

    Media mogul Barry Diller escaped for a second time a Delaware Court of Chancery stockholder challenge to Match.com's $30 billion reverse spinoff from IAC Interactive, in a post-U.S. Supreme Court remand decision that also kept alive related, previously dismissed claims against five allegedly Diller-loyal "dual fiduciaries."

  • October 03, 2024

    Cole Schotz Adds Potter Anderson Corporate Partner In Del.

    Cole Schotz PC has added a corporate member with 16 years of Delaware-focused corporate advisory and transactional experience.

  • October 02, 2024

    EXp Investors Accuse Execs Of Ignoring Sex Assault Culture

    Shareholders of eXp World Holdings Inc. have hit the real estate brokerage company's top-brass with a derivative lawsuit in Delaware Chancery Court Wednesday, claiming they intentionally ignored repeated reports that its top "influencers" were drugging and sexually assaulting real estate agents at company events, thereby exposing the company to millions in liabilities.

  • October 02, 2024

    Freshworks Can't End Investors' IPO Disclosure Suit

    A California federal judge has told software company Freshworks it cannot escape a proposed investor class action alleging it omitted information from U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filings when it made its initial public offering, saying the court cannot currently decide if its alleged omissions damaged investors.

  • October 02, 2024

    Former C-Quest Capital CEO Indicted For Carbon Credit Fraud

    Federal prosecutors in New York on Wednesday announced criminal charges against Kenneth Newcombe, the former chief executive officer of carbon project developer C-Quest Capital, accusing him of scheming to submit altered data relating to cookstove projects abroad to obtain millions of dollars worth of carbon credits.

  • October 02, 2024

    Coinbase Seeks CFTC Docs To Defend SEC Enforcement Case

    Coinbase has asked a Washington, D.C., federal court to direct the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to produce communications the regulator may have had with certain digital asset issuers as the cryptocurrency exchange prepares to defend registration claims from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission in New York.

  • October 02, 2024

    SEC Plans To Appeal Ripple Labs Decision To 2nd Circ.

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission told a New York federal judge on Wednesday that it plans to appeal her decision in its registration suit against blockchain firm Ripple Labs to the Second Circuit.

Expert Analysis

  • Next Steps After 5th Circ. Nixes Private Fund Adviser Rules

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    The Fifth Circuit's recent toss of key U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission rules regarding private fund advisers represents a setback for the regulator, but open questions, including the possibility of an SEC petition to the U.S. Supreme Court, mean it's still too early to consider the matter closed, say attorneys at Debevoise.

  • Think Like A Lawyer: Always Be Closing

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    When a lawyer presents their case with the right propulsive structure throughout trial, there is little need for further argument after the close of evidence — and in fact, rehashing it all may test jurors’ patience — so attorneys should consider other strategies for closing arguments, says Luke Andrews at Poole Huffman.

  • Takeaways From Nat'l Security Division's Historic Declination

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    The Justice Department National Security Division's recent decision not to prosecute a biochemical company for an employee's export control violation marks its first declination under a new corporate enforcement policy, sending a clear message to companies that self-disclosure of misconduct may confer material benefits, say attorneys at Perkins Coie.

  • Deciphering SEC Disgorgement 4 Years After Liu

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    Since the U.S. Supreme Court’s 2020 decision in Liu v. U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to preserve SEC disgorgement with limits, courts have continued to rule largely in the agency’s favor, but a recent circuit split over the National Defense Authorization Act's import may create hurdles for the SEC, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

  • Updates To CFTC Large Trader Report Rules Leave Questions

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    The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission's updated large trader position reporting rules for futures and options is a much-needed change that modernizes a rule that had gone largely untouched since the 1980s, but the updates leave important questions unanswered, say Katherine Cooper and Maggie DePoy at BCLP.

  • Risks And Promises Of AI In The Financial Services Industry

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    Generative artificial intelligence has immense potential to revolutionize the financial services industry, but firms considering its use should first prepare to show their customers and the increasingly divided international regulatory community that they can manage the risks inherent to the new technology, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

  • Series

    Playing Chess Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    There are many ways that chess skills translate directly into lawyer skills, but for me, the bigger career lessons go beyond the direct parallels — playing chess has shown me the value of seeing gradual improvement in and focusing deep concentration on a nonwork endeavor, says attorney Steven Fink.

  • Beware Shifting Provisions In Middle-Market Loan Documents

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    In recent years, many credit facility provisions previously considered to be market standard have been negotiated, often turning in favor of borrowers, demanding renewed diligence from workout officers and restructuring counsel operating in the middle market, say attorneys at Crowell & Moring.

  • How SEC Could Tackle AI Regulations On Brokers, Advisers

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission held an open meeting of its Investor Advisory Committee on June 6 to review the use of artificial intelligence in investment decision making, showing that regulators are being careful not to stifle innovation or implement rules that will quickly be made irrelevant after their passage, says Brian Korn at Manatt Phelps.

  • Litigation Inspiration: Attys Can Be Heroic Like Olympians

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    Although litigation won’t earn anyone an Olympic medal in Paris this summer, it can be worthy of the same lasting honor if attorneys exercise focused restraint — seeking both their clients’ interests and those of the court — instead of merely pursuing every advantage short of sanctionable conduct, says Bennett Rawicki at Hilgers Graben.

  • A Deep Dive Into The Evolving World Of ESG Ratings

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    Attorneys at Mintz discuss the salience of environmental, social and governance ratings in corporate circles in recent years, and consider certain methodologies underlying their calculation for professionals, as well as issues concerning the ESG ratings and products themselves.

  • What TikTok's Race Against The Clock Teaches Chinese Firms

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    The Biden administration's recent divestiture deadline on TikTok parent ByteDance provides useful information for other China-based companies looking to do business in the U.S., including the need to keep products for each market separate and implement firewalls at the design stage, says Richard Lomuscio at Stinson.

  • Lean Into The 'Great Restoration' To Retain Legal Talent

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    As the “great resignation,” in which employees voluntarily left their jobs in droves, has largely dissipated, legal employers should now work toward the idea of a “great restoration,” adopting strategies to effectively hire, onboard and retain top legal talent, says Molly McGrath at Hiring & Empowering Solutions.

  • What The NYSE Proposed Delisting Rule Could Mean For Cos.

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    The New York Stock Exchange's recently proposed rule would provide the exchange with discretionary authority to commence delisting proceedings for a company substantially shifting its primary business focus, raising concerns for NYSE-listed companies over the exact definition of the exchange's proposed "substantially different" standard, say attorneys at Winston & Strawn.

  • 9th Circ. Ruling Broadens Sweep Of Securities 'Solicitation'

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    The Ninth Circuit's recent revival of a putative securities fraud class action against Genius Brands for hiring a stock promoter to write favorable articles about it shows that companies should view "solicitation" broadly in considering whether they may have paid someone to urge an investor to purchase a security, say attorneys at Simpson Thacher.

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