Securities

  • March 07, 2024

    Chancery Clears Way For March 22 Trump Media SPAC Vote

    Efforts to take former President Donald Trump's Truth Social media platform public have continued moving ahead after Delaware's Court of Chancery rejected a full preliminary injunction sought by a former executive of the blank-check company involved before a key vote on the take-public merger.

  • March 07, 2024

    Exxon Investors Say Shareholder Proposal Suit Is Moot

    Activist investors Arjuna Capital and Follow This have again urged a Texas federal judge to dismiss a case against them brought by Exxon Mobil Corp., saying the company "refuses to take 'yes' for an answer" and is trying to run a proxy battle with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission through the case.

  • March 07, 2024

    Harpoon Shareholder Sues For Records On $680M Merck Buy

    A shareholder of Harpoon Therapeutics Inc. sued in Delaware's Court of Chancery Thursday for corporate documents related to the company's proposed $680 million cash buyout by Merck, saying the proposed deal appears to unfairly "lock in a windfall for select Harpoon investors."

  • March 07, 2024

    Renesas Sued In Chancery Over $315M Merger Payments

    A representative for shareholders of an Israel-based software company have hit Renesas Electronics Corp. with a contract suit in Delaware Chancery Court accusing the Japanese semiconductor maker of failing to pay "earnout" milestones after it merged with the software company in December 2021.

  • March 07, 2024

    Ex-SVB Counsel Farella Braun Seeks $49K In Unpaid Fees

    Farella Braun & Martel LLP, which previously represented Silicon Valley Bank's parent in a dispute over fraud coverage, has sued the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. in a California federal court to extract nearly $49,000 in unpaid legal fees it says the agency must pay on behalf of the defunct lender.

  • March 07, 2024

    Towers Watson Insurers Off Hook For $90M Merger Coverage

    Towers Watson's insurers do not need to cover settlements totaling $90 million in two shareholder suits stemming from the company's merger with Willis, a Virginia federal judge ruled, saying the transaction was barred by a so-called bump-up exclusion.

  • March 07, 2024

    Whistleblower Wants Reward For Helping SEC In $18M Scam

    A whistleblower told the Eleventh Circuit on Thursday that he is entitled to a whistleblower reward under the Dodd-Frank Act because he provided the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission with information the agency used to obtain $18 million in judgments against the perpetrators of an alleged Ponzi scheme.

  • March 07, 2024

    DLA Piper Wins Sanctions Bid In NY Malpractice Suit

    A New York federal judge has sanctioned a Chinese investment fund and its attorneys for filing a frivolous malpractice lawsuit against DLA Piper, instructing the fund and New York boutique firm Felicello Law PC to pay DLA Piper's attorney costs and its fees for the underlying litigation.

  • March 07, 2024

    Robinhood Teams With Rich Paul, Klutch To Expand To Sports

    Robinhood is partnering with Klutch Sports Group to help it extend its reach into sports, entertainment and media, with Klutch founder and CEO Rich Paul as its strategic brand adviser, the financial investment app announced Thursday.

  • March 07, 2024

    Brafman Attys Known For Repping Big Names Open Firm

    A trio of former Brafman & Associates PC lawyers with a history of representing high-profile figures like former Goldman Sachs executive Roger Ng have launched their own criminal defense practice in Manhattan.

  • March 07, 2024

    Feds Want 3 Years For Trader Who Spied BigLaw Ex's Binder

    Prosecutors asked a Manhattan federal court for a prison sentence of up to three years for a man who orchestrated an insider trading scheme after gleaning information about a yet-to-be-announced merger from his girlfriend, a Covington & Burling associate, calling it a brazen crime that the defendant lied about when confronted.

  • March 07, 2024

    Fed Working To Beef Up Supervision 'Rulebook,' Powell Says

    Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell told senators Thursday that efforts are underway to strengthen bank supervision following last year's failures of Silicon Valley Bank and other regional lenders, including the development of a "new rulebook" for more robust examiner action.

  • March 06, 2024

    Top Calif. Antitrust Atty Says Criminal Cases On The Horizon

    California is poised to start prosecuting criminal antitrust cases under a Golden State law that is "broader" than federal law, a senior assistant attorney general for the California Department of Justice said Wednesday at a San Francisco conference.

  • March 06, 2024

    Red State AGs Sue SEC Over 'Illegal' Climate Disclosure Regs

    The attorneys general of West Virginia and Georgia are heading a coalition of 10 Republican-led states in asking the Eleventh Circuit to review the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's adoption Wednesday of climate reporting standards requiring some of the nation's largest companies to publicly disclose their greenhouse gas emissions.

  • March 06, 2024

    Nvidia Wants High Court Review Of $1B Crypto Sales Suit

    Nvidia has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to weigh in on a Ninth Circuit decision partially resurrecting a suit accusing the technology company of understating more than $1 billion in sales to cryptocurrency miners, arguing that the justices are needed to clarify the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act's pleading requirements.

  • March 06, 2024

    Garland On AI Crime, And A Taylor Swift Tune For DOJ

    U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland on Wednesday told a group of lawyers gathered in San Francisco that the U.S. Department of Justice is ramping up its hiring of computer scientists to fight artificial intelligence-driven crime and also revealed which Taylor Swift song he thought should be the department's anthem.

  • March 06, 2024

    DOJ Says Docs Exempt From Release In Ex-JPM Trader Case

    The U.S. Department of Justice has asked a D.C. federal court to shut down a former JPMorgan forex trader's latest bid for allegedly exculpatory material from the government's failed market manipulation case against him, arguing the records are properly considered protected from public disclosure.  

  • March 06, 2024

    Latham Passes Skadden As Busiest Securities Defense Firm

    Despite a downward trend in securities case filings over the past three years, Latham & Watkins LLP has remained one of the most active law firms on the defense side, taking over the top spot from Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP, according to reports released by Lex Machina.

  • March 06, 2024

    Ex-Oil Exec. Michael Reger Dukes It Out With Dorsey Attys

    Michael Reger, a co-founder and former executive of now-defunct oil transloading company Dakota Plains Holdings Inc., is trading blows in Minnesota state court with his onetime legal counsel from Dorsey & Whitney LLP, with the firm saying Reger's malpractice complaint is just an attempt to skip his bill following a stock fraud suit.

  • March 06, 2024

    X Gets Investors' 'Puzzling' Cybersecurity Suit Axed For Good

    The social media site X, formerly known as Twitter, does not have to face shareholders' claims that they were misled and kept in the dark about the platform's cybersecurity concerns, a California federal judge ruled while scolding the shareholders for filing an "unnecessarily lengthy, puzzling and burdensome complaint."

  • March 06, 2024

    SEC Dissenters Say Crypto Order Highlights 'Untenable' Rules

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission levied a $275,000 fine against crypto exchange ShapeShift for failing to register as a dealer before it left the stateside market in 2021, though dissenting commissioners said the case underscores the "untenable" environment the SEC has created for crypto participants.

  • March 06, 2024

    Weber Stockholders Vie For Chancery Suit Over $3.7B Deal

    The competition among former Weber Inc. stockholders who sued over the grill maker's $3.7 billion squeeze-out by BDT Capital Partners LLC heated up Wednesday in Delaware's Court of Chancery as more than a dozen firms on teams led by Scott + Scott Attorneys at Law LLP, Friedlander & Gorris PA and Prickett Jones & Elliot PA battled to lead a consolidated class suit.

  • March 06, 2024

    Feb. 2025 Trial Set In $1B Ronaldo Binance Promo Suit

    A Florida federal judge has set a February 2025 trial date and other pre-trial details for the proposed class action against soccer star Cristiano Ronaldo related to his role in promoting embattled crypto platform Binance.com, following the failure of the parties to file their joint scheduling reports.

  • March 06, 2024

    IoT Co. Beats Some Claims In Investor Suit Over Fake Reviews

    Chinese "Internet of Things" platform developer Tuya Inc. and one of its directors, former General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt, have — for now — beaten some claims in a suit from shareholders alleging Tuya hid that many of its merchant customers were facing scrutiny for using fake reviews to boost their own products.

  • March 06, 2024

    SEC Beefs Up Disclosure Rules For Stock Order Executions

    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission unanimously agreed Wednesday to require market venues and brokers to increase disclosures showing that they are obtaining the best prices for their customers' stock market orders on a timely basis, marking the first update to such rules in a quarter-century.

Expert Analysis

  • The Double-Edged Sword Of Biometrics In Financial Services

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    Financial institutions are increasingly turning to biometrics for identity verification and fraud prevention, and while there are many benefits to such features, banks must remain vigilant against growing AI technologies that could make users' information vulnerable to biometrics hackers, say Elizabeth Roper at Baker McKenzie and Chris Allgrove at Ingenium Biometric Laboratories.

  • CFTC Moves May Boost Interest In Voluntary Carbon Markets

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    As companies try to reduce their net greenhouse gas emissions, many have been cautious about embracing voluntary carbon credit markets — but recent moves by the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission to regulate this sector may address some of its well-known challenges, say Deborah North and Laura Daugherty at Cleary.

  • Musk Pay Package Ruling Offers Detailed Lesson On Del. Law

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    Anat Alon-Beck and John Livingstone at Case Western Reserve University discuss the specifics that led Delaware's chancellor to rescind Elon Musk's $55.8 billion Tesla pay package on Jan. 30, how the state’s entire fairness doctrine played into the ruling, and its bigger-picture impact on the executive compensation landscape.

  • Chancery's Sears Ruling Clarifies Stockholder Duties

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    In a recent landmark decision involving stockholders of Sears Hometown and Outlet Stores, the Delaware Chancery Court addressed for the first time what precise duties a controlling stockholder owes, highlighting that controller interference with board action is not per se invalid and that enhanced scrutiny is a reasonableness test, say Christopher Chuff and Taylor Bartholomew at Troutman Pepper.

  • Del. Ruling Adds Momentum For Caremark Plaintiffs

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    The Delaware Supreme Court's recent opinion in Lebanon County Employees' Retirement Fund v. Collis could be viewed as expanding plaintiffs' ability to viably plead a Caremark claim against directors, so Delaware companies should be on heightened alert and focus on creating a record of board oversight, say attorneys at V&E.

  • How Biotech Cos. Can Utilize Synthetic Royalty Financing

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    Synthetic royalty transactions have been on the rise as a funding structure for biotechnology companies, but questions have arisen surrounding how such transactions work, and structuring them correctly requires a nuanced understanding, say Todd Trattner and Ryan Murr at Gibson Dunn.

  • 2 SEC Orders Illuminate Bribery Risks For US-China Cos.

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s foreign bribery-related resolutions with 3M and Clear Channel offer important takeaways on compliance risks for companies with operations in China, from the role of traditionally low-risk vendors to gaps in internal accounting controls, say attorneys at Miller & Chevalier.

  • Key Maritime Law Issues In 2024: Election-Year Unknowns

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    In the final installment of this three-part article reviewing the top challenges for the maritime industry this year, Sean Pribyl at Holland & Knight examines how the uncertainty surrounding the forthcoming U.S. election may affect the maritime sector — especially companies involved in offshore wind and deep-sea mining.

  • The Legal Industry Needs A Cybersecurity Paradigm Shift

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    As law firms face ever-increasing risks of cyberattacks and ransomware incidents, the legal industry must implement robust cybersecurity measures and privacy-centric practices to preserve attorney-client privilege, safeguard client trust and uphold the profession’s integrity, says Ryan Paterson at Unplugged.

  • Key Maritime Law Issues In 2024: Environmental Challenges

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    In the second installment of this three-part article examining key concerns for the maritime sector this year, Sean Pribyl at Holland & Knight considers how the industry will be affected by environmental concerns — including the growing push for decarbonization, and regulatory scrutiny around greenwashing and ESG issues.

  • As Promised, IRS Is Coming For Crypto Tax Evaders

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    The IRS is fulfilling its promise to crack down on those who have neglected to pay taxes on cryptocurrency earnings, as demonstrated by recently imposed prison sentences, enforcement initiatives and meetings with international counterparts — suggesting a few key takeaways for taxpayer compliance, say attorneys at BakerHostetler.

  • 5 Reasons Associates Shouldn't Take A Job Just For Money

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    As a number of BigLaw firms increase salary scales for early-career attorneys, law students and lateral associates considering new job offers should weigh several key factors that may matter more than financial compensation, say Albert Tawil at Lateral Hub and Ruvin Levavi at Power Forward.

  • SEC Registrants Likely Won't Get Cyber Disclosure Delays

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's sweeping cybersecurity disclosure final rules, its SolarWinds enforcement action and recent U.S. Department of Justice guidance show the pressure is on registrants to disclose incidents timely and accurately, but the circumstances in which an extension will be granted are extremely rare, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

  • Key Maritime Law Issues In 2024: Geopolitics And Sanctions

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    Major challenges are on the horizon for the U.S. maritime sector in 2024, including geopolitical tensions in the Red Sea and ever-evolving sanctions targeting Iran and Russia — which may lead to higher shipping costs and greater compliance burdens for stakeholders, says Sean Pribyl at Holland & Knight.

  • New SDNY Whistleblower Program May Be A Game-Changer

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    A new pilot program in the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York promises to immunize from prosecution certain individuals who blow the whistle on financial crimes and corruption, and if similar self-disclosure programs are any indication, this significant new policy may measurably increase white collar investigations, say attorneys at Paul Hastings.

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