3 Crypto Bills Pass House, With Stablecoins Headed To Trump

By Aislinn Keely

The House of Representatives on Thursday agreed to send a bill to regulate stable-value tokens to the president's desk, in addition to advancing proposals to regulate crypto markets and ban the government from exploring the issuance of a digital dollar onto the Senate.

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Bitcoin Treasury Firm To Go Public Via $1.5B SPAC Deal

By Katryna Perera

Bitcoin investment company BSTR Holdings Inc. announced on Thursday that special purpose acquisition company Cantor Equity Partners I Inc. will provide it with up to $1.5 billion in financing in a go-public deal, guided by Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

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Circle's Bank Plans Include Regulatory Vets At Helm

By Jon Hill

Stablecoin giant Circle has tapped Heath Tarbert, its president and former top derivatives regulator, as well as a former Office of the Comptroller of the Currency chief counsel to help oversee its proposed national trust bank, according to application materials made public Thursday.

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Watchdog Raises Concerns On 9th Circ. Nominee's Crypto Work

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump's nominee for the Ninth Circuit has a long record of representing cryptocurrency companies, which a watchdog group fears could aid what it calls the president's "self-enrichment" with digital currency.

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CFTC Restructures Enforcement Division Amid Layoffs

By Jessica Corso

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission plans to lay off around two dozen staff members and has restructured its enforcement division by eliminating some management positions, a person familiar with the matter told Law360 Thursday.

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Former Club Rugby Champ Jailed For Crypto Ponzi Scheme

By Alex Lawson

A Seattle federal judge on Wednesday sentenced a former national champion club rugby player to 30 months in prison for wire fraud after he defrauded investors with promises of building a new cryptocurrency mining operation.

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GENIUS Act Creates 'Commodity' Uncertainty For Stablecoins

Half a century ago, Congress made trading in onion futures on commodity exchanges unlawful, and payment stablecoins could soon face a similarly unstable fate in the markets as the GENIUS Act heads to the president's desk for signature, says Peter Malyshev at Cadwalader.

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Feds' Shift On Reputational Risk Raises Questions For Banks

While banking regulators' recent retreat from reputational risk narrows the scope of federal oversight in some respects, it also raises practical questions about consistency, reputational management and the evolving political landscape surrounding financial services, say attorneys at Smith Anderson.

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Series

Playing Mah-Jongg Makes Me A Better Mediator

Mah-jongg rewards patience, pattern recognition, adaptability and keen observation, all skills that are invaluable to my role as a mediator, and to all mediating parties, says Marina Corodemus.

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5 Things To Know As California Courts Decide On AI Rule

By Emily Sawicki

Fourteen months after California Supreme Court Chief Justice Patricia Guerrero first convened a task force to study potential benefits and risks of using artificial intelligence in the court system, the Judicial Council of California is poised Friday to consider the proposed rules and standards the task force developed.

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Dems Walk Out On Vote Of Emil Bove For 3rd Circ.

By Courtney Bublé

The Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee walked out of the vote on Emil Bove's Third Circuit nomination on Thursday morning after Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., accused committee chair Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, of subverting committee rules by not acknowledging his request to speak and rushing through the nomination.

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US Trustee Says Constitution Bars Jackson Walker Jury Trial

By Adrian Cruz

The federal government's bankruptcy watchdog told a Texas federal judge that under the Seventh Amendment, Jackson Walker LLP isn't entitled to a jury trial in its fee dispute stemming from a former bankruptcy judge's secret relationship with a onetime partner.

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Wis. Senators Send List Of Bipartisan 7th Circ. Picks To Trump

By Courtney Bublé

The senators from Wisconsin, one Republican and one Democrat, have sent President Donald Trump a list of five candidates for the seat of the Seventh Circuit that is slated to open in October.

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Israel Criticism Isn't Antisemitism, Judge Tells DOJ Lawyers

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts federal judge overseeing a free speech trial over deportation actions targeting pro-Palestinian students and faculty said Thursday that "criticism of the state of Israel is not antisemitism," and that even the most "vile" statements, absent threats or violence, are protected by the First Amendment.

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J&J Loses Bid To DQ Beasley Allen From Talc MDL Committee

By George Woolston

A New Jersey federal judge on Thursday denied Johnson & Johnson's bid to remove the Beasley Allen Law Firm from the plaintiffs steering committee in the multidistrict talc litigation but said that changes would be made to the committee's structure.

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Former Microsoft GC Remembered As Rule Of Law Champion

By Andrea Keckley

Former American Bar Association President William H. "Bill" Neukom, the first head lawyer for Microsoft and a longtime partner at a predecessor firm to K&L Gates LLP, has died at age 83, the bar said Wednesday.

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Wisconsin Bar Settles Atty's Legal Challenge Over DEI Efforts

By Madison Arnold

The State Bar of Wisconsin has settled a lawsuit from a lawyer challenging its diversity, equity and inclusion efforts, with the agency agreeing to apply a tweaked definition of diversity to two leadership programs.

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Fla. Law Firm Zumpano Patricios Hit With Data Breach Suit

By Sarah Martinson

Miami-headquartered national law firm Zumpano Patricios is facing a proposed class action in Florida federal court accusing the firm of failing to protect sensitive information, including dates of birth and healthcare payments, that was compromised in a May data breach.

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LA Ex-Judge Admonished For 'Discourteous,' 'Demeaning' Talk

By Hailey Konnath

California's Commission on Judicial Performance has publicly admonished a retired Los Angeles state judge for a pattern of "discourteous, undignified and impatient" behavior that also involved "demeaning" remarks toward women, findings that the judge said don't reflect "the full complexity of the circumstances."

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SEC Atty Exits After Hiding Revoked License, OIG Says

By Jessica Corso

A longstanding employee of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission resigned after it was discovered that they had falsely reported being in good standing with a state bar association, according to the regulator's inspector general.

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Analysis

6 Cases For Patent Attys To Watch In The Second Half Of 2025

By Dani Kass

The Federal Circuit is considering major questions about when delays in prosecuting patents become bad faith and whether the acting U.S. Patent and Trademark Office director is legally allowed to apply new rules retroactively. Here's what you need to know about these cases and others that attorneys are keeping an eye on for the rest of the year.

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