Sidley-Led PE Firm To Bid £545M For UK Auto Software Biz

By Dawood Fakhir

Pinewood.AI said Wednesday that it has agreed to be acquired by U.S. private equity firm Ridgeview Partners LLC for approximately £545 million ($739 million) in a deal that will delist it from the London Stock Exchange.

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3 Firms Steer $7.5B Stripe, OpenRouter AI Gateway Deal

By Al Barbarino

Financial services company Stripe said Wednesday that it has agreed to acquire artificial intelligence routing platform OpenRouter, as three law firms take lead roles in steering the roughly $7.5 billion transaction.

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Willkie, Latham Guide Defense Tech Firm Lyntris' $298M IPO

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Private equity-backed defense technology company Lyntris Inc. hit the public markets Wednesday after raising $298 million in its initial public offering steered by Willkie Farr & Gallagher LLP and Latham & Watkins LLP.

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Electric Vehicle Biz ALSO Secures $150M Series D

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Goodwin Procter LLP-led small electric vehicle manufacturer ALSO, which was originally incubated within Rivian, on Wednesday announced that it raised $150 million in its latest financing round.

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Rising Star: Paul Weiss' Austin Pollet

By Daniel Moritz-Rabson

Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP partner Austin Pollet co-led the team advising General Atlantic and Chess.com on a CVC Capital Partners IX investment and co-led the team advising General Atlantic on an investment in Vuori, earning him a spot among the private equity lawyers under age 40 honored by Law360 as Rising Stars.

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Footprint Investors Sue In Del. Over $500M Financing Deal

By Jarek Rutz

Early investors in Footprint International Holdco Inc. have sued the sustainable packaging company, its directors and several institutional investors in the Delaware Chancery Court, alleging that insiders used a $500 million financing round to seize control of the company and strip longtime Class A investors of valuable stockholder rights.

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Series

Law School's Missed Lessons: Surviving A Long Trial

Most of law school trial advocacy is geared toward the sprint of trying a short case, but beyond managing a cross-examination or closing argument, effectively handling the marathon of a lengthy trial requires the ability to maintain composure, organization and credibility with the jury, says Mihir Elchuri at Hirschler.

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SCOTUSblog Founder Goldstein Seeks Release During Appeal

By Rachel Rippetoe

SCOTUSblog founder Thomas Goldstein on Tuesday asked to be released from federal custody while he appeals his 12 tax and mortgage fraud convictions and a six-year prison sentence, saying he is not a flight risk and it would be a "grave injustice" for him to begin a sentence he believes will eventually get axed.

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Davis Wright Vets Scolded: Don't Tell Foes 'How To Run Firm'

By Jeff Overley

Davis Wright Tremaine LLP veterans have failed to dodge six-figure sanctions in a prominent discovery donnybrook, and a California magistrate judge added invective to the financial injury, lambasting "troubling" omissions in case citations and heavy-handed "nitpicking" akin to commandeering an adversary's law firm.

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Atty, Son Charged In Probe Of Alleged Penn State Drug Ring

By Rose Krebs

An equity partner based in Meyer Darragh Buckler Bebenek & Eck PLLC's Pittsburgh office has been charged with tampering with evidence and obstructing an investigation in connection with an alleged cocaine ring at Penn State University that allegedly involved his son, according to news reports.

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Texas Judge Flags 'Alarming' Number Of Bogus Citations

By Emily Sawicki

A federal judge presiding over an Austin, Texas, immigration case is warning of possible future sanctions after an attorney included an "alarming" number of "hallucinated" case citations in support of a habeas corpus petition.  

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Jackson Walker Says US Trustee Can't Claw Back Legal Fees

By Clara Geoghegan

Jackson Walker said this week that the U.S. Department of Justice's bankruptcy watchdog is beyond the bounds of its authority in a yearslong effort to force the firm to return millions of dollars in legal fees over an undisclosed relationship between a former partner and a Texas bankruptcy judge.

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Over 120 Ex-Judges Demand Probe Of DHS GC's 'Worst' Posts

By Adrian Cruz

A pair of nonprofits along with a bipartisan group of 128 former state and federal judges have asked the Florida Bar to investigate the general counsel of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a recent series of social media posts attacking sitting judges.

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Polsinelli Can't Rep Doctor In 'Bad Faith' IP Suits, Cos. Say

By Lauren Berg

Two medical device companies suing Polsinelli PC and its longtime client, a patent-holding doctor, for allegedly pursuing "bad faith" infringement claims asked federal courts in Tennessee and Mississippi to disqualify the firm from defending the doctor in the lawsuits, citing their "diverging interests and liabilities."

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Ex-US Attys Protest Trump's Swift Firing Of Rogoff In Seattle

By Rachel Riley

Thirty former U.S. attorneys backed Roger Rogoff's bid for reinstatement as Seattle's top federal prosecutor after President Donald Trump fired him on the heels of his court-ordered appointment, arguing Tuesday that Trump is trying to "sidestep the Senate's advice-and-consent role and sideline the judiciary" by letting unappointed individuals play such roles.

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DOJ Urges Court Not To Dismiss Suit Against DC Bar

By Alison Knezevich

The U.S. Department of Justice is urging a federal judge not to toss its lawsuit against Washington, D.C., attorney disciplinary authorities, saying the court "needs to halt defendants' flagrantly unconstitutional overreach into the president's executive power."

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Firms Cut From $101M Anthropic Atty Fees Appeal To 9th Circ.

By Lauren Berg

Two law firms involved in securing artificial intelligence company Anthropic's $1.5 billion copyright settlement with a class of authors and publishers are appealing to the Ninth Circuit an order excluding them from attorney fees awarded to court-appointed class counsel.

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USPTO Says Patent Atty's Suit Shouldn't Stop Discipline Case

By Theresa Schliep

The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office has said an Ohio federal court shouldn't pause professional discipline proceedings against an attorney while he sues the agency, saying he's likely to fail with his suit challenging the fact that a judge from another agency is overseeing his discipline case.

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Sinema Says Brief Signal Chat Can't Anchor NC Affair Suit

By Hayley Fowler

A single exchange on the encrypted messaging app Signal became the focal point of former Arizona U.S. Sen. Kyrsten Sinema's testimony on Wednesday as she sought to convince a North Carolina federal judge that she cannot be hauled into court in the Tar Heel state over an affair — which she declined to characterize as a "passionate" romance — she had with her married security guard.

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