Capital Markets

  • March 25, 2025

    FINRA Fines Firm, CCO For Pandemic-Era Oversight Lapses

    The Financial Industry Regulatory Authority has fined broker-dealer United First Partners LLC and fined and suspended its chief compliance officer to settle claims they failed to implement a sufficient system to monitor the firm's representatives' outside business activities, and completely failed to do so during the pandemic.

  • March 25, 2025

    Venezuelan Law Invalidates $2B Bonds, PDVSA Argues

    Venezuela's state-owned oil company is fighting back against efforts by creditors to enforce some $2 billion in defaulted bonds, dismissing as "illogical" the creditors' argument that the underlying bond documents were exempt from a requirement for National Assembly approval.

  • March 25, 2025

    Industry Backs BlackRock Over States' 'Crippling' Coal Suit

    Two leading financial industry groups are throwing their support behind BlackRock Inc. and two other asset managers fighting a state-backed antitrust suit over their coal company investments, with one group arguing that forcing the firms to divest would have "crippling effects" for tens of millions of American investors.

  • March 25, 2025

    7-Eleven Defends Cautious Antitrust Approach To Deal Talks

    The parent company of 7-Eleven on Tuesday defended its wary approach to a proposed acquisition by Alimentation Couche-Tard Inc. saying it has legitimate concerns about the deal clearing U.S. antitrust enforcers.

  • March 25, 2025

    GOP-Led House Committee Mulls Bills To Ease Capital Raising

    The U.S. House of Representatives Financial Services Committee on Tuesday debated bills that would ease rules governing private and public securities offerings, marking Congress' latest push to deregulate capital markets under President Donald Trump's second term.

  • March 25, 2025

    FDIC Will Seek To 'Eradicate' Its Use Of Reputation Risk

    The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. plans to "eradicate" the concept of reputation risk from its oversight of banks and is working to take its approach to digital assets in "a new direction," the agency's acting chief has told Congress.

  • March 25, 2025

    FINRA President Hints At Offloading Arbitration Oversight

    The president of the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority said Tuesday that he's considering whether another entity should take up the brokerage regulator's arbitration oversight, questioning whether it's an appropriate function for FINRA to continue running.

  • March 25, 2025

    AI Clean Energy Co.'s Execs Get Shareholder Suit Axed

    Leaders of artificial intelligence-driven clean energy company Stem Inc. have avoided, for now, a suit accusing them of misleading investors ahead of a merger, with the court ruling the suit is a "puzzle pleading" that does not sufficiently justify why certain statements should be considered fraudulent.

  • March 25, 2025

    Ripple Labs To Pay SEC $50M To End Case, Legal Chief Says

    Ripple Labs legal chief Stuart Alderoty said Tuesday the cryptocurrency firm will pay the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission a $50 million civil penalty to resolve the agency's landmark enforcement action, or a fraction of the $125 million fine that a federal court originally imposed upon it over past unregistered institutional token sales.

  • March 24, 2025

    Contrarian Unit's $3.7B Bid For Citgo Faces Opposition

    The special master overseeing the sale of Citgo's parent company to satisfy billions of dollars of Venezuelan debt is recommending a federal judge proceed with a floor-setting bid of $3.699 billion submitted by an affiliate of Contrarian Capital Management, with the recommendation already meeting resistance.

  • March 24, 2025

    Bank Groups Take Aim At Fed's Stress-Test Methodology

    Top bank trade groups are pressing their Ohio federal court challenge to the Federal Reserve Board's stress tests of big banks, asking for a ruling that would force major changes to the way the annual assessments of firm resilience are designed and executed.

  • March 24, 2025

    FINRA Fines Pa. Broker-Dealer $1M Over Muni Bond Sales

    A Pittsburgh-based brokerage has agreed to penalties and disgorgement totaling over $1 million to resolve Financial Industry Regulatory Authority claims it got undue order priority for certain new municipal bond orders by failing to mention those orders were for its own dealer account.

  • March 24, 2025

    'Enough Is Enough': Tornado Cash Users Demand Judgment

    Challengers to the Treasury Department's now-dissolved sanctions of crypto mixer Tornado Cash on Monday urged a Texas federal judge to make clear that the designation was unlawful despite the government's claims that the case is moot now that it has removed Tornado Cash from its blocked persons list.

  • March 24, 2025

    Bread Financial Gets Investor's Spinoff Suit Tossed For Good

    Bread Financial Holdings Inc. and some of its executives have beaten a shareholder suit alleging that they tried to defraud investors by concealing issues with now-bankrupt spinoff company Loyalty Ventures, with a court ruling that the defendants had made necessary disclosures to investors.

  • March 24, 2025

    Kenvue, J&J Must Face Investor Suit Over FDA Concerns

    Consumer health products business Kenvue Inc. and former parent company Johnson & Johnson cannot escape a consolidated lawsuit accusing the companies of failing to warn investors about the potential ineffectiveness of leading products like Tylenol and Sudafed ahead of Kenvue's initial public offering, a New Jersey federal judge ruled on Monday.

  • March 24, 2025

    Skadden, Latham Lead Crypto Platform EToro's IPO Filing

    Crypto-friendly trading platform eToro Group Ltd. on Monday publicly filed its long-awaited plans for an initial public offering, represented by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and underwriters' counsel Latham & Watkins LLP.

  • March 24, 2025

    Chancery Won't Restart Disputed Bitcoin ATMs For Now

    Delaware's Court of Chancery refused on Monday to order reactivation of dozens of bitcoin cryptocurrency ATM kiosks shut down by an Iowa grocery chain after that state's attorney general sued Bitcoin Depot and a similar operation for alleged scamming of users.

  • March 24, 2025

    SEC, FINRA Enforcement Heads Say Crypto Still A Focus

    Heads of enforcement at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority indicated Monday the agencies are keeping their eyes on cryptocurrency, even as the former has backed off of various cases and investigations involving crypto.

  • March 24, 2025

    SmartStop REIT Plans $864M IPO Amid US-Canada Trade Row

    SmartStop Self Storage REIT Inc., a real estate investment trust managing U.S. and Canadian properties, unveiled plans on Monday for an estimated $864 million initial public offering amid trade disputes rippling across North America, represented by Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP and underwriters' counsel Latham & Watkins LLP.

  • March 24, 2025

    Reed Smith Accused Of Interference In $102M Award Fight

    The purported new owners of Eletson Holdings Inc., a reorganized international shipping group, have urged the Second Circuit to nix Reed Smith's appeal challenging the law firm's removal as counsel for the company's prebankruptcy shareholders in an enforcement action, saying the former owners declined the opportunity to intervene and that their counsel cannot intervene on their behalf.

  • March 24, 2025

    Vertical Farming Co. Files Ch. 11 Amid Financing Struggles

    Vertical farming venture Plenty Unlimited Inc. filed for Chapter 11 protection in Texas bankruptcy court with $100 million to $500 million of both assets and liabilities after struggling to raise fresh funds to support its money-losing business.

  • March 21, 2025

    Only FDIC Can Sue Over Signature Bank Collapse, Judge Says

    A New York federal judge on Friday tossed a shareholder lawsuit over alleged misstatements about Signature Bank's health ahead of its 2023 collapse, saying shareholders lacked standing to sue in light of the FDIC being a receiver of both the failed bank's assets and rights of the bank's stockholders.

  • March 21, 2025

    Barclays Beats Investor Suits Over Unregistered Securities

    A New York federal judge tossed Friday a pair of proposed securities class actions alleging Barclays misled investors about its internal controls and its unregistered securities sales, which eventually triggered so-called short squeezes, finding that the statements aren't actionable and the investors haven't sufficiently pled scienter, among other pleading failures.

  • March 21, 2025

    Chancery Nixes Mid-Case Appeal In Sears Appraisal Suit Fix

    A Delaware vice chancellor refused on Friday to certify a mid-case appeal sought by bankrupt Sears Hometown Stores and its billionaire controller after a Court of Chancery ruling that an investor should get a full $4.06 per share post-squeeze-out merger award despite pursuing an alternative stock appraisal that was dead-ended by bankruptcy.

  • March 21, 2025

    SEC Crypto Roundtable Puts 'Howey' To The Test

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission brought a dozen cryptocurrency legal experts together on Friday to wrestle with how to define security status for digital assets, and their in-depth discussion left the regulator with more questions or suggestions than agreed-upon definitions.

Expert Analysis

  • Series

    Beekeeping Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    The practice of patent law and beekeeping are not typically associated, but taking care of honeybees has enriched my legal practice by highlighting the importance of hands-on experience, continuous learning, mentorship and more, says David Longo at Oblon McClelland.

  • SEC Fine Shows Risks Of Nonpublic Info In X, LinkedIn Posts

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission recently announced a settlement with DraftKings over charges arising from posting material nonpublic information on the CEO's social media accounts, highlighting that information posted to company websites and social media sites does not automatically qualify as "publicly disclosed" for purposes of Regulation FD, say attorneys at O'Melveny.

  • Anticipating Jarkesy's Effect On Bank Agency Enforcement

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    Following the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy, federal courts may eventually issue decisions on banking law principles and processes that could fundamentally alter the agencies' enforcement action framework, and the relationship between banks and examiners, says Brendan Clegg at Luse Gorman.

  • CFTC Anti-Fraud Blitz Is A Warning To Carbon Credit Sellers

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    With its recent enforcement actions against a carbon offset project developer and its senior executives for reporting false information about the energy savings of the company's projects, the Commodity Futures Trading Commission is staking out its position as a primary regulator in the voluntary carbon credit market, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

  • Unpacking State AG Approaches To Digital Asset Enforcement

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    Attorneys at Cozen O'Connor survey recent digital asset enforcement by attorneys general nationwide driven by concerns over regulatory gaps where technological developments and market changes have outpaced legislation.

  • Opinion

    Legal Institutions Must Warn Against Phony Election Suits

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    With two weeks until the election, bar associations and courts have an urgent responsibility to warn lawyers about the consequences of filing unsubstantiated lawsuits claiming election fraud, says Elise Bean at the Carl Levin Center for Oversight and Democracy.

  • Peeling Back The Layers Of SEC's Equity Trading Reforms

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recently adopted amendments lowering the tick sizes for stock trading and reducing access fee caps will benefit investors and necessitate broad systems changes — if they can first survive judicial challenges, say attorneys at Sidley.

  • How Cos. Can Build A Strong In-House Pro Bono Program

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    During this year’s pro bono celebration week, companies should consider some key pointers to grow and maintain a vibrant in-house program for attorneys to provide free legal services for the public good, says Mary Benton at Alston & Bird.

  • Series

    Home Canning Makes Me A Better Lawyer

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    Making my own pickles and jams requires seeing a process through from start to finish, as does representing clients from the start of a dispute at the Patent Trial and Appeal Board through any appeals to the Federal Circuit, says attorney Kevin McNish.

  • Opinion

    FDIC's Foray Into Index Fund Rules Risks Regulatory Chaos

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    A proposed Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. rule concerning control over passive index fund investments in banks is outside the agency's remit, clashes with an existing Federal Reserve process and would inhibit competition in the index fund sector, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.

  • 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.

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