Skadden-Led IFF Selling Ingredients Biz To CVC For $4.3B

By Al Barbarino

Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP is advising food and fragrance company IFF on an agreement to sell its food ingredients business to White & Case LLP-advised CVC Capital Partners, valuing the unit at about $4.3 billion, according to a Friday announcement. 

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Universal Music Rejects $65B Pershing Square Proposal

By Al Barbarino

Universal Music Group said Friday it has rejected an unsolicited takeover proposal from Pershing Square Capital Management, saying the offer worth roughly $65 billion fundamentally undervalues the music company.

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Anthropic's Valuation Soars To $965B, Surpassing OpenAI

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Artificial intelligence giant Anthropic has hit a post-money valuation of $965 billion after securing $65 billion of investor commitments in its massive Series H funding round, officially surpassing the valuation of its rival OpenAI.

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Analysis

REIT Take-Privates Pick Up As Valuation Gaps Persist

By Al Barbarino

Real estate investment trust take-private activity is showing signs of momentum after a relatively subdued period, as private capital and real estate investors increasingly converge around valuation gaps between public markets and underlying asset values.

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Latham Advises CoStar On $800M Zonda Acquisition

By Al Barbarino

CoStar Group plans to acquire housing market data and software company Zonda for $800 million in cash from private equity firm MidOcean Partners, with Latham & Watkins LLP and Gibson Dunn & Crutcher LLP advising, according to deal announcements Friday.

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Telecom Shareholders Seek Fees Over 'Frivolous' Stay Bid

By Joyce Hanson

Minority shareholders of a telecommunications infrastructure company have pressed a New York federal judge to order the majority shareholders to pay attorney fees incurred while defending against what the judge called one of the most "frivolous" stay requests he has ever seen.

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Barclays Enabled Concierge Sex-Trafficking Ring, Suit Says

By Hailey Konnath

A California woman has filed a proposed class action against Barclays and its former CEO James "Jes" Staley, claiming that the bank and Staley facilitated and enabled a criminal enterprise tied to a luxury concierge company that trafficked, abused and exploited vulnerable young people.

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Roundup

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

By Megan Norcott

The past week in London has seen the billionaire who donated £5 million ($6.7 million) to Nigel Farage sue Ben Habib, the leader of far-right party Advance UK, for defamation; Mashreqbank bring claims against three subsidiaries of dissolved private equity giant Abraaj Group for commercial fraud; and the property and investment vehicle of the State of Kuwait be targeted by four real estate figures who filed a miscellaneous claim. Here, Law360 looks at these and other new claims in the U.K.

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Biz Court Says $4.5M Drag-Along Sale Overcomes Affiliate Bar

By José Luis Martínez

A Texas Business Court judge ruled Friday that a majority investor properly pursued a $4.5 million drag-along sale of a meter-proving company, finding that the buyer was not an affiliate of the majority investor and thus didn't invalidate the drag-along transaction.

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Roundup

Taxation With Representation: Latham, White & Case, Vischer

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, Fertitta Entertainment acquires Caesars Entertainment, Eli Lilly and Co. buys three companies involved in vaccine development, and nuclear energy company Newcleo Ltd. says it plans to go public by merging with a special purpose acquisition company, NewHold Investment Corp. III.

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SEC's Co-Investment Relief Broadens Private Market Access

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission's recent no-action letter to J.P. Morgan Investment Management permits open-end funds to co-invest with affiliates, removing a long-standing barrier open-end fund sponsors have faced in sourcing private market investments at scale, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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Your Next Litigation Hold Should Cover AI Chat Logs

The Delaware Chancery Court’s recent decision in Fortis Advisors v. Krafton to treat a CEO’s artificial intelligence chats as substantive evidence is being read as a discovery warning to litigators, but there is a second duty-to-preserve lesson that is especially pertinent to in-house counsel, say attorneys at Faegre Drinker.

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Double Shooting Renews Courthouse Safety Fears In NC

By Hayley Fowler

The shooting of two Fox Rothschild LLP attorneys outside a courthouse in Raleigh, North Carolina, ahead of Memorial Day weekend has renewed calls to protect the safety of judges and lawyers in an increasingly volatile justice system.

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Baker McKenzie Asks Judge Not To Toss Suit Against Ex-Atty

By Alison Knezevich

A lawyer for Baker McKenzie on Friday urged a Washington, D.C., judge not to dismiss the BigLaw firm's defamation suit against a former tax associate who accused a firm office leader of sexual assault, telling the court the accusations were false and made with "malice."

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Bonus Spotlight

Selendy Gay Doles Out Spring Associate Bonuses

By Aebra Coe

New York litigation boutique Selendy Gay PLLC paid its associates spring bonuses of as much as $25,000 this week, according to the firm.

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Akin Gump Owes Fees For Winebow's 'Self-Indulgent' Appeal

By Dorothy Atkins

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday ordered an importer's Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP attorneys to pay a European winemaker fees for having to defend against the importer's "spurious objections" to the winemaker's valid arbitral award, ruling that the importer's "self-indulgent" appeal warrants sanctions in the form of fees.

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Calif. Panel Reverses Order For Citing Atty's Bogus Case Law

By Dorothy Atkins

A California appellate panel on Thursday reversed a judgment in favor of a man accused of abusing his son, finding that "without doubt" the trial judge abused her discretion by incorporating the man's bogus legal citations into her ruling, despite being alerted to the mistakes in advance.

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NY Judge Doubts Nussbaum-Linked Firms Belong In Ch. 11

By Emily Lever

A New York bankruptcy judge on Friday questioned whether his court was the proper venue to wind down two commercial real estate law firms headed by Mark J. Nussbaum as the debtors sought to ditch an assignment for the benefit of creditors process in New York state court.

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Dems Say DOJ Blocked Bondi On Trump Questions

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats were incensed on Friday that the U.S. Department of Justice attorneys who accompanied former Attorney General Pam Bondi to her committee interview stopped her from answering questions about President Donald Trump.

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Civil Rights Icon Clarence B. Jones Dies At 95

By Andrea Keckley

Civil rights icon Clarence B. Jones, a speechwriter and personal attorney to Martin Luther King Jr., died May 22 at an assisted living facility in the Santa Clara County city of Cupertino, California, his family confirmed earlier this week. He was 95.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

Kirkland & Ellis says it's investing a half billion dollars into developing its own artificial intelligence platform to better serve clients. And Law360 looks at the general counsel who is guiding BP through its latest leadership crisis after the company abruptly dismissed its board chair.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Phillips Black Inc., Hogan Lovells and Watkins & Eager PLLC lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that a Black Mississippi death row prisoner who argued racial discrimination tainted his jury selection is entitled to habeas corpus relief.

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Titan Of The Plaintiffs Bar: Boies Schiller's Matthew Schwartz

By Sarah Jarvis

Matthew L. Schwartz oscillated among many career aspirations as a kid, from astronaut to mayor of New York. When it was time to head off to college, the man who would go on to handle the prosecution of employees tied to Bernie Madoff and become chair of Boies Schiller Flexner LLP set his sights on science, earning an undergraduate degree in physics.

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

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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