SEC Looks To Beef Up Rulemaking Staff For Reg S-K Reforms

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is in the process of hiring additional staff to review the corporate disclosure process as it considers taking a bite out of the amount of information publicly traded companies have to disclose in their annual financial reports and ending quarterly reporting requirements, officials said Thursday.

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SEC Sued Over Proxy Exclusion Policy Change

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission violated the Administrative Procedure Act by implementing "a new, de facto rubber-stamp process" for companies to exclude shareholder proposals from their annual proxy ballots, according to a Thursday suit filed by major shareholder groups.

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MLB Deals With Polymarket, CFTC For Sports Market 'Integrity'

By Aislinn Keely

Major League Baseball said Thursday that it has struck an exclusive licensing deal with Polymarket to bolster the brand and promote the "integrity" of the baseball-focused prediction markets on the platform, and separately reached a first-of-its-kind information-sharing agreement with the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission.

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Sens. Urge SEC To Tackle China Exploit Of 'Opaque' Entities

By Rae Ann Varona

A bipartisan group of Senate Banking Committee members said in a Thursday letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that Chinese-owned companies' exploitation of a corporate structure controlled through contractual agreements exposes U.S. investors in such "opaque" entities to serious risks, including a lack of meaningful legal protections.

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Feds' Capital Rule Overhaul Would Give Break To Banks

By Jon Hill

Federal regulators moved Thursday to launch a comprehensive overhaul of U.S. bank capital rules, rolling out a long-awaited package of proposed changes that are expected to shave billions off the aggregate amount of capital required for banks of all size ranges.

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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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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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Ex-Bank CEO Cops To $13.6M Fraud, Evading Sanctions

By Carolina Bolado

The former CEO of the Puerto Rico-based Nodus International Bank pled guilty Thursday to running a scheme that stole more than $13.6 million from the now-collapsed bank and evading sanctions on Venezuela.

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Musk Cases, Atty Fees Draw Spotlight At Tulane Conference

By Rose Krebs

Two high-profile Delaware Supreme Court decisions involving Elon Musk's Tesla, the "supersize" attorney fee bids in those cases and others, and artificial intelligence's impact on the legal industry were among the hot topics Thursday as Tulane University Law School kicked off its annual Corporate Law Institute.

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Del. Suit Targets NC Enviro Co. Charter Shielding Directors

By Jarek Rutz

A stockholder of a North Carolina-based environmental technology business has brought a class action in the Delaware Chancery Court seeking to invalidate a provision in the company's corporate charter that he contends unlawfully shields directors and officers from liability for certain misconduct.

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Gemini Investor Sues Over Crypto Co.'s Post-IPO Biz Shift

By Sydney Price

Crypto exchange operator Gemini Space Station Inc. and its founders Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss were hit with a proposed shareholder class action accusing them of not disclosing before the firm's initial public offering its plans to shift focus to the prediction market, pull back on global operations and replace certain members of its leadership.

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Financial Firms Must Face Suit Over Adviser's Thefts

By Julie Manganis

A group of investors whose funds were stolen by a now-jailed financial adviser will get another chance to convince a judge the investment firms he worked for should be held civilly liable, a Massachusetts intermediate appellate court ruled Thursday.

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Oil Company Sues X Critic Over Assets Amid Investor Suit

By José Luis Martínez

Oil and gas asset company Next Bridge Hydrocarbons Inc. claims that an X commenter has falsely accused the company of misleading investors about the value of its assets, in a dispute that comes as investors are appealing the dismissal of claims against the Texas company about misrepresentation of assets.

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Alston & Bird Hires Derivatives Atty From K&L Gates

By Jack Rodgers

Alston & Bird LLP has hired a former K&L Gates LLP lawyer, who has joined its financial services group, the firm announced Thursday.

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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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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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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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