Worker safety and consumer goods conglomerate 3M, advised by King & Spalding LLP, and private equity giant Bain Capital, led by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Thursday announced that they have agreed to acquire Paul Hastings LLP-advised Madison Fire & Rescue from Madison Industries in a $1.95 billion deal.
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TOP NEWS

3M, Bain Buying Madison Fire & Rescue For $1.95B

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Worker safety and consumer goods conglomerate 3M, advised by King & Spalding LLP, and private equity giant Bain Capital, led by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Thursday announced that they have agreed to acquire Paul Hastings LLP-advised Madison Fire & Rescue from Madison Industries in a $1.95 billion deal.

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Prologis, GIC Ink $1.6B Build-To-Suit Logistics JV

By Grace Dixon

Logistics real estate leader Prologis and investor GIC announced Thursday that they have formed a $1.6 billion joint venture to develop and own build-to-suit logistics facilities across major U.S. markets.

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Tulane Panel Flags Growing Political Influence On Dealmaking

By Al Barbarino

At the annual Tulane Corporate Law Institute on Thursday, panelists warned that politics is increasingly shaping dealmaking and complicating how transactions are negotiated and executed, with one likening the discussion to a "hostage" situation.

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DEALS & FINANCING

PE Behemoths Eye $10B OpenAI JV, Plus More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Private equity firms, including TPG and Bain Capital, are considering forming a $10 billion joint venture with OpenAI, Finnish lift maker Kone Oyj is mulling an acquisition of its rival TK Elevator, and Australian investment firm Macquarie has backed out of a bidding war for a stake in Kuwait's oil pipeline network due to the conflict in the Middle East.

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LITIGATION

Depo Stay Kept As Trump Media Settles Merger Docs Dispute

By David Minsky

A Florida state judge on Thursday kept a roughly one-month pause on the deposition of certain individuals in Trump Media's lawsuit alleging an investor botched the platform's initial public offering, allowing an arbitrator to resolve a dispute over who controls documents related to the merger with a special purpose acquisition company.

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Fed. Circ. Rejects Last Challenge To Squires' Discretion

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit on Thursday shot down Volkswagen's mandamus petition claiming that the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director shouldn't have "unfettered discretion" to deny Patent Trial and Appeal Board challenges, closing the last of 14 related appeals.

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Ex-Workers Ask 11th Circ. To Overturn ERISA Exhaustion Rule

By Kellie Mejdrich

Former workers for a seafood company urged the full Eleventh Circuit to overturn precedent that led a three-judge panel to uphold dismissal of their suit alleging mismanagement of an employee stock ownership plan, arguing the court's strictest-in-the-nation standard on exhausting administrative remedies didn't align with federal benefits law.

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EXPERT ANALYSIS

6 Noteworthy Changes From SEC Enforcement Manual Update

Recent updates to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s enforcement manual represent a commitment to transparency and fair process, with the signature change being a requirement that staff make certain probative evidence available during the Wells process, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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Series

Coaching Soccer Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Coaching youth soccer for my 7-year-old son's team has sharpened how I communicate with clients, prepare witnesses, work within teams and think about leadership, making me a more thoughtful and effective lawyer in many ways, says Joshua Holt at Smith Currie.

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LEGAL INDUSTRY

Sitting Judges Take Stand Over Threats Growing 'Ordinary'

By Jake Maher

On the heels of an ethics opinion giving them wider latitude to speak publicly, sitting federal judges brought attention Thursday to the increasing threats against them and their family members, warning about the dangers of such threats becoming "ordinary."

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Anatomy Of A Citation Hallucination: AI Edit, Associate Review

By Rachel Riley

Counsel for consumers in a supplement labeling lawsuit against Amazon responded Wednesday to a Seattle federal judge's order to explain an AI-hallucinated citation, saying the error was introduced by a generative artificial intelligence tool used to "harmonize" drafts of a brief, then missed by a fifth-year Boies Schiller associate tasked with checking the citations.

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Jackson Walker, US Trustee Reach Deal On Fee Settlements

By Vince Sullivan

The Office of the U.S. Trustee and law firm Jackson Walker LLP on Wednesday resolved the bankruptcy watchdog's opposition to a series of settlements tied to a romantic relationship between a former Jackson Walker attorney and a now-retired bankruptcy judge.

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Judge Quashes Subpoena Of 5 Firms That Repped Twitter

By Rae Ann Varona

A Delaware federal court ruled Thursday that six former Twitter employees cannot subpoena five law firms that represented the social media company in connection with its acquisition by Elon Musk, rejecting the employees' "conclusory allegations" that the company and Musk used the firms to make false promises of severance benefits.

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Nomination For New DOJ Fraud Chief Heads To Senate Floor

By Courtney Bublé

The nomination of Colin McDonald for the new position of assistant attorney general for fraud was sent to the full Senate on Thursday, after the Judiciary Committee voted 12-10 along party lines to advance his nomination.

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Judge Digs Into Counsel Over 'Astronomically High' Fee Bid

By Nadia Dreid

Attorneys who represented classes of people who say they received harassing phone calls from real estate agents in violation of federal telemarketing laws are asking for way too much of the $20 million settlement, according to the California federal judge who tore into them Wednesday.

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DOJ Antitrust Head Tells Staff: Don't Worry About Criticism

By Bryan Koenig

The acting head of the U.S. Department of Justice Antitrust Division said Thursday that he pays no heed to criticism of the agency and tells staff to do the same, while asserting in Washington, D.C., remarks that there's no better time to come work for the DOJ.

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Fired 'Arctic Frost' Agents Accuse FBI Of Political Retribution

By Dorothy Atkins

Two former FBI agents who worked on the "Arctic Frost" investigation into President Donald Trump's attempts to overturn his 2020 election loss have accused the government of abruptly firing them in an unconstitutional act of "political retribution."

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COMPANIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

3M Co.

Advent International Corp.

Amazon.com Inc.

Anywhere Real Estate Inc.

Apollo Global Management LLC

Bloomberg LP

Brookfield Asset Management Ltd.

CVC Capital Partners Ltd.

Cinven Ltd.

CoinDesk LLC

Coldwell Banker Real Estate LLC

Fort Point Capital

J.C. Penney Co. Inc.

Jana Partners LLC

Live Nation Entertainment Inc.

Los Angeles County Bar Association

Macquarie Group Ltd.

McDonald's Corp.

OpenAI OpCo LLC

Payward Inc.

Prologis Inc.

Seadrill Limited

Skydance Media LLC

Sotheby's

Stage Stores Inc.

Task Force Tips LLC

Twitter Inc.

Volkswagen AG

Warner Bros. Discovery Inc.

Warner Bros. Entertainment Inc.

X Corp.

LAW FIRMS IN TODAY'S NEWS

Allen Hansen

Bailey & Glasser

Boies Schiller

Bradley Arant

Christensen Law LLC

DLA Piper

Debevoise & Plimpton

Ellenoff Grossman

Faegre Drinker

Finnegan

Homer Bonner

Jackson Walker LLP

Just Food Law PLLC

Kamerman Uncyk

King & Spalding

Kirkland & Ellis

Koskoff Koskoff

Krizner Group

McDermott Will & Schulte

Morgan Lewis

Norton Rose

Paul Hastings

Paul Weiss

Perkins Coie

Quinn Emanuel

Reese LLP

Richards Layton

Rusty Hardin

Schlichter Bogard

Simpson Thacher & Bartlett

Skadden Arps

Smith Currie

Sullivan & Cromwell

Tycko & Zavareei

Vedder Price

Wachtell Lipton

Wilson Sonsini

Wimberly Lawson Steckel

GOVERNMENT AGENCIES IN TODAY'S NEWS

Employee Benefits Security Administration

Federal Bureau of Investigation

Federal Reserve System

Federal Trade Commission

Food and Drug Administration

Patent Trial and Appeal Board

U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of California

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit

U.S. Court of Appeals for the Federal Circuit

U.S. Department of Justice

U.S. Department of Labor

U.S. District & Bankruptcy Courts of Southern District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Central District of California

U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia

U.S. District Court for the District of Delaware

U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas

U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington

U.S. Patent and Trademark Office

U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission

U.S. Supreme Court

US Office of Management and Budget