Freshfields Steers EQT's £10.9B Cash Offer For Intertek

By Najiyya Budaly

Product testing heavyweight Intertek Group said Thursday that it has agreed to a £10.9 billion ($14.4 billion) cash takeover by EQT after months of courting by the Swedish private equity firm.

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Milbank-Led EQT To Buy SpaceX Satellite Launch Partner

By Tom Fish

​Swedish private equity giant EQT said Thursday its fund has agreed to acquire Exolaunch from the German satellite launch services company's founder, marking its first investment in the rapidly growing space sector.

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SEC, CFTC Could Change Dodd-Frank Swap Rules

By Jessica Corso

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission indicated Thursday they are preparing to change the definition of "swap" to "address longstanding ambiguities" that the agencies said have existed since the Dodd-Frank Act was adopted in 2010.

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Trump Accounts Not Subject To ERISA, DOL Says

By Asha Glover

Trump accounts, the new tax-advantaged brokerage accounts for newborns, will generally not be considered employee pension benefit plans and will not be subject to federal benefits laws, according to guidance issued Thursday by the U.S. Department of Labor.

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Goodwin, Latham Lead Biotech Kardigan's $400M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Venture-backed Kardigan Inc., a biotechnology firm developing therapies for cardiovascular diseases, hit the public markets on Thursday after raising $400 million in its initial public offering.

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Stockholders Tell Chancery Broadband Buyout Was Lowballed

By Jarek Rutz

A pair of former WideOpenWest Inc. stockholders have sued the cable and broadband provider's controlling shareholder in Delaware Chancery Court, alleging a 2025 take-private deal unfairly shortchanged minority investors and allowed insiders to capture the future value of the company for themselves.

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Blackstone's LivCor Cuts $7M Rent-Fixing Deal With 9 States

By Dorothy Atkins

Blackstone subsidiary LivCor LLC has agreed to pay North Carolina, California and seven other states $7 million in penalties to resolve allegations against it in a sprawling antitrust lawsuit alleging major landlords used software company RealPage to fix rent prices, according to documents filed in North Carolina federal court Thursday.

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Deals Rumor Mill

DeepSeek's Valuation Soars To $50B, Plus More Rumors

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Artificial intelligence company DeepSeek hit a $50 billion valuation following its latest funding round, the original backers of artificial intelligence company Manus are planning to buy the company back from Meta, and private equity shop KKR wants to buy a majority stake in the Indian business of Sweden's Medicover for at least $1 billion.

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Brief

Skadden, Troutman Lead First Carolina Bank's $69M IPO

By Katryna Perera

First Carolina Financial Services, a community bank with branches in several southeastern states, began trading its shares on Thursday after pricing a $69 million initial public offering below its target range, guided by Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP and underwriters' counsel Troutman Pepper Locke LLP.

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A Lender's Guide To Fraud: Identifying Risks

The evolving lending landscape, particularly the private credit boom, has heightened lenders' exposure to fraud, but recent bankruptcies demonstrate where fraud risks most commonly materialize and how banks can mitigate exposure at the outset, say attorneys at Moore & Van Allen.

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Series

Founding An Autism Academy Made Me A Better Lawyer

Starting a nonprofit autism school with no building, no funding model and no guarantee that families would trust us taught me the importance of mission, patience and purpose — lessons that sharpened my practice and showed how meaningful work outside the office can make lawyers better, says Phillip Russell at Ogletree Deakins.

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Judiciary Cites AI Deepfakes In Opposing Courtroom Cameras

By Courtney Bublé

Two bipartisan bills to bring cameras into federal courtrooms advanced Thursday, but the policymaking body for the federal judiciary continues to oppose them and raised the issue of deepfakes in the age of artificial intelligence.

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Trump Lawyer Advances In Senate Judiciary Noms Vote

By Courtney Bublé

The nomination of Matthew Schwartz to be a judge on the Second Circuit advanced out of committee Thursday.

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'Mortified' Atty Takes Blame For Fake Quotes In Taco TM Fight

By Ivan Moreno

A Connecticut attorney facing possible sanctions over fake case quotations in a taco restaurant trademark fight told a federal judge that he takes "full and unqualified responsibility" for the flawed filings, saying he is "mortified" and acknowledging that his verification process for AI-assisted legal work fell far short.

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Calif. Moves On Proposal To Allow Legal Aid By Nonlawyers

By Lynn LaRowe

The California Supreme Court has directed the state bar to solicit public comments on a proposed community justice worker program that would allow nonlawyers to provide limited legal assistance under the supervision of qualified legal aid organizations, according to a Thursday announcement.

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Analysis

Law Students Undeterred Under Trump's Immigration Climate

By Britain Eakin

In a climate where immigration lawyers are coming under the Trump administration’s scrutiny to tamp down on asylum fraud, law students are being ignited to enter the workforce early and rectify the injustices they see.

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Mich. Panel Sanctions Atty Over AI-Hallucinated Cases

By Susan Smiley

A medical malpractice suit in the Michigan Court of Appeals led to financial sanctions against an attorney who the court said during litigation repeatedly cited nonexistent cases that were generated by artificial intelligence.

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Ford Says 'Lemon Law' Firm Faked Bills Using Overseas Staff

By Linda Chiem

Ford Motor Co. accused California personal injury firm Quill & Arrow LLP of defrauding it out of more than $25 million in high-priced legal bills for work actually handled by virtual assistants overseas and non-lawyers in scores of product liability cases against the automaker.

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NY High Court Upholds Mandatory Judge Retirement Age

By Dorothy Atkins

New York's highest court Thursday affirmed a ruling that rejected jurists' challenges to the Empire State's mandatory retirement age of 70 for state judges and justices, finding that the centuries-old constitutional mandate doesn't conflict with a recent state civil rights amendment banning age discrimination.

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Tort Report: Meta Set To Face Facebook Sex Trafficking Trial

By Y. Peter Kang

An upcoming trial in Texas for a first-of-its-kind case against Meta and claims against a health clinic owned by a U.S. senator lead Law360's Tort Report, which compiles recent personal injury and medical malpractice news that may have flown under the radar.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

General counsel may cringe at the news, but their chief financial officers will rejoice over a new study that shows the average spending by legal departments dropped to a six-year low in 2026. And two in-house Cigna lawyers are at the center of a finding of "improperly asserted privilege" over key company documents related to a payment lawsuit brought by three labs.

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