PE-Backed Jersey Mike's Makes Public Debut After $1B IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Private equity-backed sandwich chain Jersey Mike's hit the public markets Thursday after raising $1 billion in its initial public offering steered by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP and Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP.

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Blackstone To Acquire HSBC Australia's $25B Loan Portfolio

By Lauren Berg

Blackstone Inc. announced Thursday that it will acquire HSBC Bank Australia Ltd.'s AU$36 billion ($25 billion) home and personal loan portfolio, as HSBC plans to focus on its corporate and institutional banking presence in Australia and New Zealand.

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Permira-Backed Reformation Prices $210.9M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Private equity-backed womenswear brand Reformation Inc. began trading publicly on Thursday after raising $210.9 million in its initial public offering, hitting the low end of its marketed range.

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Europe Soccer Group To Boycott FIFA Over Investor Sale Plan

By David Steele

The soccer federation representing 55 European countries announced Thursday that it will boycott World Cup competition in protest of FIFA's plan to sell billions of dollars in shares of the sport's premier international tournament to private investors.

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Deals Rumor Mill

Curium, Sazerac And Stripe Pursue Megadeals, And More

By Al Barbarino

Reports of potential multibillion-dollar deals were plentiful this week, with U.S. alcohol producer Sazerac steadfast in its $15 billion pursuit of the maker of Jack Daniel's; Curium reportedly in advanced talks to acquire fellow radiopharmaceutical firm Lantheus Holdings Inc. for up to $8 billion; and Nvidia, Stripe and Devon Energy all linked to sizable strategic bets of their own.

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Simpson Thacher Trial Hears Of 'Grave Risk' In PIPE Deals

By Madison Arnold

An attorney who is an expert in private investment in public equity transactions told a Florida jury hearing a malpractice case against Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP on Thursday that companies that enter into an agreement similar to the one Patriot National Inc. did take on "grave risk."

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Del. Chancery Axes Student Loan Co. 'Unfair' Lender Deal Suit

By Katryna Perera

A Delaware vice chancellor has dismissed, with prejudice, a stockholder lawsuit seeking to block new "highly dilutive" borrowing from the top lenders and shareholders of international student loan provider MPower Financing PBC, finding that the statutory safe harbor provision of Delaware corporation law protects the transaction, which will hand control of the company to two hedge funds.

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2 Traders Admit Guilt In Stolen BigLaw Info Scheme

By Chris Villani

Two men pled guilty Thursday in Massachusetts federal court to their roles in a sweeping scheme to trade on inside information stolen from huge corporate law firms about upcoming deals.

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Exec Who Tried To Buy English Soccer Club Denies Fraud Rap

By Pete Brush

A Florida executive who once tried to buy England's Everton soccer club on Thursday denied new charges accusing him of engaging in a $500 million fraud on lenders, before the judge hearing his case declined to adjourn his October trial. 

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Series

Teaching SEC Investigations Makes Me A Better Lawyer

Instructing a law school course on U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission investigations has made me a more thoughtful, deliberate practitioner because it requires me to continually reassess and challenge what I know about securities law enforcement, how I know it and how best to explain it, says David Chase at Miami Law.

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Advocacy Group Says Law Firm Fellowship Program Biased

By Patrick Hoff

A legal advocacy group said Thursday it had lodged U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission charges against a nonprofit and law firms including Jones Day, White & Case and Morgan Lewis, claiming Muslim and Middle Eastern students were getting unlawful preference in a fellowship program.

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ABA Eyes Nixing School DEI Standards To Sway Trump Admin

By Emma Cueto

The American Bar Association is poised next week to eliminate the first of multiple diversity-related law school standards, a controversial move that it hopes will allow it to remain an accreditor despite an uncertain outcome in the face of a Trump administration increasingly wary of the association's role in legal education.

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WilmerHale Sued Over Accidental Client Data Disclosure

By Andrea Keckley

A proposed federal class action filed Wednesday accuses WilmerHale of failing to protect clients' personal information after an employee allegedly disclosed sensitive data, including Social Security numbers, to an unauthorized person who misrepresented their identity back in May.

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Ill. Atty Sanctioned For AI Slop In Starbucks Bias Suit

By Adrian Cruz

A unanimous Illinois appeals court sanctioned an attorney representing a former Starbucks employee in a workplace discrimination suit after determining that he submitted briefs using false citations and quotations hallucinated by artificial intelligence software.

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Trump May Renominate Blanche If GOP Holdouts Block Vote

By Courtney Bublé

With Sens. John Cornyn, R-Texas, and Thom Tillis, R-N.C., still on the fence about acting Attorney General Todd Blanche's confirmation to be attorney general, President Donald Trump said Thursday he might renominate Blanche next year when the two senators are no longer serving in the Senate.

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DA Says Trump's NY Hush Money Conviction Must Stand

By Frank G. Runyeon

New York prosecutors told a state appellate court that President Donald Trump's 34-count felony conviction for falsifying business records is "unaffected" by the U.S. Supreme Court's watershed presidential immunity decision and should be upheld.

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Judiciary's Bid To Control Courthouses Gets Senate Push

By Courtney Bublé

A bipartisan group of senators introduced a bill on Thursday that would create a pilot program for the federal judiciary to obtain direct authority to maintain its buildings, which the judiciary says is desperately needed.

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Bronx Legal Aid Organization's Union Rejects New Pay Offer

By Andrea Keckley

The Bronx Defenders' executive director said on Thursday that the union representing the organization's over 300 attorneys and staff has rejected an updated offer on wages, with both sides still at odds over the prospect of separate salary scales for lawyers and social workers.

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