Capital Markets

Expert Analysis

• Assessing SPAC Risk After SEC Pumps Brakes On Market

  

  The current lull in special purpose acquisition company activity following the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent risk advisories offers SPAC parties an opportunity to ramp up due diligence on targets and to evaluate prior accounting of warrants to ensure regulatory compliance, say Julie Copeland and Ellen Graper at StoneTurn.

• Judge's Rebuke Of Mass. AG Has Lessons For All Attorneys

  

  A Massachusetts federal judge’s recent rebuke of the state Attorney General’s Office for refusing to respond to discovery requests in Alliance for Automotive Innovation v. Healey highlights six important considerations for attorneys who want to avoid the dreaded benchslap, say Alison Eggers and Dallin Wilson at Seyfarth.  

• Font Considerations To Give Your Legal Briefs An Edge

  

  Following the D.C. Circuit’s recent notice discouraging use of the font Garamond in legal briefs, Jason Steed at Kilpatrick looks at typeface requirements and preferences in appellate courts across the country, and how practitioners can score a few extra brief-writing points with typography.

• Make Profitability Management Part Of Your Law Firm Culture

  

  As the legal industry continues to change in the post-pandemic world, law firms should adapt to client demands by constantly measuring and managing the profitability of their services, says Joseph Altonji at LawVision.

• Outsourcing Proxy Voting Is Still A Concern After SEC Rule

  

  Although robo-voting has modestly declined since the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission finalized its proxy voting rule last summer, the SEC should ensure asset managers don’t wholly outsource their voting responsibilities to proxy advisers, and should consider disabling the practice outright, says Tim Doyle at Guidepost Strategies.

• 4 Trends In Discoverability Of Litigation Funding Documents

  

  Recent rulings shed light on how courts and international arbitration tribunals decide if litigation funding materials are discoverable and reaffirm best practices that attorneys should follow when communicating with funders, say Justin Maleson at Longford Capital and Michele Slachetka and Christian Plummer at Jenner & Block.

• Opinion

  SEC Should Drop Litigation Over Ripple's XRP Token

  

  The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission should settle or withdraw its allegations that Ripple Labs' XRP is an unregistered security, and focus on creating new rules for securities registration that account for the unique dynamics of digital assets, says J.W. Verret at George Mason University.

• Enabling Nonsecurity Fractional Ownership Of NFTs

  

  Distributed ledger and smart contracts may make fractional ownership of nonfungible tokens possible without the complications of traditional securities sales, and market participants stand to benefit from the associated innovation and efficiencies, say Mack Legal principal Thomas Mack and Google product counsel Richard Widmann.

• 7 Lessons For Young Lawyers Starting Their Careers

  

  This year's law graduates and other young attorneys must recognize that the practice of law tests and rewards different skills and characteristics than law school, and that what makes a lawyer valuable changes over time, says Vernon Winters, retired partner at Sidley.

• Archegos Fallout Is A Wake-Up Call For Banks

  

  Billions in bank losses related to the recent collapse of Archegos Capital Management point to bank risk management and compliance deficiencies, and highlight several steps brokerages should take to avoid exposure next time a family office customer blows up, say consultants at StoneTurn.

• Opinion

  Justices Should Clarify Securities Fraud Loss Causation

  

  At its May conference, the U.S. Supreme Court should agree to review BofI Securities Litigation, to clear up a circuit split on how to assess loss causation in securities fraud cases, as shareholder class actions increasingly focus on external events that led to a stock drop, says Lyle Roberts at Shearman & Sterling.

• What Kan. Bankruptcy Ruling Means For Junior Lenders

  

  Following a Kansas bankruptcy court's recent decision in Fencepost, junior lenders should be aware that voting provisions in subordination agreements may not be enforceable, say Laura Appleby and Elizabeth Little at Faegre Drinker.

• How SPACs Can Avoid Failed China Reverse Mergers 2.0

  

  As red-hot special purpose acquisition companies hungry for de-SPAC transactions set their sites on Asia, practitioners can look to the failed Chinese reverse mergers of the early 2000s for lessons about regulation, due diligence and misrepresentation, say attorneys at Baker McKenzie.

• The Pandemic's Bright Spots For Lawyers Who Are Parents

  

  The COVID-19 crisis has allowed lawyers to hone remote advocacy strategies and effectively represent clients with minimal travel — abilities that have benefited working parents and should be utilized long after the pandemic is over, says Chelsea Loughran at Wolf Greenfield.

• Economic Sanctions And Export Controls: A Q1 Update

  

  Attorneys at Kirkland discuss first-quarter developments in U.S. export controls and economic sanctions and what they may indicate about the Biden administration's national security and foreign policy agenda.