Firm Sanctioned For Misleading Merchants In Swipe-Fee Case

By Hailey Konnath

A New York federal judge on Thursday sanctioned personal injury firm Betz & Baril PLC and its referral partner ClickFunds for misleading would-be class members in long-running antitrust litigation against Visa and Mastercard, ordering the firm and ClickFunds to notify clients about the misinformation.

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Crypto Bill Could Get Senate Banking Markup Next Week

By Aislinn Keely

A bill to regulate crypto markets known as the Clarity Act could be marked up by the Senate Banking Committee as soon as next week, but lawmakers are still finalizing key provisions that could make or break the voting process, policymakers told attendees of the crypto conference Consensus.

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Ex-Beneficient CEO Convicted In $150M Shell Co. Fraud

By Bonnie Eslinger

The former CEO of Texas financial services firm Beneficient was convicted by a Manhattan federal jury on Thursday of securities fraud and other charges connected with a scheme to fraudulently loot more than $150 million from now-defunct GWG Holdings, a publicly traded company for which he served as chairman.

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Jackson Hewitt Tax Loans Flout Military Credit Law, Suit Says

By Ben Adlin

A U.S. Navy service member has accused tax preparer Jackson Hewitt Inc. of overcharging military clients for short-term loans tied to tax refunds, claiming in a proposed class action the company's effective interest rates for "refund anticipation loans" exceed what is allowed under the federal Military Lending Act.

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PDVSA Says Repaying $95M Debt Is Impossible

By Keith Goldberg

Venezuela's state-owned oil company has insisted it has no way to repay some $95 million in debt to bondholders due to banks being unwilling to work with it given the pariah status of the Venezuelan government.

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Dems Press Big 3 Bureaus On BNPL Credit Reporting Gaps

By Sarah Jarvis

Democratic U.S. senators are calling on the "Big Three" credit bureaus to explain how they're adapting their consumer credit scoring and reporting to account for buy-now-pay-later products, citing concerns about inconsistent tracking of a fast-growing source of everyday purchase financing.

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Trump Signs Bill To Speed Tribal Trust Land Mortgages

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump this week signed a bipartisan bill that was recently enacted to accelerate the process to obtain mortgages on tribal lands.

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Wyden Probes Wall Street Firms For Tariff Refund Stakes' Info

By Dylan Moroses

The top Democratic lawmakers on the Senate Finance Committee sent letters to major Wall Street firms Thursday about their activity in buying the rights to importers' tariff refund interests at a discount following the U.S. Supreme Court's decision in February striking down President Donald Trump's emergency tariff regime. 

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Warren Asks Meta About Reported Stablecoin Payment Plans

By Sarah Jarvis

The top Democrat on the Senate Banking Committee has called on Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg to provide more information about the company's reported plans to introduce stablecoin-based payment features for its users, accusing it of a "deeply troubling" lack of transparency about the project.

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Pentagon Defends Anthropic Security Risk Label At DC Circ.

By Ganesh Setty

The U.S. Department of Defense told the D.C. Circuit on Wednesday that Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth acted well within his statutory discretion when he labeled Anthropic PBC a supply-chain risk to U.S. national security, rejecting Anthropic's claims of retaliation.

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Failed Okla. Bank's Ex-CEO Cops To Fraud Charge

By Sydney Price

The former president and CEO of the now-defunct Oklahoma-based First National Bank of Lindsay pled guilty to one count of bank fraud for his involvement in making sham deposits in customer accounts and falsifying loan documents, the U.S. Department of Justice said Thursday.

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Truist Pushes To Arbitrate Law Firm's Fraudulent Check Case

By Emily Johnson

Truist Bank Inc. urged a Georgia state court to dismiss a suit from an Atlanta-based law firm accusing the bank of honoring a fraudulent $34,000 check, arguing the firm agreed to arbitrate such claims.

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Financial Cos. Say Atty Can't Represent Self In Securities Suit

By George Woolston

A group of financial services companies fighting an attorney's proposed securities class action has urged a New Jersey federal court to disqualify the attorney from serving as class counsel, arguing that precedent and ethical obligations prevent him from serving as both class counsel and the proposed class's named representative.

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Brief

Conn. Investment Firm Settles $70M Client Poach Suit

By Brian Steele

Connecticut investment firm TJT Capital Group LLC and its one-time chief compliance officer have settled a lawsuit accusing the former executive of taking 125 clients with $70 million in assets under management when he left for a new job, federal court records show.

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2 Firms Guide Payward's $600M Crypto Payments Co. Deal

By Sydney Price

Jones Day and Latham & Watkins LLP are steering a deal under which Payward Inc., parent company of crypto exchange Kraken, will acquire financial technology company Reap Technologies Holdings Ltd. in an up to $600 million payable cash-and-stock deal, the parties announced Thursday.

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FinCEN Rule Could Reshape AML Priorities Across Finance

Financial institutions should prepare for a proposed Financial Crimes Enforcement Network rule that would heighten scrutiny of anti-money laundering requirements and encourage responsible use of technology, potentially reorienting compliance, governance decisions and enforcement exposure for organizations across the financial sector, not just banks, say attorneys at Pillsbury.

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Series

Speed Jigsaw Puzzling Makes Me A Better Lawyer

My passion for speed puzzling — I can complete a 500-piece jigsaw puzzle in under 50 minutes — has sharpened my legal skills in more ways than one, with both disciplines requiring patience, precision and the ability to keep the bigger picture in mind while working through the details, says Tazia Statucki at Proskauer.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

The past week in London has seen Morrisons sued by a former logistics partner, EDF and Cripps LLP face a claim brought by a family estate near Hinkley Point C and a former BBC broadcaster file a defamation claim against a Welsh news site over articles linking her to Russian state media and conspiracy theories. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Morgan Lewis Hires 2 More Hunton Litigators

By Andrea Keckley

Morgan Lewis & Bockius LLP announced on Friday that it has hired two more attorneys from Hunton Andrews Kurth LLP to build up its litigation bench.

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Legal Industry Bounces Back, Gaining 2,400 Jobs In April

By Tracey Read

The legal sector is once again on a positive trajectory, gaining 2,400 jobs last month, according to seasonally adjusted data released Friday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

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Paul Weiss Says Atty Cuts Were Part Of Performance Reviews

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP told Law360 on Friday that the firm has parted ways with some attorneys following an annual review process.

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Top Atty In DOJ Appeal Over Law Firm Exec Orders To Depart

By Jake Maher

The lead federal prosecutor on the Trump administration's appeal to reinstate executive orders targeting four law firms is stepping down from his government role at the end of May, he publicly announced this week.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

The National Immigrant Justice Center and the American Civil Liberties Union lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after a split Seventh Circuit panel rejected the Trump administration's argument that immigrants unlawfully in the United States have no due process rights.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

The head of the U.S. Department of Labor's employee benefits section said agency investigations will focus on benefit plan managers' loyalty conflicts, including pursuit of socially conscious goals. Meanwhile, Dell became the latest company to consider Texas as its new legal home. These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Prosecutor Faces Probe Into Withheld Immigration Case Info

By Bonnie Eslinger

The lead assistant federal prosecutor for Rhode Island's civil division is under investigation for allegedly withholding information in an immigration case, according to an order from the Ocean State's top federal judge.

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DLA Piper Accused Of 'Frivolous' Suit To Please Chipotle GC

By Gina Kim

DLA Piper aggressively litigated a "frivolous" computer fraud lawsuit against a nonprofit volunteer in order to appease the then-general counsel of Chipotle, a client, who referred the case to the firm, according to a malicious-prosecution complaint filed Thursday in California state court. 

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

By Adam LoBelia

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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