Jury Says Musk Defrauded Twitter Investors In $44B Buyout

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal jury found on Friday that Elon Musk committed securities fraud in a civil trial over claims the tech billionaire made false or misleading statements about Twitter's fake "bot" accounts problem in a bid to ditch or renegotiate his $44 billion deal to acquire the social media platform.

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Top SEC Enforcer Signals Continuity After Ryan Departure

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's acting enforcement chief said Friday that the agency will continue to "focus on quality over quantity" when it comes to the cases it brings, projecting continuity with his predecessor's approach after her abrupt departure from the agency earlier this week.

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Legal Sector Bracing For Impact Of Del. Corp. Law Changes

By Rose Krebs

Now that the Delaware Supreme Court has signed off on controversial corporate law amendments, the legal industry is anxiously awaiting the real-world impacts of those changes, panelists at Tulane University Law School's Corporate Law Institute said on Friday.

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Analysis

OCC Leaves Itself Flexibility On Stablecoin Yield Question

By Aislinn Keely

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency made clear in its recent stablecoin rule proposal that it plans to bar issuers from paying yields to holders in some instances, but legal experts say the regulator appears to be leaving itself considerable room to decide which arrangements cross a line.

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White House Pushes Congress To Override State AI Laws

By Courtney Bublé

The White House directed Congress to preempt "burdensome" state laws on artificial intelligence in a legislative framework released Friday.

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UBS Gets Final OCC Nod For US Arm To Be National Bank

By Jon Hill

The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency has granted final approval for UBS Group AG to convert its U.S. depository subsidiary into a national bank, a move the Swiss banking giant is touting as a boon for its stateside growth ambitions.

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Chubb Moves To Toss Shareholder's Climate Proposal Suit

By Jessica Corso

Insurance company Chubb Ltd. is fighting an effort to place a climate-related question on its annual corporate ballot, telling a Washington, D.C., federal judge that the shareholder championing the proposal is attempting to micromanage its business.

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CFTC Gives Update On Crypto Collateral Expectations

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission gave registrants more information about its expectations around the use of crypto collateral in a Friday notice, which reminded futures commission merchants they must notify the agency's Market Participants Division if they plan to take advantage of a pilot program launched last year.

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State Judge Temporarily Bars Kalshi Wagers In Nevada

By Tom Lotshaw

A Nevada state judge temporarily blocked prediction market operator Kalshi from offering sports, election and entertainment related event contracts in the Silver State, finding regulators reasonably likely to prevail in an action alleging its event-based contracts violate gaming laws.

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BofA Hit With 2nd Class Suit Over Alleged $328M Crypto Scam

By Carla Baranauckas

Bank of America and a New Jersey IRA‑LLC facilitator are facing a growing wave of litigation over their alleged roles in enabling the $328 million Goliath Ventures cryptocurrency scam, with two new federal class actions filed this week accusing them of helping steer retirement and investment funds into what prosecutors say was a massive Ponzi scheme.

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SEC's $1B Broad Street Fraud Case Stays In Fla.

By Carolina Bolado

A private equity firm the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission accused of defrauding investors in a $1 billion fund will have to face the lawsuit in Florida, after a federal judge there refused Friday to toss the case or move it to South Carolina, where the firm is based.

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Brief

5th Circ. Won't Rehear FDIC Enforcement Challenge

By Jon Hill

The Fifth Circuit said Friday that it won't revisit a constitutional challenge to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s use of in-house enforcement proceedings, turning down a petition that had drawn support from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and civil liberties groups.

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Cooperator Rechnitz Can't Avoid Jail At SDNY Resentencing

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge on Friday hit Jona Rechnitz, a prolific cooperating witness who testified at three trials, with a five-month prison sentence for corruption crimes he committed over a decade ago, despite saying "you have done all you can" to atone.

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Albertsons Subpoenas Ex-Kroger CEO In Merger Fight

By Jarek Rutz

Albertsons Cos. Inc. has subpoenaed former Kroger Co. CEO Rodney McMullen in Delaware Chancery Court to sit for a two-day deposition next month, intensifying discovery in its Delaware lawsuit over the collapse of the companies' proposed $24.6 billion merger.

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Hong Kong Backer Accuses Med Co. Founders Of Self-Dealing

By Jarek Rutz

A Hong Kong-based investor has filed a lawsuit in the Delaware Chancery Court accusing the founders of a medical device startup of running the company for their own benefit while ignoring basic corporate governance rules.

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CytoDyn Settles Investor Suit With $500K, 49M Shares

By Rachel Riley

Biotechnology firm CytoDyn has agreed to dole out 49 million shares of common stock and pay $500,000 to end investors' proposed class action accusing the company of overstating the likelihood that the U.S. Food and Drug Administration would approve a drug it claimed could treat HIV and COVID-19.

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Feds Don't Have To Reveal Probe Of BofA's Epstein Ties

By Katryna Perera

The federal government does not have to disclose a possible investigation into Bank of America's alleged role in enabling Jeffrey Epstein's sex trafficking scheme, a New York federal judge said Friday, explaining his order earlier this month denying the bank's bid to stay a civil suit that has since been settled.

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Hims Says Failed Wegovy Collab Doesn't Merit Investor Suit

By Sydney Price

Telehealth company Hims & Hers Health Inc. urged a California federal court to release it from a shareholder suit accusing it of exploiting its partnership with Novo Nordisk, the distributor of weight loss drug Wegovy, to sell "knockoff" drugs, saying the suit does not allege the company's executives knew the partnership would fall through.

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KBR Investors Revise Suit Over DOD Relocation Contract

By Sydney Price

A proposed class of investors has launched revised claims in a suit alleging engineering solutions company KBR Inc. misled the market about its joint venture's now terminated partnership with the government to assist in relocating military personnel.

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Roundup

Taxation With Representation: Clifford Chance, Davis Polk

By Zak Kostro

In this Week's Taxation With Representation, Public Storage acquires National Storage Affiliates Trust, 3M teams up with Bain Capital to buy Madison Fire & Rescue, and Mastercard acquires stablecoin infrastructure firm BVNK.

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CFTC's No-Action Relief Fuels Energy Market Competition

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission recently launched a pilot program aimed at expanding access to energy markets, reflecting a shift toward supporting robust derivatives markets that balance regulatory safeguards with the needs of commodity end users, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

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Opinion

Clarity Act Would Clear Welcome Pathways For Blockchain

The framework proposed under the Senate Banking Committee's version of the Clarity Act creates reasonable compliance obligations and meaningful token-distribution opportunities that would open the door for more U.S.-based blockchain projects, without the heightened risk of securities litigation and regulatory enforcement, says Karen Ubell at Goodwin.

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5 Tips For Navigating Your Firm's All-Attorney Summit

Law firm retreats should be approached strategically, as they present valuable opportunities to advance both the firm's objectives and attorneys' professional development through meaningful participation, building and strengthening internal relationships, and proactive follow-up, says James Argionis at Cozen O’Connor.

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DOJ Rebuked Over Lack Of Candor For 'Imperious Client'

By Jack Karp

A Florida federal judge has rebuked government attorneys for failing to be up-front about legal authority that contradicts their position in a habeas case, warning them not to let their "imperious client" get between them and their ethical obligations.

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The Hypnosis That Helped Send A Man To Death Row

By Marco Poggio

The capital murder conviction of Charles Don Flores, a man on Texas’ death row, hinged on a courtroom identification by a witness who had previously undergone hypnosis. His lawyers are now asking the U.S. Supreme Court to intervene, after Texas’ top court shot down his claims that the hypnosis session contaminated the witness’s memory and tainted her identification.

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Ore. Atty Sanctioned $10K For Brief With Fabricated Citations

By Hailey Konnath

An Oregon appellate court has ordered an attorney to pay $10,000 for filing an opening brief containing fabricated case citations, quotations that "do not exist anywhere in Oregon case law" and other inaccuracies, according to an opinion.

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Where Calif. State Courts Landed On Generative AI Use Rules

By Emily Sawicki

The majority of California's 58 superior courts — together making up the country's largest trial court system — have decided to greenlight the use of generative artificial intelligence in their work this year, a Law360 investigation found.

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Roundup

Balancing The Scales: $3M Jury Verdict, GEO Appeal Denial

By Orlando Lorenzo

A Philadelphia federal judge rejected bids to disturb a $3 million jury award and impose sanctions on plaintiff's counsel arising from proceedings he described as "near-daily Festivus celebrations, where everyone got to air their grievances 'for the sake of the record'" and a Detroit man saw his murder conviction vacated after 27 years due to the case's reliance on a coerced confession and a lack of physical evidence, among other access to justice stories you may have missed.

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Bondi Keeps Ousted Wisconsin US Atty With New Title

By Lauren Berg

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi swapped Brad D. Schimel's title from interim U.S. attorney to first assistant U.S. attorney for the Eastern District of Wisconsin in order to keep him in charge of the office after his tenure expired earlier this week.

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Beasley Allen Can't Halt DQ Ruling In J&J Talc Litigation

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state appeals court has refused to pause its decision disqualifying the Beasley Allen Law Firm from representing plaintiffs in multicounty litigation over Johnson & Johnson's talc-based baby powder, according to a court order.

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Up Next At High Court: Late Ballots And 'Last-Mile' Drivers

By Katie Buehler

The U.S. Supreme Court will kick off its March oral arguments session by reviewing disputes over the validity of state laws allowing late-arriving mail-in ballots to be counted in federal elections and whether "last-mile" delivery drivers qualify for the transportation worker exemption to the Federal Arbitration Act. 

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen an ex-professional footballer revive a dispute with Charles Russell Speechlys, Virgin Media face a group data protection claim after hundreds of thousands of customers' personal details were exposed online for months, and Mishcon de Reya sued by a real estate private equity firm founded by a former Morgan Stanley executive.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Major shareholder groups sued the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, claiming the agency violated the Administrative Procedure Act. In the meantime, some attorneys think the sanctions that judges are issuing to lawyers over AI-generated errors won't be enough to stop the problem. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Baron & Budd PC, Walden Macht Haran & Williams LLP and Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit revived a major hospital chain's False Claims Act suit accusing large pharmaceutical companies of massive overcharges in a prominent drug discount program.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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