SEC Proposes Expanding Private Market Access

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Wednesday issued proposals targeting funds and fund advisers while promising to grant more Americans access to the private markets, as part of Chairman Paul Atkins' efforts toward what he called "responsible retailization."

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Kirkland-Led Data Center Infrastructure Firm Prices $540M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Data center power provider Accelevation Holdings hit the public markets Wednesday after raising $540 million in its initial public offering steered by Kirkland & Ellis LLP and Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP.

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Treasury Sets Plans For State Stablecoin Regime Reviews

By Aislinn Keely

The Treasury Department implemented its procedures for reviewing and approving state-level stablecoin licensing frameworks Wednesday, issuing an interim final rule that would give states some flexibility in meeting a looming deadline to submit their regimes for stablecoin issuers.

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Fed Finalizes Update To Open Stress Test Models

By Sarah Jarvis

The Federal Reserve Wednesday finalized changes to how it stress tests banks, saying that new steps, such as inviting public comment on the scenarios used in the exams, would lead to greater transparency and public accountability.

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Fed HQ Review Finds Cost-Control Failures, No Crimes

By Jon Hill

A Federal Reserve watchdog said Wednesday that it has found no potential criminal violations tied to overbudget renovations of the central bank's headquarters, a more than $2 billion overhaul that became a focus of White House attacks on former Fed Chair Jerome Powell.

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Crypto Project Argentina Pres. Promoted Ducks RICO Claims

By Katryna Perera

A New York federal judge has permanently dismissed a proposed class action against the operators and promoters of a cryptocurrency project touted by Argentinian President Javier Milei, finding the investors failed to plausibly plead that the defendants conspired to defraud them.

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CFTC Wins $31M Judgment In Crypto, Metals Fraud Scheme

By Carolina Bolado

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission has won a $31 million judgment against four defendants accused of operating a $21 million crypto trading scheme, the CFTC announced Wednesday.

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Goldman, JPMorgan Beat CDS Rigging Suit For Now

By Katryna Perera

A New Mexico federal court has tossed older claims from a proposed class action accusing JPMorgan, Goldman Sachs and other large banks of conspiring to rig credit default swap auctions, after a New York court ruled on a claims release issue involving a settlement in a related decade-old antitrust case.

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Biz Groups Urge 5th Circ. To Back Texas Derivative-Suits Limit

By Mike Curley

The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the Texas Association of Business on Wednesday urged the Fifth Circuit to uphold the dismissal of a Southwest Airlines shareholder's derivative suit, saying Texas law properly blocks such suits for those who hold less than 3% of shares.

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3rd Circ. Probes Payment Recipients In Fund's $100M Tax Row

By Kat Lucero

A Third Circuit panel examined dealer-and-customer relations under accounting rules governing their transactions on Wednesday to determine whether the Internal Revenue Service was right to slap a $100 million tax bill against a Cayman Islands hedge fund for payments tied to U.S. portfolio companies.

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Ex-HSBC Exec Tells Jury Huawei CFO Vouched For Iran Biz

By Stewart Bishop

A former HSBC executive on Wednesday testified in the racketeering trial of Huawei and three subsidiaries that he thought the Chinese telecommunications firm's business dealings in Iran were aboveboard, following assurances during a 2013 meeting from Huawei's chief financial officer.

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FDIC Standards Body Could Ease Bank Vendor Due Diligence

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s recently proposed standards body for bank vendors could streamline due diligence and onboarding, but banks and their third-party service providers alike should still monitor open questions around oversight, certification costs and governance, say attorneys at Clark Hill.

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AI Meeting Recaps Pose New Discovery And Privilege Risks

The New York City Bar Association’s recent ethics opinion, cautioning attorneys not to record nonclient conversations with artificial intelligence tools, reflects an emerging view that AI meeting recaps are now a distinct business record category, meaning counsel should set meeting-level controls and apply framework-level updates, says William Wright at Faegre Drinker.

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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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