Mergers & Acquisitions

Expert Analysis

• 4 Things FTC Competition Bureau Looks For In White Papers

  

  Most written advocacy to the Bureau of Competition is of an extremely high quality, but sometimes we notice that there’s some room for improvement, says Daniel Francis, an associate director at the Federal Trade Commission's Bureau of Competition.

• Remembering Justice Stevens As A Law Firm Leader

  

  Rothschild Barry's John Coffey, who joined Justice John Paul Stevens' law firm in 1965, shares what it was like to watch Justice Stevens practice law, mentor younger lawyers and land a malfunctioning plane.

• Answers To Key Legal Finance Ethics Questions

  

  While there is discussion in some quarters about new regulations on commercial legal finance, the hands-off approach taken by the majority of courts and legislatures is an implicit recognition that it is already sufficiently regulated, says Danielle Cutrona of Burford Capital.

• Federal Agencies Need A Uniform Record-Keeping Process

  

  The administrative record is very important to federal agency litigation — as showcased in last month's U.S. Supreme Court decision concerning the addition of a citizenship question to the 2020 census — yet there is no set of consistent principles to guide agencies in compiling these official records, say attorneys at WilmerHale.

• Defense Of Copyright Claims: Don’t Let Your Proof Go Poof

  

  The recent proliferation of communications platforms in which content literally disappears after a short period of time has increased the risk of companies losing out on important evidence that would be crucial in copyright litigation, says Evynne Grover of QBE North America.

• The Role Of Dictionaries In Last Term's High Court Decisions

  

  Since 32 of the 67 decisions issued by the U.S. Supreme Court during its October term cite dictionaries, it’s worth reviewing the opinions to learn which dictionaries the justices consulted and how they used them, say Bruce Wessel and Brian Weissenberg of Irell & Manella.

• How To Evaluate The Rise In Legal Employment

  

  Although the rate of employment for law school graduates — which had been falling steadily — saw a small increase over the last year, other factors, such as fewer graduates overall and potential future job growth stagnation, temper the good news for those pursuing law degrees, say Tiffane Cochran and Tyler Grimm of AccessLex Institute.

• Foreign Investment In US Biotech Gets Greater Gov't Scrutiny

  

  Chinese investment in the U.S. biotech industry is attracting increased government oversight, as evidenced by the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States blocking several such transactions in the last 16 months. Two important proposed rules could materially affect the industry further, say attorneys at Morgan Lewis.

• Buyers' Immunity Under Employment Law Is A Myth

  

  Amid flush midyear M&A projections, asset purchasers should count on retaining successor liability under federal employment statutes, instead of relying on the rarely upheld three-part liability test to protect them, says Elvira Kras at McDermott.

• Opinion

  The Business Case For Championing Diverse Legal Teams

  

  Leveraging the collective strengths of a diverse workforce is not only the right thing to do, it’s a strategic imperative for any successful firm or business, says Louise Pentland, executive vice president and chief business affairs and legal officer of PayPal.

• How Trump's Trade Wars Are Affecting M&A Target Valuation

  

  Acquirers of companies with substantial involvement in imported merchandise must now gauge the many potential impacts of the Trump administration's unpredictable changes to international trade policy when assessing a target's valuation, says Eric Emerson of Steptoe & Johnson.

• Rethinking The Tech-First Approach To Law Firm Solutions

  

  When a lawyer complains about some workflow inefficiency they are having, the knee-jerk reaction of many firms is to look for a technology-based workaround. This overlooks the importance of human psychology and behavior, which may be the root of the problem, says Ryan Steadman of Zero.

• Top 10 Techniques For Crafting A Dazzling Brief

  

  Legal writing often falls flat not because it’s unorganized, but because it’s technically unsound and riddled with gaffes that cheapen and degrade it. Avoiding the most common mistakes will keep judges interested and, most importantly, make them trust you, says Daniel Karon of Karon LLC.

• A Dramatic 6 Months For OFAC Sanctions Enforcement

  

  Through the first half of 2019, the U.S. Department of the Treasury’s Office of Foreign Assets Control strengthened country-based sanctions programs, including those targeting Venezuela and Cuba, and brought a string of aggressive enforcement actions that suggest enhanced compliance program expectations going forward, say attorneys at Ropes & Gray.

• Inside The New Anti-Money Laundering Guidance For Attys

  

  The Paris-based Financial Action Task Force recently updated its global guidance for lawyers on how to detect and prevent money laundering and terrorist financing. The 2019 guidance bears structural similarities to the 2008 version, but contains several significant changes, says Kevin Shepherd of Venable.