4 Firms Guide PE-Backed Avocet's $500M Launch, First Deal

By Al Barbarino

A new insurance-focused investment firm called Avocet Partners has been launched with the backing of a $500 million investment from Oaktree Capital Management LP and Lane42 Investment Partners LLC, Avocet announced Thursday. 

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Sidley Guides Diagnostic Imaging Firm Lumexa's $463M IPO

By Abigail Harrison

Private equity-backed diagnostic imaging provider Lumexa Imaging Holdings Inc., led by Sidley Austin LLP, began trading Thursday on the Nasdaq Global Select Market after pricing a $463 million initial public offering.

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4 Firms Guide As Arcline Exits Medical Tech Co. In $685M Deal

By Al Barbarino

Perimeter Solutions Inc. has agreed to acquire Medical Manufacturing Technologies LLC from Arcline Investment Management for approximately $685 million in cash, including certain tax benefits.

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FTC Challenges $725M Construction Adhesives Deal

By Bryan Koenig

The Federal Trade Commission filed suit Thursday in New York federal court to challenge a $725 million merger combining Loctite with Liquid Nails, arguing that joining "the clear top two brands of construction adhesives" would drive up costs for home building and improvement.

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Smartsheet Investor Sues Over Blackstone, Vista Buyout

By Ben Adlin

A stockholder in a proposed class action against enterprise software maker Smartsheet Inc. accused the company and its former CEO of underselling the company's performance in the lead-up to its $8.4 billion acquisition this year by Blackstone and Vista Equity Partners, allowing the sale to move forward at an unfairly low share price.

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9th Circ. Won't Rethink Vegas Hotels' Win In Price-Fixing Suit

By Ben Adlin

The Ninth Circuit on Thursday rejected Las Vegas hotel guests' request for the full appeals court to reconsider a panel's August ruling that threw out their proposed class action accusing the casino-hotel operators of using software to illegally inflate room rates.

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Mass. Lawyer Accused Of Misusing Pot Shop Investor Funds

By Julie Manganis

A Massachusetts lawyer took a 50.1% stake in a cannabis startup in exchange for what he said was a discount on fees for legal work he would perform, then botched the license application and misused investor funds, a lawsuit filed in state court alleges.

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Chancery OKs $13M Concord SPAC Deal, Delays Fee Ruling

By Jarek Rutz

Delaware Vice Chancellor Paul A. Fioravanti Jr. on Thursday approved a $13.08 million settlement resolving claims that Concord Acquisition Corp.'s insiders tried to divert a $20 million breakup fee to themselves after the SPAC's failed merger with cryptocurrency company Circle, but he deferred ruling on attorney fees until plaintiffs supply additional time records.

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Chancery Skeptical Of B. Riley Investors' Investment Loss Suit

By Jarek Rutz

A vice chancellor in the Delaware Chancery Court on Thursday pressed the lawyer for a B. Riley Financial Inc. stockholder to justify Caremark oversight claims tied to the investment firm's failed bets on the Franchise Group Inc., repeatedly questioning whether the complaint plausibly alleged bad faith board inaction rather than business judgment disagreements.


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Del. Court Mulls Mootness Fee Options In Bolt Suit Settlement

By Jeff Montgomery

A Delaware vice chancellor indicated Thursday that he was leaning toward awarding 10% to 15% of the benefit secured by attorneys who battled for cancellation of $37.5 million in Bolt Financial Group stock used by company controller Ryan Breslow to secure a later defaulted-upon personal loan.

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3 Firms Guide Enova's $369M Grasshopper Bank Acquisition

By Aislinn Keely

Fintech lender Enova International said Thursday it plans to buy digital bank Grasshopper in a $369 million deal guided by Covington & Burling LLP, Squire Patton Boggs LLP and Hogan Lovells LLP.

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Series

Knitting Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Stretching my skills as a knitter makes me a better antitrust attorney by challenging me to recalibrate after wrong turns, not rush outcomes, and trust that I can teach myself the skills to tackle new and difficult projects — even when I don’t have a pattern to work from, says Kara Kuritz at V&E.

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Wash. Justices Retroactively Lower Bar Exam's Passing Score

By Ben Adlin

As Washington state is preparing to transition to a new bar exam, its Supreme Court has ordered a retroactive adjustment to the current exam's minimum passing score, making an estimated hundred-plus law school graduates who narrowly failed in recent years newly eligible for admission to practice law.

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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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Dems Demand Release Of 2nd Jack Smith Report

By Courtney Bublé

Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee wrote to Attorney General Pam Bondi on Friday demanding she release the second volume of former special counsel Jack Smith's report on President Donald Trump's retention of classified documents after he left office the first time.

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Roundup

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

By Laura Stewart Liberty

This past week in London has seen Shell hit with a climate change claim from 100 survivors of a typhoon in the Philippines, London Stock Exchange-listed Oxford Nanopore bring legal action against its co-founder, and the editors of Pink News sue the BBC for defamation following its investigation into alleged sexual misconduct at the news site.

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Higgs Fletcher Forms White Collar, Regs Enforcement Team

By Andrea Keckley

San Diego-based law firm Higgs Fletcher & Mack LLP has launched a white collar crime and regulatory enforcement defense practice group, citing heightened regulatory scrutiny in the financial and healthcare sectors and rising enforcement risks for licensed professionals and institutions.

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Roundup

GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Michele Gorman

President Donald Trump issued an executive order to review the influence that proxy adviser firms have, and law firms saw a 9.8% increase in compensation expenses along with a similar increase in billable rates. ​These are among the stories in corporate legal news you may have missed in the past week.

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Watchdog Sues White House For Records On Law Firm Deals

By Emily Sawicki

A Washington-based nonprofit watchdog has sued the Trump administration, seeking records related to deals BigLaw firms struck to provide an estimated nearly $1 billion worth of pro bono legal services to further the administration's priorities, following the president's executive orders to withhold security clearances and investigate the firms.

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Ex-NJ Municipal Court Admin Says COVID Got Her Fired

By George Woolston

The former municipal court administrator for West Windsor Township, New Jersey, has alleged that the town failed to accommodate her disability when it fired her instead of giving her a short medical leave of absence after she contracted COVID-19.

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US Atty Nominee For Wyo. Was Outside Capitol On Jan. 6

By Courtney Bublé

One of President Donald Trump's U.S. attorney nominees, who was on the U.S. Capitol grounds on Jan. 6, 2021, and recently told senators he still thinks "there were imperfections" in the 2020 election process, has been advanced toward Senate confirmation.

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Del. US Atty Resigns Citing 'Politics,' Successor Appointed

By Rose Krebs

The acting U.S. Attorney for Delaware said Friday that she is resigning, citing "a highly politicized, flawed blue-slip tradition" for nominees and saying she "fully" supports her first assistant, who has been appointed by a federal judge to succeed her.

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Bonus Spotlight

Axinn Veltrop's Bonuses Reach Up To $240K

By Andrea Keckley

Axinn Veltrop & Harkrider LLP is giving out bonuses of up to $240,000 for its associates, according to an in-house memo seen by Law360 Pulse.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Cravath Swaine & Moore LLP and Faegre Drinker Biddle & Reath LLP lead this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Ninth Circuit handed Epic Games Inc. a partial win by mostly affirming an injunction blocking Apple Inc. from charging developers "prohibitive" commissions on iPhone app purchases made outside its systems.

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