CFTC Plans To OK Sports Betting On Prediction Markets

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposed a rule Wednesday that could govern the way the agency oversees the prediction markets, indicating that trading platforms will be allowed to continue accepting bets on the outcome of professional and college-level sports.

Proposed Rule attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Gemini Wants In On CFTC's Prediction Market Battle With NY

By Aislinn Keely

Gemini on Wednesday took steps to join the Commodity Futures Trading Commission's prediction market battle with New York regulators, seeking to back the agency's jurisdiction as the platform fends off a separate New York enforcement suit targeting certain sports and election markets as illegal gambling.

Motion attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Trump Picks Bank Exec, Ex-BigLaw Partner For CFPB Director

By Jon Hill

President Donald Trump on Wednesday tapped former BigLaw partner Brian Johnson for director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, a move that comes as White House Office of Management and Budget Director Russell Vought's time as interim head of the agency approaches its expiration date.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Tenn. Remittance Tax Is Unconstitutional, Fintech Group Says

By Jon Hill

A top fintech industry organization sued Wednesday to block an impending new Tennessee tax on outgoing international money transfers, challenging what the trade group contends is an unconstitutional toll on the billions of dollars sent abroad from the state each year.

Complaint attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ex-TD Bank Teller Gets 2 Years For Laundering Drug Cash

By Carla Baranauckas

A New Jersey federal judge sentenced a former TD Bank NA teller on Wednesday to two years in federal prison for accepting bribes and helping launder millions of dollars in drug proceeds through a scheme that transferred illicit money from the U.S. to Colombia.

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Figure, Sixth Street Team Up On $717M Kiavi Mortgage Deal

By Al Barbarino

Figure Technology Solutions said Wednesday it is acquiring residential real estate lender Kiavi in a $717 million deal that pairs a blockchain-native capital markets platform with an AI-driven mortgage origination engine, with the backing of private credit firm Sixth Street and three law firms advising. 

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

O Brother, Where Art DAO? Jurisdiction Issues Abound

While there is a dearth of decisions examining a decentralized autonomous organization's citizenship for diversity jurisdiction purposes, Second Circuit case law has defined citizenship for other unincorporated entities, which may guide how courts evaluate an increasing number of cases involving DAOs, says Michael Mix at Morrison Cohen.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Opinion

Agentic AI And Securities Law: Steps Congress Should Take

Agentic artificial intelligence technology doesn't fit comfortably into the existing securities regulatory landscape, so Congress should avoid repeating the mistakes that led to the legal uncertainty crypto companies and investors have faced over the past decade-plus by providing a legislative framework before AI fully matures, says Joseph A. Hall at Davis Polk.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

NY's UCC Updates Spell Change In Digital Asset Lending

Given the state’s role as a preferred jurisdiction for financing transactions, New York’s recent enactment of Uniform Commercial Code amendments, which establish control as a central concept for determining who has rights to a digital asset, will encourage nationwide growth toward a more technology-neutral approach to secured transactions, say attorneys at Manatt.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Susman Godfrey Beats, Seward & Kissel Matches Milbank Pay

By Tracey Read

At least four more firms have joined the associate pay raise bandwagon, with Seward & Kissel LLP matching the salary scale recently set by Milbank LLP, and Susman Godfrey LLP exceeding it.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Judicial Noms Say Biden Won, But Critics Fault Their Caveats

By Courtney Bublé

Three district court nominees on Wednesday said President Joe Biden won the 2020 election, a departure from other judicial nominees in the second Trump administration, but court watchers on the left took issue with how they couched those statements.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Camp Mystic Fights Sanctions Over 'Burn In Hell' Atty Remark

By Lynn LaRowe

Camp Mystic and parents of a girl killed in flooding there last summer faced off Wednesday over whether the camp should be sanctioned because its attorney said a plaintiff's lawyer would "burn in hell" and for other alleged misconduct in litigation over flooding deaths at the Texas camp.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ga. Federal Judge Faces 2nd Set Of Impeachment Articles

By Kelcey Caulder

A Georgia congressman has filed articles of impeachment against a federal judge who was reprimanded for having sex with a police officer in her Atlanta chambers within earshot of staff, the second lawmaker this week to do so. 

1 document attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Unions Rally As 5 Shops Approach Contract Deadline

By Andrea Keckley

Legal service providers across New York City gathered in City Hall Park on Wednesday afternoon as five unions represented by the Association of Legal Advocates and Attorneys approach their deadlines for a new contract at the end of the month.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

'Anti-ICE Vigilantes': DOJ Says Law Clerks Aided Noncitzens

By Lauren Berg

Two state court clerks in Utah are facing criminal charges after federal prosecutors say they acted as "self-appointed anti-ICE vigilantes" by helping noncitizens leave the courthouse by a back door to evade arrest by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, according to the newly unsealed case.

4 documents attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Morgan & Morgan Atty Again Blocked From Harvard Suit

By Carolyn Muyskens

A Massachusetts judge rebuffed a Morgan & Morgan PA attorney's second attempt to appear in a lawsuit over the theft of body parts from a Harvard Medical School morgue, saying he would not reconsider his earlier decision to bar the attorney over an incident in a separate court involving fake AI-generated case citations.

Order attached | Read full article » | Save to favorites »