Feds Want More Info On Union-Pacific, Norfolk Southern Deal

By Bryan Koenig

Federal rail regulators paused their review of Union Pacific's proposed $85 billion purchase of Norfolk Southern, concluding Thursday that the railways need to further supplement their merger notification after going back to the drawing board earlier this year.

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

4 Firms Steer Fertitta's $17.6B Caesars Entertainment Buy

By Al Barbarino

Caesars Entertainment has agreed to be sold to Fertitta Entertainment in an all-cash transaction valued at approximately $17.6 billion, including debt, in a deal steered by four law firms, the companies announced Thursday. 

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

CMA Clears $3.4B Kimberly-Clark, Suzano Joint Venture

By Tom Fish

Britain's competition regulator said in a statement Thursday it has cleared a proposed $3.4 billion joint venture between Brazilian pulp producer Suzano and U.S. consumer goods company Kimberly-Clark.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

7 Firms Guide $1.8B Butterfield, CIBC Caribbean Bank Deal

By Al Barbarino

The Bank of N.T. Butterfield & Son Ltd. said Thursday it has agreed to acquire CIBC's 91.7% stake in CIBC Caribbean Bank Ltd. for $1.794 billion, creating a regional banking platform with about $29 billion in assets across international financial centers and Caribbean markets.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Broadcasters Want Rules Relaxed Due To 'Fierce' Competition

By Christopher Cole

Broadcast industry advocates in Washington doubled down on their view that it's time to relax media ownership limits at all levels because the regulations unfairly pit them against "fierce" competitors like audio and video streamers.

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

EU Probes Chinese Retailer's €2.2B Deal For Tax Distortions

By Eleanor Butler

The European Union said Thursday that it had opened a probe into Chinese e-commerce firm JD.com's €2.2 billion ($2.6 billion) takeover bid for German electronics retailer Ceconomy, linked to concerns the Chinese firm had been granted distortive foreign subsidies.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

9th Circ. Warned Of Market Forces In Nexstar-Tegna Case

By Matthew Perlman

The National Association of Broadcasters told the Ninth Circuit that a lower court's view of the market in a case challenging the $6.2 billion merger between Nexstar and Tegna is inconsistent with its members' experience and contradicts industry data recently submitted to regulators.

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

Chancery Tosses Insider Financing Suit Against Ayala Brass

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court has dismissed a stockholder derivative suit against several venture capital investors and directors of biotechnology company Ayala Pharmaceuticals Inc., ruling that the plaintiff failed to show the board could not independently evaluate litigation over a disputed 2023 financing deal.

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

Ex-Reebok CEO Says Biotech Investor Suit Was Shakedown

By Julie Manganis

Former Reebok CEO and billionaire philanthropist Paul Fireman said a "baseless" shareholder lawsuit against him and a biotech company he later sold to Janssen Pharmaceuticals Inc. for $85 million was an effort to get him to "cave" to demands for more money, according to a complaint filed in Massachusetts state court Wednesday.

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

Energy Firm Insiders Forced Co-Founder's Ouster, Suit Says

By José Luis Martínez

Houston energy firm ARM Energy Holdings LLC was sued in Texas Business Court over allegations that one co-founder and its general counsel pushed another co-founder out of the company and lowballed the membership stake tied to him.

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

Judge To Alter Critique Of Investor Vying To Be Lead Plaintiff

By José Luis Martínez

A Texas federal judge on Thursday acknowledged a potential "black mark" against an investor who vied to be lead plaintiff for a subclass of investors who allegedly bought McDermott International Inc. stock at artificially inflated prices, agreeing to amend an order critical of him.

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

HVAC Biz Valued At $10B After Apollo Backing, More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Private equity giant Apollo took a stake in home services company Apex Service Partners to value it at $10 billion, chipmaker Groq Inc. is hoping to raise $650 million to launch a new company focused on artificial intelligence "neoclouds," and semiconductor company Qualcomm inked a supply deal with TikTok owner ByteDance. Here, Law360 breaks down the notable deal rumors from the past week.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Baker McKenzie-Led Fattal Hotels Preps £930M Bid For PPHE

By Tom Fish

Fattal Hotel Group has tabled a non-binding proposal for a £930 million ($1.2 billion) takeover of PPHE Hotel Group Ltd., offering £22 in cash per share in a move that would take the London-listed hospitality operator fully private.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Eversheds-Led Johnson Matthey Inks $460M Cormetech Deal

By Najiyya Budaly

Specialist chemicals company Johnson Matthey said Thursday that it will buy Cormetech, a U.S. manufacturer of environmental catalysts, for as much as $460 million as it seeks to add to its emissions control business.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Series

Studying Foreign Languages Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Studying Italian and Japanese has shown me that learning a new language can benefit a legal career in several ways, including by demonstrating the importance of approaching problems from a fresh perspective and the value of practicing patience with colleagues and clients, says Anna King at Genworth Financial.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Florida High Court Adopts AI Policy For Lawyers

By Madison Arnold

The Florida Supreme Court on Thursday amended the state's rules to require those filing court documents to check any artificial intelligence-generated content for accuracy, and allow for sanctions if the content contains errors.

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

Goldstein Says Bad Jury Instructions Warrant New Trial

By Jared Foretek

SCOTUSblog founder Tom Goldstein said that the prosecutors who convicted him on 12 tax and mortgage fraud charges in February are now contradicting arguments they made at the end of his trial in their attempt to deny him a bench acquittal or new trial.

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

King & Spalding Blocked From Exiting $300M Fraud Lawsuit

By Brian Steele

King & Spalding LLP and Lennon Murphy & Phillips LLC can't withdraw from representing clients in consolidated litigation over an alleged $300 million stock swindle, a Connecticut state court judge has ruled, saying the firms' motions ahead of a June trial lack good cause.

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

Fla. Court Refers Atty To Bar Over Bogus Case Citations

By Madison Arnold

A Florida state appeals court has referred an appellant's attorney to the state's bar for disciplinary proceedings after filing a petition that appears to be generated by artificial intelligence and "raises frivolous arguments, misstates the law, and cites non-existent case law."

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

Parents Demand 'Bad Faith' Sanctions In Camp Mystic Case

By Lynn LaRowe

Camp Mystic in Texas' Hill Country should be sanctioned over "bad faith" conduct in litigation over flooding deaths last summer, including purported misrepresentations to courts and regulators and an alleged remark by one of its attorneys to a plaintiffs' lawyer that he would "burn in hell," a state court has been told.

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

Trump Considers Tech Entrepreneur For DOJ Grants Post

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump appears poised to nominate a real estate attorney turned tech entrepreneur for a top U.S. Department of Justice post that oversees grants and criminal justice programs.

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

Dem Sens. Ask DOJ To Preserve Trump-IRS Settlement Docs

By Jack McLoone

Two Democratic Senate leaders asked the U.S. Department of Justice to preserve any records related to the settlement of President Donald Trump's suit against the IRS in a letter published Thursday, signaling that further investigations may be coming.

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

Roundup

Injury Law Roundup: Freight Brokers, Uber Lose Key Cases

By Y. Peter Kang

The U.S. Supreme Court's green light of negligent hiring claims against freight brokers in highway crash cases and an adverse verdict against Uber in the sexual assault multidistrict litigation lead Law360's Injury Law Roundup.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Ex-Fla. Chief Justice Fred Lewis Dies At 78

By Carolina Bolado

Former Florida Chief Justice R. Fred Lewis, who spent two decades on the bench of the Florida Supreme Court, has died at 78, the court announced Thursday.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »

Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Gupta Wessler's Deepak Gupta

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

In the decade and a half since starting his own firm, Deepak Gupta has argued seven cases before the U.S. Supreme Court, has won matters in state high courts from coast to coast, and has become a mainstay in federal appellate courts while building his plaintiff-side litigation boutique into a sought-after juggernaut.

Read full article » | Save to favorites »