Gibson Dunn, Davis Polk Guide SpaceX's IPO Filing

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Elon Musk's SpaceX has officially filed plans for its blockbuster initial public offering, a long-anticipated move that could value the private space exploration giant at up to $1.75 trillion.

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Top 4 Most Surprising Moments In Musk-OpenAI Trial

By Dorothy Atkins

The high-profile trial over Elon Musk's challenge to OpenAI's for-profit conversion wrapped Monday with a quick jury verdict in favor of OpenAI and its executives, but the three-week trial drew some surprising moments for those in the courtroom who had front row seats to the fight between billionaires.

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StraightPath Trio Gets Prison For Defrauding Pre-IPO Clients

By Pete Brush

A Manhattan federal judge sentenced stock vendor StraightPath's three founders to around a decade each in prison Wednesday, after a jury convicted them of defrauding clients who bought $400 million of pre-initial public offering shares from their Florida private equity firm.

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Kirkland-Led Shamrock Wraps $813M Media Acquisition Fund

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Kirkland & Ellis LLP-advised media and entertainment-focused investment firm Shamrock Capital on Wednesday revealed that it had closed its fourth content acquisition fund with $813 million in total capital commitments.

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Latham, S&C Lead Lincoln International's $421M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Investment banking advisory firm Lincoln International began trading publicly Wednesday after raising $421 million in its initial public offering steered by Latham & Watkins LLP and Sullivan & Cromwell LLP.

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PE Fund Managers Seek Toss Of $150M Florida Investor Suit

By David Minsky

A group of private equity fund managers and their companies urged a Florida federal court to dismiss a proposed class action brought by investors alleging a conspiracy to steal $150 million through a complex financial scheme, saying the complaint is disorganized and fails to allege wrongdoing.

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Colo. Fence Co. Says Rival Stole Trade Secrets, Customers

By Rachel Konieczny

A Colorado fencing distributor has alleged in federal court that a private equity-backed competitor, its subsidiary and a former sales manager orchestrated a scheme to steal the distributor's trade secrets rather than pay $7 million to acquire the company.

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Eli Lilly Paying Up To $202M In Genetic Medicine Deal

By Al Barbarino

Eli Lilly and Co. has agreed to acquire privately held Engage Biologics Inc., which is developing a delivery technology for genetic medicines, in a deal worth up to $202 million, Cooley LLP-advised Engage announced Wednesday.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lesson: Diagnose Before Arguing

Law school often skips over explicitly teaching students how to determine what kind of problem a case presents before they commit to a particular doctrinal path, which risks building arguments that are internally coherent but externally misaligned, says Melanie Oxhorn at Kobre & Kim.

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OpenAI Says ChatGPT Misuse Is Users' Responsibility

By Emily Sawicki

OpenAI has asked a federal judge in Chicago to end an insurance company's suit alleging it practices law without a license, arguing the complaint should be directed toward individuals who misuse the company's ChatGPT bot to file faulty motions, and not the generative AI platform itself.

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2nd Circ. Pick Questioned At Hearing On Role As Trump Lawyer

By Courtney Bublé

Matthew Schwartz, a nominee for the Second Circuit, was questioned by Democratic senators Wednesday about whether his current job as the president's personal attorney while his nomination process is underway poses a conflict of interest.

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Bad AI Citation Sanction Slashed Amid 7th Circ. Guidance

By Hailey Konnath

An Indiana federal judge Wednesday rejected a magistrate judge's recommendation that an attorney be sanctioned $7,500 for including faulty, artificial intelligence-generated legal citations in a discovery brief, pointing to recent Seventh Circuit guidance and sanctioning him $2,000 instead.

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2 Fla. County Courts Requiring AI Disclosure In Court Filings

By Sarah Martinson

Two Florida circuit courts in Miami-Dade and Broward counties are requiring attorneys and self-represented litigants to disclose when they use generative text tools to prepare their court filings and to certify they checked the generated content for accuracy.

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Hagens Berman Says Apple Smear Job Can't Stop Withdrawal

By Bonnie Eslinger

Hagens Berman Sobol Shapiro LLP urged a California federal judge to allow one of its named plaintiffs to withdraw from an Apple iCloud antitrust case, saying Apple Inc.'s filed opposition is rife with "misdirection and ad hominem" attacks and not about the merits of the dispute but "smearing opposing counsel."

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Atty Withdrawals Not Limited To Fee Conflicts, ABA Says

By Emily Sawicki

Lawyers whose clients fail to hold up their end of valid engagement agreements are clear to cease their representation, so long as certain criteria are met, according to the American Bar Association's ethics committee's latest guidance, published Wednesday.

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Comey Wants Arraignment Pushed For Dismissal Bid

By Phillip Bantz

Former FBI Director James Comey asked a North Carolina federal court Wednesday to postpone his arraignment on charges alleging he threatened President Donald Trump, telling a judge that he is preparing to seek to have the case thrown out on constitutional grounds.

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Mich. Supreme Court Mulls Remote Court Access Rules

By Susan Smiley

The Michigan Supreme Court held administrative hearings on Wednesday concerning several proposed amendments to Michigan court rules, including adding more specific guidelines for remote hearings, making language services free for civil cases, and allowing law students and recent law graduates to appear on behalf of indigent people in all Michigan courts.

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