Allegion To Buy PE-Backed Security Tech Biz In €330M Deal

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Global security products provider Allegion PLC on Thursday announced plans to acquire access technology company Elatec from private equity shop Summit Partners for €330 million ($382 million).

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Benefit Street Partners Clinches $500M CLO Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Credit-focused alternative asset management firm Benefit Street Partners LLC, advised by Ropes & Gray LLP, on Thursday revealed that it has secured $500 million in equity commitments for its third captive U.S. collateralized loan obligation equity fund.

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Inovalon Investors' Revived Chancery Suit Moves Forward

By Katryna Perera

A Delaware chancellor sent into discovery investors' claim that Inovalon didn't properly disclose that a consortium of private equity firms that bought the healthcare data company paid $400 million in fees to its financial adviser before the transaction, dismissing some claims but finding it is "reasonably conceivable" that the suit's defendants acted in bad faith.

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Internet Infrastructure Biz Secures $170M Of Series C Funding

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Internet infrastructure solutions provider Meter, advised by Cooley LLP, on Thursday revealed that it clinched its Series C funding round after raising $170 million from investors.

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Meta Eyes $14B AI Bet, Bullish Seeks IPO, And More Rumors

By Tom Zanki

Facebook owner Meta is eying a $14 billion investment in Scale AI, while Bullish plans to join the recent surge in cryptocurrency-related initial public offerings and investors want to take pizza chain Papa John's private at more than $60 per share. Here, Law360 breaks down the notable deal rumors from the past week.

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Brief

Protego Ends $200M Suit Alleging Failed Crypto Bank Promise

By Sydney Price

Protego Holdings Corp. has agreed to drop a lawsuit accusing a Texas-based firm of failing to deliver on a $200 million investment pledge in its launch of a cryptocurrency bank, which never materialized because rare conditional approval from the U.S. government lapsed over financing concerns.

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Fla. Doc Sues In Del. Alleging Multistate Group Conspiracy

By Jeff Montgomery

A Florida doctor and emergency room companies serving departments in Texas, Florida and Oklahoma have sued multiple entities in Delaware's Court of Chancery allegedly involved in an elaborate private equity-tied scheme to duck bans on the corporate practice of medicine.

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Kirkland & Ellis Adds Former Ropes & Gray Deals Atty In NY

By Andrea Keckley

Kirkland & Ellis LLP said Wednesday it has welcomed a corporate partner from Ropes & Gray LLP to its New York office, touting her experience with major deals in sectors such as financial services, software, healthcare, industrials, consumer products and retail.

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Attacks On Judicial Independence Tend To Manifest In 3 Ways

Attacks on judicial independence now run the gamut from gross (bald-faced interference) to systemic (structural changes) to insidious (efforts to undermine public trust), so lawyers, judges and the public must recognize the fateful moment in which we live and defend the rule of law every day, says Jim Moliterno at Washington and Lee University.

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Analysis

These Firms Are Landing The Most PTAB Work

By Theresa Schliep

Intellectual property powerhouse Fish & Richardson again secured the top spot on a list of firms appearing in the most trials over the past three years in front of the Patent Trial and Appeal Board.

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Mass. Judge, On Stand, Denies Helping Immigrant Evade ICE

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts judge accused of approving a plan to let a man elude immigration officers by letting him leave the court through a back door seven years ago testified Thursday that was not her intent when she granted a request to let him speak with an attorney in a courthouse lockup.

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Trump's Deployment Of National Guard Illegal, Judge Says

By Bonnie Eslinger

A California federal judge on Thursday granted California's request for a temporary restraining order blocking President Donald Trump's order sending the National Guard into Los Angeles, calling the president's actions "illegal" and unconstitutional, but the decision was quickly paused by the Ninth Circuit.

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Google Fights MDL Plaintiffs' Sanctions Bid Over Lost Chats

By Emily Sawicki

Google is pushing back on a request for sanctions that a slew of advertisers and publishers have brought in their antitrust lawsuit over the company's advertising placement technology, saying the plaintiffs have not shown Google hid evidence amid the "mountains" of electronically stored information it provided.

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Approach The Bench: Judge Proctor On Civility, Civil Rules

By Cara Bayles and Steven Trader

R. David Proctor, chief judge of the Northern District of Alabama, is a leader within the federal judiciary. He's both assigned and presided over multidistrict litigation. He may write a nationwide rule governing third-party litigation funding. And he's gained internet fame for ordering two attorneys to eat lunch together.

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Avenatti Sheds 3 Years After 9th Circ. Orders Resentencing

By Gina Kim

A California federal judge on Thursday resentenced disbarred attorney Michael Avenatti to just over 11 years in federal prison for filching millions of dollars from his clients' settlement funds, reducing a 14-year sentence overturned by the Ninth Circuit and leaving Avenatti with about eight years left after time served.

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DOJ Picks Proceed Despite Worry Over Honoring Court Orders

By Courtney Bublé

Two nominations for top positions in the U.S. Department of Justice were voted out of committee on party lines on Thursday.

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Calif. Sues Trump Over 'Wildly Partisan' EV Waiver Repeal

By Dorothy Atkins

The California attorney general and 10 other states sued the Trump administration in federal court Thursday, minutes after President Donald Trump signed resolutions repealing California's Clean Air Act waiver that allowed the state to establish its own vehicle emissions standards, slamming the resolutions as unconstitutional, irrational and "wildly partisan."

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Interview

Ex-Interior Secretary Salazar On 'Coming Home' To WilmerHale

By Aebra Coe

Former U.S. Sen. Ken Salazar of Colorado, who served as secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior during the Obama administration and most recently as ambassador to Mexico during the Biden administration, returned this month to WilmerHale's Denver office, which he founded in 2014.

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Justices Say Habeas Claims Can't Be Added After Judgment

By Marco Poggio

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday ruled that a prisoner may not add new claims to a habeas corpus petition once a final judgment is issued, cementing strict limits on repeat habeas filings prescribed by federal law.

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Justices Limit FTCA Defense In FBI Raid Case

By Chart Riggall

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday held that the Constitution's supremacy clause cannot shield the federal government from Federal Tort Claims Act suits, in the process reviving a Georgia woman's claim over an FBI raid aimed at a gang member but mistakenly carried out at her home.

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Analysis

Rising PTAB Filings Follow Surge In Patent Cases

By Theresa Schliep

The number of petitions filed with the Patent Trial and Appeal Board ticked up last year, following a similar increase in federal court litigation and suggesting that activity at the board has somewhat stabilized, according to a new report.

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Weinstein Sex Abuse Trial Ends After Mixed, Partial Verdict

By Pete Brush

Harvey Weinstein's sexual abuse retrial ended Thursday with a Manhattan jury failing to reach a verdict on a count alleging the movie mogul raped an actress, one day after he was convicted of forcing sex on a production assistant and cleared on a third charge.

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