Interview

Exit Interview: SEC's Hester Peirce On Crypto, Clarity And AI

By Jessica Corso

Outgoing U.S. Securities and Exchange Commissioner Hester Peirce doesn't mind being referred to as "Crypto Mom" for her work championing the industry, but she thinks investors should know: "The government is never your mom."

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$16B Ruling Faces High Court Sovereign Immunity Challenge

By Caroline Simson

The U.S. Supreme Court is being asked to review an "egregiously wrong" Second Circuit decision that overturned a New York judge's $16 billion judgment against Argentina that arose from its nationalization of YPF SA, the country's largest oil and gas exploration company.

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Kalshi Looks To Shield Sports Offerings At 2nd Circ.

By Alex Lawson

Prediction market giant Kalshi has asked the Second Circuit to shield its sports offerings from Connecticut gaming enforcers, drilling down on its position that those offerings ought to be immune from state scrutiny.

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SEC Changes Quorum Requirements As Peirce Exits

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has changed its quorum requirements for the first time in 30 years, clarifying that only one member of the agency needs to vote on enforcement and regulatory matters as Commissioner Hester Peirce prepares to leave Friday. 

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SEC Floats Crypto Custody Rule Updates For Funds, Advisers

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday proposed updates to custody rules that would allow investment advisers and funds to hold clients' crypto with state trust companies or safeguard the assets themselves if they can't find a suitable custodian.

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NY, Wyo. To Collaborate For Faster Crypto Reviews, Exams

By Aislinn Keely

Financial regulators in New York and Wyoming on Thursday said they have agreed to collaborate on crypto oversight in ways that could cut down on duplicative review processes and exams for fintechs operating in both states.

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Uranium Finance Jury Sees 'I Did A Crypto Heist' Chat

By Stewart Bishop

A federal jury in Manhattan was shown chat threads Thursday that purport to show a cybersecurity consultant saying "I did a crypto heist," in a computer fraud and money laundering trial over what prosecutors say was a short-lived hacking campaign that drained $53 million from crypto exchange Uranium Finance.

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Deals Rumor Mill

Walgreens Closes In On $9B Boots Sale, Plus More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Walgreens is nearing a $9 billion sale of its British pharmacy chain Boots, private equity shop TPG closed a $10 billion climate-focused fund, and Saudi Arabia-owned oil and gas company Aramco has retained an investment bank to lead it on a restructuring plan.

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SEC Fines Ex-NFL Player, Influencers Over 'White-Label' Firms

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has levied industry bars and a total of nearly $600,000 in fines on seven people, including a former professional football player, for allegedly acting as unregistered brokers by operating and marketing white-label platforms purchased from a third party for trading in so-called contracts for differences.

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Merrill Lynch To Pay $39M Over Retirement Cash Sweep Rates

By Katryna Perera

Bank of America's Merrill Lynch unit has reached a $39 million settlement with account holders in a suit alleging the wealth management division swept idle funds in customers' retirement accounts into low-interest accounts instead of paying the proper market interest rates.

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Timeshare Co. To Pay SEC Nearly $1M Over Loan Disclosures

By Sydney Price

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has announced that timeshare company Travel + Leisure Co. will pay $975,000 to settle the agency's claims in Florida federal court alleging its financial disclosures omitted information regarding nearly 3,000 delinquent or defaulted loans that it rescinded, which may have misled investors about the health of the business.

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Novartis Can't Dodge Hedge Fund Trade Secrets Suit

By Rae Ann Varona

A New York federal judge has denied Novartis' bid to toss an investment management firm's lawsuit accusing the pharmaceutical company and others of helping the firm's former chief investment officer steal confidential investment strategies to launch a rival hedge fund, saying the firm's trade secret claims had enough detail to withstand dismissal.

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Super Micro Fraud Suit Dismissed Over Vague Allegations

By Katryna Perera

Super Micro Computer has beaten, for now, a shareholder suit accusing it of violating a previous settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over accounting improprieties, with a California federal judge finding the allegations vague and lacking specificity.

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SEC Can Pursue $21M Pot Co. Stock Fraud Suit, Judge Rules

By Taylor Bowie

A New York federal judge ruled that the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission credibly tied an Arizona man to a cannabis company accused of running an illegal pump-and-dump scheme, rejecting his bid to toss a suit claiming he unlawfully pocketed $10 million through the operation.

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Opinion

CFTC's New Award Policy Punishes Whistleblower Success

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently capped four whistleblower awards because it considered them too large, arguing that it could lead to frivolous reporting, but the move instead penalizes the program for its own success and flies in the face of the framework enacted by Congress, say attorneys at Whistleblower Partners.

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FinCEN Exemption Raises Statutory, Administrative Questions

The Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's recently rolled-out broad exemption for U.S. companies from Corporate Transparency Act reporting may face administrative law and statutory challenges, so businesses should still preserve ownership records and monitor litigation and congressional action, says David McCarville at Fennemore.

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Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

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UCLA Law Is Latest DOJ Target Over Race Bias In Admissions

By Dorothy Atkins

The U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division accused the UCLA School of Law of discriminating against white and Asian students in its admissions process in a letter sent to the school's counsel Thursday, following multiple other similar letters that the DOJ sent to other higher-education institutions.

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DOJ Outlines New Corporate Fraud Enforcement Priorities

By Phillip Bantz

Federal prosecutors "must place great weight" on a new list of factors when considering potential charges in corporate fraud cases, including whether the matters involve government programs, threats to national security or immigration offenses, according to a memo released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Trump Announces Judicial Noms For 5th Circ., NC

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he's nominating Todd Butler, a managing partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, to serve as a judge on the Fifth Circuit. 

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Blackburn Holds Up White House's Tenn. Judge Pick

By Courtney Bublé

The White House is standing by its nominee for a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of Tennessee amid a holdup from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a White House official confirmed to Law360 on Thursday.

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Richards Layton Atty Confirmed To Join Del. Chancery Bench

By Rose Krebs

Delaware's Senate on Thursday confirmed a Richards Layton & Finger PA director to a 12-year term as a vice chancellor on the Chancery Court.

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FBT Gibbons Beats DQ Bid In Suit Over Cigna Payments

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state court judge has rejected a plastic surgery practice's bid to disqualify FBT Gibbons LLP from representing Cigna and a group of employer-sponsored health plans in its suit over the insurer's alleged underpayments, finding the bid appears more of an effort to gain an advantage rather than one to protect the interests of any client.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of September

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at MSG Sports, Nestle and the Associated Press. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from September.

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Judge Reinstates Rogoff As Seattle US Atty After Trump Firing

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge issued an order from the bench on Thursday reinstating Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, finding that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he fired him in July.

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Trump Says Copyright Chief Can't Stay In Office Amid Appeal

By Adam Lidgett

The Trump administration is urging the D.C. Circuit to let it remove U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision protecting Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook for now does not entitle Perlmutter to remain in office while her firing challenge proceeds.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

State enforcers settled their case challenging Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, while the U.S. Department of Justice probes Fox's planned $22 billion deal for Roku and regulators review massive deals in the energy and railroad sectors.

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