Ares Clinches Inaugural Structured Solutions Fund At $4.2B

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Private equity giant Ares Management Corp. on Thursday revealed that it has wrapped its inaugural structured solutions fund with $4.2 billion of capital commitments.

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Monthly Merger Review Snapshot

By Matthew Perlman

State enforcers settled their case challenging Paramount Skydance's planned $110 billion purchase of Warner Bros. Discovery, while the U.S. Department of Justice probes Fox's planned $22 billion deal for Roku and regulators review massive deals in the energy and railroad sectors.

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DOJ's RealPage Deal Doesn't End States' Antitrust Claims

By Matthew Perlman

A North Carolina federal court has refused to toss antitrust claims from state enforcers accusing RealPage of providing software that allows residential building owners to inflate rents, despite RealPage's settlement in the case with the U.S. Department of Justice.

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SEC Floats Crypto Custody Rule Updates For Funds, Advisers

By Aislinn Keely

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday proposed updates to custody rules that would allow investment advisers and funds to hold clients' crypto with state trust companies or safeguard the assets themselves if they can't find a suitable custodian.

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SEC Changes Quorum Requirements As Peirce Exits

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has changed its quorum requirements for the first time in 30 years, clarifying that only one member of the agency needs to vote on enforcement and regulatory matters as Commissioner Hester Peirce prepares to leave Friday. 

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Deals Rumor Mill

Walgreens Closes In On $9B Boots Sale, Plus More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Walgreens is nearing a $9 billion sale of its British pharmacy chain Boots, private equity shop TPG closed a $10 billion climate-focused fund, and Saudi Arabia-owned oil and gas company Aramco has retained an investment bank to lead it on a restructuring plan.

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Ex-SewerAI Shareholder Seeks Del. Appraisal Of $342M Deal

By Jarek Rutz

A former SewerAI Corp. stockholder has asked the Delaware Court of Chancery to determine the fair value of more than 245,000 shares that were cashed out when the sewer technology company was acquired in a deal valuing it at $342 million.

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Tech Co. AdHawk's Investors Sue Over $15M Merger Earnout

By Jarek Rutz

Two shareholders of adHawk Inc. have sued the flooring software company's former directors and officers in Delaware Chancery Court, accusing the insiders of diverting $15 million from a roughly $159 million sale to Cyncly and giving themselves access to equity in the buyer that other stockholders were denied.

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Ambiguous Bond Terms Net FDIC Win In SVB Coverage Fight

By Danielle Ferguson

Two insurers must provide coverage to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., as receiver for Silicon Valley Bank, for the bank's claim for losses from a $73 million fraud scheme, a North Carolina federal judge ruled, finding ambiguity in bond contract language tipped the scales in the insured's favor.

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Judge 'Flummoxed' By Forum Claim In IQVIA's Poaching Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A North Carolina Business Court judge said Thursday that he was "flummoxed" by clinical research giant IQVIA Holdings Inc.'s argument for not enforcing its own forum selection clause against four top executives who decamped for a competitor.

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Patients' Texas Anesthesia Rollup Suit Trimmed

By Bryan Koenig

A Texas federal judge offered patients a mixed bag Wednesday in a proposed class action accusing U.S. Anesthesia Partners Inc. of anticompetitively buying up anesthesia practices in the state and fixing prices, dismissing claims based on ambulatory surgery center services while preserving allegations based on hospitals.

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Dechert Lands Ropes & Gray Capital Solutions Atty In NY

By Tracey Read

Dechert LLP announced Thursday that it has hired a partner from Ropes & Gray LLP for its capital solutions team in New York.

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Testing AI's Promise For Large-Scale Document Review

Our document-review comparison of attorneys' responsiveness and issue coding decisions versus predictions generated by artificial intelligence across 1,600 documents suggests that these tools can offer a reasonable and reliable basis for improved discovery workflows, provided lawyers understand where guardrails are needed, say attorneys at Redgrave.

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UCLA Law Is Latest DOJ Target Over Race Bias In Admissions

By Dorothy Atkins

The U.S. Justice Department's Civil Rights Division accused the UCLA School of Law of discriminating against white and Asian students in its admissions process in a letter sent to the school's counsel Thursday, following multiple other similar letters that the DOJ sent to other higher-education institutions.

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DOJ Outlines New Corporate Fraud Enforcement Priorities

By Phillip Bantz

Federal prosecutors "must place great weight" on a new list of factors when considering potential charges in corporate fraud cases, including whether the matters involve government programs, threats to national security or immigration offenses, according to a memo released Thursday by the U.S. Department of Justice.

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Trump Announces Judicial Noms For 5th Circ., NC

By Courtney Bublé

President Donald Trump announced Thursday that he's nominating Todd Butler, a managing partner at Phelps Dunbar LLP, to serve as a judge on the Fifth Circuit. 

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Blackburn Holds Up White House's Tenn. Judge Pick

By Courtney Bublé

The White House is standing by its nominee for a federal judgeship in the Eastern District of Tennessee amid a holdup from Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., a White House official confirmed to Law360 on Thursday.

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Richards Layton Atty Confirmed To Join Del. Chancery Bench

By Rose Krebs

Delaware's Senate on Thursday confirmed a Richards Layton & Finger PA director to a 12-year term as a vice chancellor on the Chancery Court.

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FBT Gibbons Beats DQ Bid In Suit Over Cigna Payments

By George Woolston

A New Jersey state court judge has rejected a plastic surgery practice's bid to disqualify FBT Gibbons LLP from representing Cigna and a group of employer-sponsored health plans in its suit over the insurer's alleged underpayments, finding the bid appears more of an effort to gain an advantage rather than one to protect the interests of any client.

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Roundup

The Top In-House Hires Of September

By Michele Gorman

Legal department hires during the past month included high-profile appointments at MSG Sports, Nestle and the Associated Press. Here, Law360 Pulse looks at some of the top in-house announcements from September.

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Judge Reinstates Rogoff As Seattle US Atty After Trump Firing

By Rachel Riley

A Washington federal judge issued an order from the bench on Thursday reinstating Roger Rogoff as U.S. attorney for the Western District of Washington, finding that President Donald Trump exceeded his authority when he fired him in July.

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Trump Says Copyright Chief Can't Stay In Office Amid Appeal

By Adam Lidgett

The Trump administration is urging the D.C. Circuit to let it remove U.S. Copyright Office leader Shira Perlmutter, arguing that the U.S. Supreme Court's decision protecting Federal Reserve Gov. Lisa Cook for now does not entitle Perlmutter to remain in office while her firing challenge proceeds.

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