Kirkland-Led Clearlake Wraps $14.8B Flagship Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised private equity shop Clearlake Capital Group LP on Tuesday revealed it had closed its eighth flagship fund with $14.8 billion in tow, targeting investments in the artificial intelligence, software modernization, digital transformation and operational efficiency sectors.

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SpaceX Inks $60B Cursor Deal As Gibson Dunn, Kirkland Lead

By Al Barbarino

Elon Musk's SpaceX disclosed Tuesday that it has agreed to acquire Anysphere Inc., the developer of artificial intelligence coding assistant Cursor, in an all-stock transaction valuing the company at about $60 billion.

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4 Firms Advise On Yum Deal To Sell Pizza Hut For $2.7B

By Al Barbarino

Yum Brands said Tuesday it has agreed to sell Pizza Hut in two transactions valued at about $2.7 billion in total, with private equity firm LongRange Capital acquiring the business outside mainland China and Yum China Holdings buying the China operations.

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Align Capital Secures $1.1B Across 2 New Funds

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Align Capital Partners, advised by Kirkland & Ellis LLP, on Tuesday revealed that it closed its two latest funds after securing a combined $1.1 billion of investor commitments.

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Florida Judge Blocks Lutnick Deposition In Trump Media Suit

By David Minsky

A Florida judge has denied a second bid to depose U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick in the lawsuit over the delayed public offering of President Donald Trump's social media website, ruling that the court has no jurisdiction over the Cabinet official because he's not a party to the action.

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Skadden Adds Investment Management Trio In DC, Abu Dhabi

By Jack Rodgers

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP has hired three former lawyers from Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP who will work with investment management clients in Abu Dhabi and Washington, D.C., according to a Tuesday announcement.

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The Paradoxical Duty To Adopt AI When You Can't Bill For It

Both billing for hours saved using artificial intelligence and preserving billable time by not adopting AI may violate rules of professional conduct, but until bar associations' ethics rules catch up to this emerging economic dilemma, firms must decide how to adjust fee structures themselves, says Ines Lassalle at Peyrot & Associates.

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Full Fed. Circ. To Hear Immigration Judges' Firing Challenge

By Ganesh Setty

The Federal Circuit on Wednesday agreed to conduct en banc review over the firing of two immigration judges, after the Merit Systems Protection Board ruled that they constituted inferior officers who are subject to at-will removal by the president.

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No Discipline For DOJ Atty's 'Lapse Of Judgment' In ICE Case

By Emily Sawicki

A Rhode Island federal prosecutor who knowingly withheld information about a detainee's criminal history at the behest of immigration enforcement, leading to an "unfounded attack" against a federal judge by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement following the detainee's release, violated his duty of candor but will not face discipline, the district's chief judge determined.

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Trump Halts Clayton Director Hearing Over Blue-Slip Dispute

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump directed Jay Clayton, U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, not to appear for his confirmation hearing Wednesday on his nomination to be director of national intelligence, in part over a blue-slip issue.

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Maya Kowalski Sues Ex-Atty Over Fees, Funding Loan

By Carolina Bolado

Maya Kowalski, the subject of the Netflix documentary "Take Care of Maya," filed a malpractice suit against her former attorney on Wednesday, accusing him of charging excessive fees and improperly orchestrating an advance funding loan after winning a $213 million judgment.

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Sanctioned IP Atty Tells Fed. Circ. 'Integrity' On The Line

By Elliot Weld

An attorney who was sanctioned in a trade dress infringement case due to what a judge said were his repeated misrepresentations has asked the Federal Circuit to lift the penalties against him and his client, saying his "professional and personal integrity, and my family, depends on it."

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Bosch Receives First DOJ Declination Under New Policy

By Sarah Jarvis

German technology company Bosch on Wednesday became the first company to avoid criminal prosecution under a new U.S. Department of Justice enforcement policy after it cooperated with the federal government and agreed to pay $36 million to settle allegations it improperly exported technology products to sanctioned Chinese company Huawei.

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DOJ's Pot Shift Leaves Key Questions For Cannabis Industry

By Sam Reisman

The Trump administration's recent moves to relax federal restrictions on marijuana through the administrative process will have unclear ramifications for all industry players unless Congress steps in to rewrite cannabis law, attorneys heard Wednesday.

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