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April 19, 2024
Casino SPAC Can Return Money, Not Shares, Chancery Rules
Stockholders in a blank-check company that failed to merge with a Philippines-based casino are entitled to a distribution from $37.5 million sitting in trust, but the company may not redeem any shares until an investor's Delaware lawsuit plays out, a Chancery Court vice chancellor said Friday.
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April 19, 2024
AI Co. Founder Faces SEC Suit After Fraud Charges
The fugitive founder of a purported artificial intelligence startup was sued Friday by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission over an alleged $2.8 million scheme to defraud investors.
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April 19, 2024
DOJ Can't Coordinate Google Ad Tech Discovery With Texas
A Virginia magistrate judge on Friday denied a request from the U.S. Department of Justice to coordinate discovery in its suit accusing Google of monopolizing key digital advertising technology with a similar case from state enforcers pending in Texas.
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April 19, 2024
Up Next At High Court: Abortions & Presidential Immunity
The U.S. Supreme Court will return Monday for the term's final week of oral arguments, during which it will consider several high-stakes disputes, including whether a federal healthcare law can preempt state abortion bans and whether former President Donald Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal charges related to official acts.
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April 19, 2024
Zurich Insurance Hit With $80M Verdict Over 3 Terminations
Three former Zurich American Insurance Co. employees were awarded over $80 million by a Sacramento, California, jury that found they were wrongfully terminated for taking unofficial time off that the plaintiffs said was approved by their supervisor.
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April 19, 2024
Student Housing Co. Founder Claims She Was Pushed Out
A co-founder of a global company formed to provide booking for student housing sued her former colleague in Delaware's Court of Chancery on Friday, alleging a scheme by insiders to push her out of the business and then line up a sale to avoid a judgment after the move's reversal.
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April 19, 2024
IRS Previews New Digital Assets Reporting Form
The Internal Revenue Service released a draft of a form brokers will have to use for the first time to disclose their digital asset sales to the agency, including instructions for taxpayers whose transactions are subject to the reporting requirements.
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April 19, 2024
Climate Lawsuits Aren't The SEC's Only Legal Headache
The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has been grabbing headlines over the past couple of months as it attempts to fend off a host of lawsuits challenging recently enacted climate disclosure rules, but the agency has been no stranger to litigation brought by business groups opposing everything from new stock buyback disclosures to the agency's growing private fund oversight to its hands-off approach to crypto rule writing.
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April 19, 2024
Quinn Emanuel Fights Sanctions Bid Over Musk Deposition
Quinn Emanuel Urquhart & Sullivan LLP has protested a move by a man suing Elon Musk for defamation to sanction partner Alex Spiro for his conduct during a deposition of Musk, telling a Texas state court Spiro was simply speaking up to protect Musk's interests and that the plaintiff was taking part in "school-yard antics."
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April 19, 2024
GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week
Tesla is thumbing its nose at the Delaware Chancery Court by again asking its shareholders to approve a $55 billion pay package for Elon Musk — essentially the same pay package the court voided in January. And British telecom giant BT Group will reward two law firms for successful diversity and AI programs with automatic spots on its pared down legal panel. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.
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April 19, 2024
French Train Biz Alstom Selling Signaling Biz For $671M
French train manufacturer Alstom said Friday it has agreed to sell its North American conventional signaling business to German brake-maker Knorr-Bremse AG for about €630 million ($671 million).
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April 19, 2024
The Week In Trump: NY Trial And A High Court Date Loom
Despite a few snags, jury selection for Donald Trump's hush money trial in Manhattan unfolded relatively quickly, clearing the way for opening statements Monday in the historic case as the former president prepped for a U.S. Supreme Court debate over his supposed immunity.
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April 19, 2024
Sidley, Perkins Coie Guiding Nordstrom On Strategic Review
Sidley Austin LLP and Perkins Coie LLP are representing a special committee of Nordstrom Inc.'s board of directors that is looking into taking the Seattle-based luxury department store private after an earlier 2017 go-private plan fell apart.
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April 19, 2024
Antitrust Case Judge Reveals Husband's Ties With Apple
A New Jersey federal magistrate judge assigned to the U.S. Department of Justice's recent iPhone antitrust case disclosed on Friday that her husband has ties to Apple, but told the parties she does not believe she needs to recuse herself.
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April 19, 2024
Off The Bench: NCAA Rules, Trans Athlete Win, NBA Pro's Ban
In this week's Off The Bench, the NCAA formally lifted restrictions on athletes transferring schools and how they can receive name, image and likeness money, West Virginia's transgender sports ban is dealt a blow by the Fourth Circuit, and betting costs an NBA player his career.
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April 19, 2024
Twitter Can't Sink Age Bias Suit Over Post-Musk Layoffs
A California federal judge has refused to throw out a former Twitter employee's proposed class action alleging that a wave of layoffs following Elon Musk's acquisition of the social media platform now called X disproportionately pushed out older workers, saying the suit had enough detail to stay in court.
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April 19, 2024
Self-Immolation Near Trump Trial Prompts Security Review
The New York Police Department is reviewing security protocols for former President Donald Trump's first criminal trial after a fatal incident in which a man set himself on fire across the street from the Manhattan courthouse where the proceeding was taking place Friday, underscoring safety concerns.
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April 19, 2024
Mondi Drops Pursuit Of DS Smith After Int'l Paper Deal
British packaging company Mondi officially dropped out of its running battle with International Paper to buy DS Smith on Friday after the two latter companies struck a more than $7 billion deal to join forces earlier this week.
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April 19, 2024
Ex-Pharma Exec Says Judge 'Coercive' In SEC Contempt Case
A former pharmaceutical executive facing criminal contempt charges for using an alias to flout a U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ban says a Massachusetts federal judge was "coercive" in suggesting he might avoid prosecution if he cooperated with the agency.
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April 18, 2024
Amazon Ignored Labor, IP Laws In AI 'Panic,' Ex-Worker Says
An artificial intelligence researcher suing Amazon for labor law violations says it disregarded numerous laws in a frantic attempt to catch up to its AI rivals, directing her to ignore copyright laws in developing its large language models and retaliating when her pregnancy leave coincided with a rival's product launch.
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April 18, 2024
USPTO Reveals Scaled-Back Plan For New Patent Board Rules
The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office unveiled proposed Patent Trial and Appeal Board rules Thursday that would codify current policies on when multiple challenges to one patent are permitted and set a new briefing process about discretionary denials, which attorneys say should add clarity.
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April 18, 2024
Ex-Autonomy CEO Wanted Whistleblower Fired, Ex-GC Says
Former Autonomy CEO Michael Lynch thought a finance department whistleblower was "trying to destroy the company" and wanted him fired, the software company's former U.S. general counsel testified Thursday in a criminal fraud trial over claims Lynch conned HP into buying the British company at an inflated price of $11.7 billion.
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April 18, 2024
Chancery OKs Case Lead For Blue Bell Creameries Suit
A Delaware vice chancellor on Thursday restored a Blue Bell Creameries Inc. stockholder's widow as lead plaintiff in a derivative suit seeking to hold directors and officers of the ice cream company accountable for deadly food-safety oversight failures in 2015.
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April 18, 2024
SEC Exams Division Flags Misleading Claims In Adviser Ads
Investment advisers are publishing various misrepresentations and omissions in marketing materials, according to a recent risk alert from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's examinations division that flagged a litany of compliance issues with the agency's marketing rule.
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April 18, 2024
AT&T, Pittsburgh Settle Dispute Over Cell Site Fees, Delays
The city of Pittsburgh has created a new fee schedule for small wireless communications facilities, which AT&T agreed will resolve the telecom firm's claims that the city effectively prevented its service expansion with its prior fee schedule, according to a joint stipulation filed in Pennsylvania federal court.
Expert Analysis
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5 Lessons For SaaS Companies After Blackbaud Data Breach
Looking at the enforcement actions that software-as-a-service provider Blackbaud resolved with state attorneys general, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Federal Trade Commission in the past year can help SaaS companies manage these increasingly common forms of data breaches, say attorneys at Orrick.
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Key Lessons After A Rare R&W Insurance Ruling
The recent New York state court decision in Novolex Holdings v. Illinois Union Insurance is noteworthy as one of the rare judicial opinions arising in the context of representations and warranties insurance, serving to remind parties entering into R&W insurance policies that they may not be immune from some doctrines unfavorable to insurers, say attorneys at Kramer Levin.
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Del. Ruling Stands Out In Thorny Noncompete Landscape
In Cantor Fitzgerald v. Ainslie, the Delaware Supreme Court last month upheld the enforceability of forfeiture-for-competition provisions in limited partnership agreements, providing a noteworthy opinion amid a time of increasing disfavor toward noncompetes and following a string of Chancery Court rulings deeming them unreasonable, say Margaret Butler and Steven Goldberg at BakerHostetler.
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Class Actions At The Circuit Courts: February Lessons
In this month's review of class action appeals, Mitchell Engel at Shook Hardy discusses five notable circuit court decisions on topics from property taxes to veteran's rights — and provides key takeaways for counsel on issues including class representative intervention, wage-and-hour dispute evidence and ascertainability requirements.
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A Refresher On Witness Testimony In 3 Key Settings
The recent controversy over congressional testimony from university presidents about antisemitism on campus serves as a reminder to attorneys about what to emphasize and avoid when preparing witnesses to testify before Congress, and how this venue differs from grand jury and trial proceedings, say Jack Sharman and Tyler Yarbrough at Lightfoot Franklin.
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A Post-Mortem Analysis Of Stroock's Demise
After the dissolution of 147-year-old firm Stroock late last year shook up the legal world, a post-mortem analysis of the data reveals a long list of warning signs preceding the firm’s collapse — and provides some insight into how other firms might avoid the same disastrous fate, says Craig Savitzky at Leopard Solutions.
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Reassessing Trade Secrets Amid Proposed Noncompete Ban
The Federal Trade Commission's proposed ban on noncompete agreements as well as state bans make it prudent for businesses to reevaluate and reinvigorate approaches to trade secret protection, including knowing what information employees are providing to vendors, and making sure confidentiality agreements are put in place before information is shared, says Rob Jensen at Wolf Greenfield.
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Opinion
Exxon Court Should Clarify Shareholder Proposal Exclusion
ExxonMobil last month took the unusual action of asking a Texas federal judge whether a proposal from climate activists seeking to limit oil and gas sales could be excluded from its 2024 proxy statement, and the court should use this opportunity to reevaluate SEC policy and set clear limits on when shareholder proposals can be included, says Stephen Bainbridge at UCLA School of Law.
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Mitigating The Risk Of Post-Closing M&A Earnout Disputes
Today's uncertain deal environment makes a well-crafted earnout an excellent way for parties to accomplish a desired transaction that would not otherwise occur, but transacting parties also need to take key steps to avoid the risk of post-closing disputes that earnouts can present, say Chad Barton and Claire Lydiard at Holland & Knight.
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Understanding SEC's Focus Amid Lack Of Final AI Rules
Although the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's proposed rules to govern artificial intelligence are likely far from being finalized, understanding existing regulatory provisions that could address AI risks with respect to development, disclosure, compliance and data protection could help firms anticipate and avoid pitfalls, say attorneys at Skadden.
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What's On The Horizon In Attorney General Enforcement
A look at recent attorney general actions, especially in the areas of antitrust and artificial intelligence, can help inform businesses on what they should expect in terms of enforcement trends as 10 attorney general races play out in 2024, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.
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Preparing For DOJ's Data Analytics Push In FCPA Cases
After the U.S. Department of Justice’s recent announcement that it will leverage data analytics in Foreign Corrupt Practice Act investigations and prosecutions, companies will need to develop a compliance strategy that likewise implements data analytics to get ahead of enforcement risks, say attorneys at Cozen O'Connor.
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Planning For Stymied HSR Filings At FTC If Shutdown Occurs
If the government were to shut down in early March, the inability to submit Hart-Scott-Rodino filings with the Federal Trade Commission would grind transactions to a halt, and parties should consider numerous implications as they are negotiating or planning to close pending transactions, say attorneys at DLA Piper.
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How High Court SEC Case Could Affect The ITC
While the U.S. Supreme Court’s upcoming ruling in U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission v. Jarkesy will likely spare the U.S. International Trade Commission from major operative changes, the ITC’s ability to issue penalties for violations of its orders may change, say Gwendolyn Tawresey and Ryan Deck at Troutman Pepper.
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6th Circ. Ruling Breathes New Life Into Article III Traceability
The Sixth Circuit's recent decision in Hardwick v. 3M Co. to vacate a district court's certification of one of the largest class actions in American jurisprudence for lack of Article III standing has potentially broader implications for class action practice in the product liability sphere, particularly in medical monitoring cases involving far-fetched theories of causation, say attorneys at Skadden.