Analysis

As Backlogged SEC Reopens, Attys Jostle To 'Get In Line'

By Jessica Corso

Thousands of U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission employees who were sent home last month finally returned to their offices Thursday, and experts say it will likely take at least a month for them to catch up with a backlog of casework and submissions for initial public offerings.

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Coinbase Counsel's DExit Letter Triggers Class Atty Pushback

By Jeff Montgomery

A Grant & Eisenhofer PA principal has challenged Coinbase Global Inc.'s continued limiting of public disclosures in a Delaware Court of Chancery suit alleging insider trading ahead of a stock plunge, after the company told the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Wednesday it will recharter in Texas.

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Trump To Pardon UK Billionaire Lewis For Insider Trading

By Dorothy Atkins

President Donald Trump has agreed to pardon 88-year-old British billionaire Joseph Lewis, who was sentenced to three years of probation for feeding nonpublic stock tips to his girlfriend and private-jet pilots.

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2nd Circ. Revives Bright Health Investors' Pandemic Suit

By Katryna Perera

The Second Circuit on Thursday revived a suit alleging healthcare management services company Bright Health Group Inc. misled investors in its 2021 initial public offering about its anticipated costs during the COVID-19 pandemic, finding that the complaint plausibly alleged the defendants hid preexisting operational issues and risks.

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SEC's Northeast Deputy Enforcement Head To Depart Agency

By Sarah Jarvis

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission announced Thursday that the deputy director of the enforcement division for the Northeast will leave the agency, following stints as the regional director of the New York office and acting deputy director of the enforcement division.

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MVP: Labaton Keller's Alfred L. Fatale III

By Sarah Jarvis

Alfred L. Fatale III of Labaton Keller Sucharow LLP's led the team that secured a $200 million settlement against Uber Technologies Inc. for investors who had accused the ride-sharing giant of a misleading initial public offering, earning him a spot as one of the 2025 Law360 Securities MVPs.

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OCC Must Deny Sony Bank's Crypto Charter Bid, Critics Say

By Jon Hill

Banking and community interest groups are urging the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency to reject Sony Bank's bid to charter a cryptocurrency-focused offshoot, warning it could exceed the agency's authority and risk skirting longstanding banking system safeguards.

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Davis Polk, Skadden Guide Grayscale IPO Filing

By Grace Dixon

Digital currency investment platform Grayscale Investments Inc. indicated plans for an initial public offering in a November securities filing prepared by Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

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Fed Frees SocGen, ICBC From 2018 Enforcement Orders

By Sarah Jarvis

The Federal Reserve said Thursday it has lifted a pair of 2018 consent orders against Société Générale SA and Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, ending long-running enforcement actions tied to alleged sanctions violations at the former and alleged anti-money-laundering deficiencies at the latter.

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EngageSmart Deal 'Screams' Disclosure Failures, Atty Says

By Jeff Montgomery

The record surrounding payment venture EngageSmart Inc.'s $4 billion take-private sale to affiliates of Vista Equity Partners LLC "screams" transparency shortfalls on the part of company directors and others, an attorney for stockholders who challenged the deal in Delaware's Court of Chancery told a vice chancellor on Thursday.

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Chancery Presses Fox, Investors To End Discovery Fight

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court pressed Fox Corp. and a coalition of public pension plaintiffs Thursday to break a stalemate over the scope of summary judgment discovery, signaling neither side will be allowed to bottleneck the consequential inquiry into director Jacques Nasser's independence from Fox founder Rupert Murdoch.

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DocGo Investors Seek OK Of $12.5M Deal Over Ex-CEO Claims

By Sydney Price

Investors of mobile medical provider DocGo have asked a New York federal court to grant preliminary approval of their $12.5 million settlement of claims that the company deceived stockholders before a $432 million contract with New York City to provide emergency migrant housing came under public scrutiny.

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Water Co. Investor Says Merger Erased $2B In Value

By Katryna Perera

The parent company of water brands Alhambra and Crystal Springs was hit with a proposed class suit alleging it misled investors about a June 2024 merger that triggered a $2 billion market capitalization loss.

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Deutsche Bank Denies Forum Shopping In Norway Vik Suit

By Brian Steele

Deutsche Bank AG pushed back Thursday against an allegation that its lawsuit targeting billionaire Alexander Vik and his daughter in Norway is an "egregious exercise of international forum shopping," urging a Connecticut state court not to order an end to the foreign litigation arising from an asset sale.

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Silvergate Bank Parent Gets OK For Ch. 11 Plan

By Rick Archer

A Delaware bankruptcy judge on Thursday approved the Chapter 11 plan of the parent company of failed cryptocurrency-focused Silvergate Bank after hearing the company had resolved all objections to the proposal.

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How Nasdaq, SEC Proposals May Transform Listing Standards

Both Nasdaq and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission have increasingly focused their recent regulatory efforts on small and foreign issuers, particularly those from China, reflecting an intention to strengthen the overall quality of companies accessing U.S. markets, but also potentially introducing a chilling effect on certain issuers, say attorneys at Norton Rose.

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Revisiting Jury Trial Right May Upend State Regulatory Power

Justice Neil Gorsuch’s recent use of a denial of certiorari to call for the U.S. Supreme Court to revisit whether the Seventh Amendment jury trial right extends to states, building off last year's Jarkesy ruling, could foretell a profound change in state regulators' ability to enforce penalties against regulated companies, say attorneys at Sidley.

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What Narrower FinCEN Reporting Spells For Industry

As compliance costs soar, the potential slimming down of the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network's anti-money laundering and countering the financing of terrorism regime is welcome news for banks, and would allow a shift in resources to ever-evolving cybercrime threats, say attorneys at Quarles & Brady.

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Series

Building With Lego Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Building with Lego has taught me to follow directions and adapt to unexpected challenges, and in pairing discipline with imagination, allows me to stay grounded while finding new ways to make complex deals come together, says Paul Levin at Venable.

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New California Bar Leader Aims To Rebuild Public Trust

By Tracey Read

After less than two weeks on the job, Laura Enderton-Speed, the California State Bar's new executive director, is already busy working to strengthen trust in the organization following the botched administration of the February bar exam.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Freeths face a professional negligence claim from a Scottish car dealership, Rolls-Royce sue logistics giant Kuehne + Nagel, and a team of Oberon Investments Group investment managers sued by their former employer.  

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

Experts say it will likely take at least a month for the thousands of SEC employees now back to work after the government shutdown to catch up with submissions for initial public offerings. Meanwhile, clean energy developers are increasingly looking to privately held investors amid a race to beat a July 2026 cutoff to maintain eligibility for clean electricity investment and production tax credits. These are some of the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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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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Buchalter Won't Be Sanctioned For 'Hallucinated' AI Citations

By Rose Krebs

An Oregon federal judge has decided not to sanction Buchalter PC and other counsel representing an environmental nonprofit in a trademark infringement dispute for submitting "hallucinated" case citations generated by an artificial intelligence tool, saying he is satisfied with "remedial actions" already done or to be taken.

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King & Spalding, Atty Move To End Bias Suit At 4th Circ.

By Grace Elletson

King & Spalding LLP and an attorney who complained that she didn't apply to a summer associate program as a straight, white woman because the firm sought diverse applicants have agreed to end her bias case, according to a filing in the Fourth Circuit.

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Manning Kass Hit With Age Bias Suit In Calif.

By Christine DeRosa

Manning & Kass Ellrod Ramirez Trester LLP is facing an age bias lawsuit in California state court alleging a firm leader has made ageist comments at employees over 40 and is trying to drive those workers out of the firm.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Sidley Austin LLP and Orrick Herrington & Sutcliffe LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a Washington federal jury cleared Novo Nordisk of allegations that it defrauded the state's Medicaid and Medicare systems by paying kickbacks and promoting off-label use to illegally boost prescriptions of its hemophilia drug NovoSeven.

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Non-Attys Could Help Close Georgia's Civil Justice Gap

By Emily Johnson

Low-income Georgians and rural Georgians face several barriers to accessing legal services, including living in a legal desert, according to a Georgia Supreme Court committee’s report. The panel's proposal allowing "limited licensed legal practitioners" to assist with civil housing and consumer debt matters could improve access to justice across the state.

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House Eyes Vote To Repeal Provision On Senators' Lawsuits

By Courtney Bublé

A House bill to repeal a controversial provision tucked into the government funding package that would allow senators investigated by former special counsel Jack Smith to sue for damages is listed for possible consideration on the schedule for the week of Nov. 17.

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Northern NY US Atty To Defend DOJ In Maurene Comey Suit

By Jack Karp

The U.S. attorney's office for the Northern District of New York has agreed to defend the U.S. Department of Justice against a lawsuit from former FBI Director James Comey's daughter over what she calls her illegal firing, that office informed a New York federal judge this week.

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DOJ Official Among Trump Picks For District Courts

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced judicial nominees for federal courts in Tennessee, Indiana and Missouri on Friday, including a current U.S. Department of Justice official.

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Frequent DEI Foe Takes Aim At Mich. Law Firm's Scholarships

By Madison Arnold

American Alliance for Equal Rights, a group known for challenging diversity, equity and inclusion scholarships, has set its sights on Michigan personal injury firm Buckfire & Buckfire PC for alleged discrimination via the firm's scholarship programs for minorities.

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NC, Utah Attorneys General Launch Nationwide AI Task Force

By Matt Perez

Democratic North Carolina Attorney General Jeff Jackson and Republican Utah Attorney General Derek Brown have announced the formation of a nationwide artificial intelligence task force in collaboration with developers OpenAI and Microsoft, as well as the Attorney General Alliance, a nonprofit group of bipartisan state attorneys general.

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How To Kill A Person: A Legal Battle Over Execution Methods

By Marco Poggio

As botched executions pile up and states reach for untested methods like nitrogen hypoxia, prisoners are turning to the courts for a say in how they will die — and are being met with a legal framework stacked against finding execution methods unconstitutional.

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Perkins Coie Sued By Omani Co. Over Trade Case Defense

By Rachel Riley

An Omani screw manufacturer has launched a legal malpractice suit in Washington state court accusing Perkins Coie LLP of a "series of deadly mistakes" while representing the Middle Eastern company in a U.S. Department of Commerce probe, allegedly leading to steep penalties and tariffs that cost the company hundreds of millions of dollars.

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Analysis

Feds' Use Of AI In Permitting, Rulemaking Raises Concerns

By Juan-Carlos Rodriguez

Federal government agencies with environmental responsibilities have begun using artificial intelligence tools, but attorneys say information about exactly why, how and when they are being used has been hard to get, leading to uncertainty about their effectiveness and shortcomings.

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'Constitutional Word Salad': Judge Rips Suit Over Mascot Ban

By Bonnie Eslinger

A New York federal court judge denied a Long Island school district's bid to amend claims in a lawsuit challenging the state's ban on Indigenous mascots, calling proposed changes a "constitutional word salad," but said a district parent could add First Amendment claims to the litigation.

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