Fed 'Risk Aversion' Contributed To SVB's Failure, Report Says

By Jon Hill

A "culture of risk aversion" and diffusion of decision-making among Federal Reserve supervisory staff, not deregulation or social media chatter, contributed to the 2023 collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, according to initial findings from a new post-mortem review.

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Cooley-Led Electra Therapeutics Prices Upsized $350M IPO

By Al Barbarino

Cooley LLP-advised Electra Therapeutics, a venture-backed biotech firm developing antibodies for immune diseases and cancer, began trading Friday after raising $350 million in an upsized IPO.

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Latham Steers Industrial REIT Rexford On $1.2B Portfolio Sale

By Nate Beck

Rexford Industrial Realty said it has sold an industrial portfolio, with advice from Latham & Watkins LLP, to EQT Real Estate for $1.2 billion in a deal spanning 5.2 million square feet of rentable space.

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SEC Alleges Ex-VC Assistant Took $1.3M From Funds

By Sydney Price

The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission filed a suit in New Jersey federal court Friday alleging that a former executive assistant tasked with soliciting funds for two venture capital firms misappropriated $1.3 million over two years from the firms' private funds for personal expenses.

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9th Circ. Asks Wash. Justices About Indirect Employer Claims

By Rachel Riley

A Ninth Circuit panel has asked the Washington State Supreme Court to clarify whether the state's law permits common law wrongful firing claims against indirect employers and certain individuals, saying the answers are key to assessing a former solar company CFO's claim he was unjustly ousted by a private equity backer.

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Data Center Infrastructure Company To Explore US Listing

By Tom Fish

Data center infrastructure developer Vesari Inc. is exploring a public listing in the U.S. through a merger with a special purpose acquisition company, alongside raising capital, its majority shareholder said Friday.

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Roundup

Taxation With Representation: Davis Polk, Latham, Sullivan

By Zak Kostro

In this week's Taxation With Representation, a group backed by Michael Dell's family office and Sequence Holdings acquires a majority interest in The Baldwin Group, May Mobility merges with a blank check company, and Infineon Technologies sells its memory chip business to Winbond Electronics.

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Simply Interior Gets OK For Litigation, Wind-Down Ch. 11 Plan

By Emily Lever

A Delaware bankruptcy judge Friday said he would approve a Chapter 11 liquidation plan from home textile and decor company Simply Interior Homes that will establish a liquidating trust intended to pay creditors with litigation proceeds.

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Brief

Latham Picks Ex-Fried Frank PE Pro For DC Office

By Isaac Monterose

Latham & Watkins LLP has hired ex-Fried Frank private equity partner Ryan S. Plasky for a partner role on its banking and private credit team in Washington, D.C., the firm announced.

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Legal Deserts: Millions Across America Struggle To Access Lawyers

Tens of millions of Americans live in towns and counties across the nation with limited or no access to legal services. By one estimate, at least a third of the nation's counties qualify as a "legal desert," having only one or no attorney per 1,000 residents. Roughly 24 million Americans reside in these counties.

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Greenberg Traurig Hit With Action Over Client Data Breach

By Matt Perez

A proposed class of Greenberg Traurig LLP clients said the New York law firm failed to secure their personal data prior to a preventable data breach and delayed notifying clients of the breach for two weeks, in an action filed over the weekend in New York federal court seeking injunctive and other equitable relief to protect client data.

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Tesla Atty Misled Witness Days Before Bias Trial, Judge Hears

By Dorothy Atkins

The California Civil Rights Department asked a California judge for a protective order Monday on the first day of a bench trial over claims Tesla Inc. fostered racism at its Fremont factory, after a witness testified that an in-house Tesla attorney recently called him and misled him into believing he represented the agency.

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New Calif. Law Bars Legal Funders From Influencing Litigation

By Jack Karp

Corporate investors and litigation funders will be barred from influencing litigation strategy in California under a new bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

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Q&A

She Has A Point: Fenwick's Jessica Kaempf

By Theresa Schliep

Jessica Kaempf of Fenwick & West LLP is a pragmatic yet tenacious attorney whose representation of her clients has earned her plaudits from Kathi Vidal of Winston Taylor, who praised Kaempf as part of a Law360 series celebrating women litigators.

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$1.35M Class Deal Reached Over Botched Calif. Bar Exam

By Emily Johnson

Takers of the February 2025 California bar exam that was marred by technical failures have agreed to settle their proposed class action against the proctor for $1.35 million, while the company also agreed to complete quality checks before proctoring future bar examinations, according to a motion seeking preliminary approval in federal court.

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Ex-Prosecutor Escapes Jan. 6 Atty's Defamation Suit

By Jared Foretek

Former federal prosecutor Andrew Weissmann on Monday won judgment on the pleadings in a defamation case brought by attorney Stefan Passantino, who had represented Cassidy Hutchinson, after Passantino alleged Weissmann had defamed him when saying he'd "coached" Hutchinson "to lie" to the January 6th Select Committee.

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Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

By Jarek Rutz

The Delaware Chancery Court this past week dismissed a challenge to Alteryx Inc.'s $4.4 billion take-private sale, resolved a fight over the removal of a security technology company's director and declined to let Empery Digital Inc. immediately appeal a proxy contest ruling.

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