Mergers & Acquisitions

Expert Analysis

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  Pursuing Wellness: Steps Toward A Supportive Firm Culture

  

  As an early advocate of the American Bar Association's year-old well-being pledge, we launched an integrated program to create and sustain a supportive workplace culture with initiatives focused on raising mental health awareness, embracing creativity and giving back to the community, says Casey Ryan at Reed Smith.

• CFIUS Risk Review Rules May Draw Attention To US Biotech

  

  The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States' critical technologies pilot program has had relatively minor impact on the U.S. biotech industry in the last year, but proposed rules unleashed by the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act will soon reshape the relationship between the government and the biotech industry, says Richard Matheny of Goodwin.

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  Pursuing Wellness: Mental Health Education As A Firm Priority

  

  Our firm drives a holistic concept of well-being through educational opportunities, such as a series of expert-led workshops intended to address mental health and substance abuse issues that we vowed to fight when we signed the American Bar Association's well-being pledge one year ago, says Krista Logelin at Morgan Lewis.

• 8 Takeaways From CFIUS' Proposed Risk Review Rules

  

  The Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States’ draft regulations implementing the Foreign Investment Risk Review Modernization Act seem to focus on specific national security concerns, as opposed to taking a broader approach, which means they are significantly more complex than the pre-FIRRMA regime, say Christian Davis and Thor Petersen of Akin Gump.

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  Pursuing Wellness: A Firm's Work With Mental Health Experts

  

  Signing the American Bar Association's well-being pledge last year was a natural progression of our firm's commitment to employee wellness, which has included developing partnerships with professionals in the mental health space to provide customized programming to firm attorneys and staff, say Annette Sciallo and Mark Goldberg at Latham.

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  Pursuing Wellness: When A Firm Brings Counseling On Site

  

  One year ago, our firm signed the American Bar Association's well-being pledge and embraced a commitment to providing on-site behavioral health resources, which has since become a key aspect of our well-being program, say Meg Meserole and Kimberly Merkel at Akin Gump.

• IRS Safe Harbor Proposal Hard On Restructuring Cos.

  

  Proposed regulations released by the IRS last week would adversely affect many companies involved in M&A transactions and restructurings by substantially restricting their ability to use net operating losses and built-in gains after an ownership change, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

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  Pursuing Wellness: Inside A Firm Meditation Program

  

  After our firm signed the American Bar Association’s well-being pledge one year ago, we launched two key programs that included weekly meditation sessions and monthly on-site chair massages to help people address both the mental and physical aspects of working at a law firm, says Marci Eisenstein at Schiff Hardin.

• Third Point's FTC Fine Displays Antitrust Rule Quirk

  

  Although the Federal Trade Commission determined Third Point inadvertently missed Hart-Scott-Rodino Act filings associated with its investments in newly merged DowDuPont, the FTC's enforcement action underscores the need for attention to compliance with the antitrust law, even when the trigger is another company's transaction, say attorneys at Arnold & Porter.

• Early Sampling Of Electronic Info Is Underutilized In Discovery

  

  The early and prompt provision of samples from all electronically stored information sources as a part of ESI protocol search methodology is consistent with the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure and may allow for significant cost savings during discovery, says Zachary Caplan at Berger Montague.

• SEC's Shareholder Proposal Change May Muddle 2020 Proxies

  

  Recent changes to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission staff's role as arbiter of shareholder proposals only add more complexity to the Rule 14a-8 process, which was already fraught with uncertainty for filers preparing to navigate the upcoming proxy season, say attorneys at Davis Polk.

• The Factors Courts Consider In Deposition Location Disputes

  

  In the absence of a federal rule governing deposition location, federal courts are frequently called on to resolve objections to out-of-state deposition notices. Recent decisions reveal what information is crucial to courts in making the determination, says Kevin O’Brien at Porter Wright.

• What To Consider Before Filing For A Rule 57 Speedy Hearing

  

  Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 57 and its state counterparts provide a method for expediting claims for declaratory judgment that warrants closer attention than it has historically received from litigants and courts, say attorneys at Gibson Dunn.

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  Why I Became A Lawyer: Expanding The Meaning Of Diversity

  

  My conservative, Catholic parents never skipped a beat when accepting that I was gay, and encouraged me to follow my dreams wherever they might lead. But I did not expect they would lead to the law, until I met an inspiring college professor, says James Holmes of Clyde & Co.

• How The Wayback Machine Can Strengthen Your Case

  

  The Wayback Machine, which archives screenshots of websites at particular points in time, can be an invaluable tool in litigation, but attorneys need to follow a few simple steps early in the discovery process to increase the odds of being able to use materials obtained from the archive, says Timothy Freeman of Tanenbaum Keale.