Private Equity

  • February 21, 2024

    Cheer Supply Antitrust Claims Axed Again For 'Court's Sanity'

    Plaintiffs in an antitrust suit against cheerleading supply company Varsity Brands will not be able to resurrect previously dismissed claims after a Tennessee federal judge again shot them down in order to preserve "the court's sanity."

  • February 21, 2024

    Simpson Thacher-Led CVC Clinches $6.8B Asia-Focused Fund

    Private equity giant CVC Capital Partners, led by Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP, on Wednesday announced it had closed its sixth Asia-focused fund after racking up $6.8 billion in commitments from investors.

  • February 21, 2024

    Messner Reeves Accused Of Losing Client's $700K Deposit

    Colorado-based Messner Reeves LLP is being sued in California state court by a Florida financing consultant that claims the firm failed to protect a $700,000 interest deposit it made as part of a client's business loan.

  • February 21, 2024

    MoFo Brings On Simpson Thacher Private Equity Ace In SF

    Morrison Foerster LLP is bolstering its finance team, announcing Wednesday it is bringing in a Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP private equity pro as a partner in its San Francisco office.

  • February 21, 2024

    Crown Castle Proxy Spat Pits Paul Weiss Against Cadwalader

    Crown Castle Inc.'s board has rejected four board nominees of one of its co-founders, Ted Miller, as a proxy fight pits the communications infrastructure company and its Paul Weiss counsel against Miller and Cadwalader Wickersham & Taft LLP.

  • February 21, 2024

    Private Equity Group Of The Year: Ropes & Gray

    Ropes & Gray LLP recently steered deals for clients such as New Mountain Capital, BPEA EQT and TPG Capital Inc., including TPG's sale of high-profile talent agency Creative Artists Agency and BPEA EQT's $6.5 billion merger of its Hong Kong-based business services firms Vistra and Tricor, earning the firm a spot among Law360's 2023 Private Equity Groups of the Year.

  • February 21, 2024

    SPAC To Delist After Failing To Close Merger With Food Biz

    Blank-check company Bite Acquisition Corp. on Wednesday revealed that it received a letter from the New York Stock Exchange saying that it has determined to begin proceedings to delist the company's common stock because it failed to complete a business merger within the specified time frame.

  • February 21, 2024

    Cruise Line Hornblower Hits Ch. 11 With Over $1B Debt

    Cruise line and ferry service Hornblower Group Inc. and affiliates on Wednesday filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Texas with a plan to cut $720 million from its more than $1 billion of debt through a deal that will hand majority control to private equity firm Strategic Value Partners.

  • February 20, 2024

    Justices Won't Hear JPMorgan Syndicated Loan Dispute

    The U.S. Supreme Court decided on Tuesdsay that it will not hear a dispute accusing JPMorgan Chase and other banks of failing to warn noteholders about the risks of lending money to a soon-to-be bankrupt company, keeping the case's dismissal intact after the Second Circuit ruled that the syndicated loan at the center of the case was not subject to securities laws.

  • February 20, 2024

    Trivest Can Seek 6th Circ. Review Of RICO Jurisdiction Ruling

    A Michigan federal judge will allow a Florida-based private equity firm to appeal a decision denying its bid to escape a Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act lawsuit scrutinizing its funding of a solar company accused of scamming customers.

  • February 20, 2024

    Biology AI Startup Bioptimus Raises $35M Seed Round

    Artificial intelligence startup Bioptimus has raised $35 million to build an AI foundational model focused on biology, the company announced Tuesday.

  • February 20, 2024

    UMG Snags Stake In Music Rights Co., Valuing Biz At $1.85B

    Music entertainment company Universal Music Group on Tuesday announced it plans to buy private equity giant KKR's minority stake in Chord Music Partners in a deal that values the music label at $1.85 billion and was built by six firms.

  • February 20, 2024

    FERC Greenlights $6.7B Vistra-Energy Harbor Merger

    The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission has approved a $6.7 billion proposed merger between Vistra Corp. and Ohio-based Energy Harbor LLC after taking extra time to review the tie-up amid competition concerns from both federal antitrust officials and state consumer advocates.

  • February 20, 2024

    AI Computing Co. Clinches $102M In VC-Led Funding

    Artificial intelligence-based computing company Recogni has closed its Series C funding round after raising $102 million from investors, with the funds going toward driving system development for AI inference solutions that improve both performance and power efficiency, the company announced Tuesday. 

  • February 20, 2024

    Fox Rothschild AI Chief Talks 'Terrifying' Deepfakes, Biased AI

    Mark McCreary, the chief artificial intelligence and information security officer at Fox Rothschild, leads his firm's internal AI strategy and provides counsel to other law firms trying to bushwhack their path through the often murky AI legal landscape, rife with hallucinated case law citations and disturbingly real deepfakes.

  • February 20, 2024

    Kirkland & Ellis Brings On Weil Tax Pros In NY, DC

    Kirkland & Ellis has recruited a pair of real estate tax partners from Weil Gotshal & Manges LLC who advised clients on a wide range of complex transactions, Kirkland announced Tuesday.

  • February 20, 2024

    Boomerang In Default For Silence On $7M Del. Contract Suit

    A defunct steel tube plant that failed to respond to a Delaware Chancery Court lawsuit seeking $7.35 million for unpaid invoices was found in default Tuesday after failing to appear in court for more than a year and a half.

  • February 20, 2024

    Private Equity Group Of The Year: Paul Weiss

    Paul Weiss Rifkind Wharton & Garrison LLP advised private equity giant Apollo in nearly $30 billion of publicly disclosed transactions, including multiple multibillion-dollar take-private acquisitions, despite a slow deals market, earning the firm a spot among Law360's 2023 Private Equity Groups of the Year.

  • February 20, 2024

    Truist Selling Insurance Brokerage At $15.5B Value

    Truist Financial Corp. said Tuesday it has agreed to sell its remaining stake in subsidiary Truist Insurance Holdings to an investor group led by private equity firms Stone Point Capital and Clayton Dubilier & Rice, in an all-cash transaction that gives the insurance brokerage an enterprise value of $15.5 billion.

  • February 16, 2024

    Feds Charge Ex-Commodities Trader With $3.7M Scheme

    A former commodities trader has been charged with misappropriating $3.7 million from would-be investors using misrepresentations that he later repeated to undercover agents, New Jersey federal prosecutors said Friday.

  • February 16, 2024

    Leon Black Accuser Agrees To Drop Assault Claims

    A woman who accused former Apollo Global Management CEO Leon Black of sexually assaulting her during the late Jeffrey Epstein's decadeslong sex trafficking scheme has agreed to drop her claims against the billionaire, although other claims against Epstein's trust co-executors are still pending, according to court documents filed Thursday.

  • February 16, 2024

    Soroc Tech Del. Suit Alleges Fraud In $115M DecisionOne Deal

    Canada-based information technology services provider Soroc Technology Holdings LLC has sued private equity firm Oak Lane Partners and several of its top officers and affiliates in Delaware's Court of Chancery, alleging they were behind an elaborate, $115 million company sale fraud that snared Soroc.

  • February 16, 2024

    Startup Countersues Trucker Tracking Co. For Stealing Tech

    A venture capital-backed startup that sells dashboard cameras to monitor truck drivers is responding to a rival's well-publicized patent infringement case by filing its own patent lawsuit in a different federal court that mirrors many of the same allegations of technological theft but pointing them in the other direction.

  • February 16, 2024

    Canada Liable Under NAFTA For Axed LNG Project, Co. Says

    A U.S. company that invested at least $120 million in a since-thwarted liquefied natural gas project maintained that Canada is liable for $1 billion in damages for breaches of the North American Free Trade Agreement, and that the International Centre for Settlement of Investment Disputes has jurisdiction over its claims.

  • February 16, 2024

    Catching Up With Delaware's Chancery Court

    News broke last week that Delaware's Court of Chancery will say goodbye to its current longest-serving jurist, a development that quickly overshadowed a busy week of new merger and board disputes, fee rulings, settlements, and books-and-records demands.

Expert Analysis

  • SEC Whistleblower Action Spotlights Risks For Private Cos.

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recent whistleblower action against Monolith Resources holds important implications for private companies, who could face unprecedented regulatory scrutiny amid the agency's efforts to beef up environmental, social and governance reporting and enforcement, say attorneys at Wiley.

  • Attorneys Have An Ethical Duty To Protect The Judiciary

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    The tenor of public disagreement and debate has become increasingly hostile against judges, and though the legislative branch is trying to ameliorate this safety gap, lawyers have a moral imperative and professional requirement to stand with judges in defusing attacks against them and their rulings, says Deborah Winokur at Cozen O'Connor.

  • Cross-Market Implications In FTC's Anesthesia Complaint

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    The Federal Trade Commission's recent complaint against a private equity firm's acquisition of anesthesiology practices highlights the controversial issue of cross-market harm in health care provider mergers, and could provide important insights into how a court may view such theories of harm, say Christopher Lau and Dina Older Aguilar at Cornerstone Research.

  • Why The Debt Maturity Wall Is Still A Figment, For Now

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    While the phenomenon of the debt maturity wall — a growing wall of staggered corporate debt maturities — has been considered a looming problem since the aftermath of the 2008 global financial crisis, it’s unlikely to have significant consequences before 2025 due to factors such as quantitative easing and evolved lending practices, says Michael Eisenband at FTI Consulting.

  • AI Can Help Lawyers Overcome The Programming Barrier

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    Legal professionals without programming expertise can use generative artificial intelligence to harness the power of automation and other technology solutions to streamline their work, without the steep learning curve traditionally associated with coding, says George Zalepa at Greenberg Traurig.

  • Are CCOs Really In The SEC's Crosshairs?

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    U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission Enforcement Director Gurbir Grewal recently gave a speech to address the concerns of chief compliance officers in light of recent enforcement actions taken against them, but CCOs need to understand when to push back against management, quit, or report issues to the board or to regulators, say Brian Rubin and Adam Pollet at Eversheds Sutherland.

  • Breaking Down The SEC's 2024 Examination Priorities

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    The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission’s recently released examination priorities for the year ahead signal a steady course from prior years, but they also include some specific new concerns and important twists on perennial risk areas, say Kurt Gottschall and Kit Addleman at Haynes Boone.

  • Preparing Law Students For A New, AI-Assisted Legal World

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    As artificial intelligence rapidly transforms the legal landscape, law schools must integrate technology and curricula that address AI’s innate challenges — from ethics to data security — to help students stay ahead of the curve, say Daniel Garrie at Law & Forensics, Ryan Abbott at JAMS and Karen Silverman at Cantellus Group.

  • SEC Fines Mean Cos. Should Review Anti-Whistleblower Docs

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    The Securities and Exchange Commission’s expanding focus on violations of whistleblower protection laws — as seen in recent settlements where company contracts forbade workers from reporting securities misconduct — means companies should review their employment and separation agreements for language that may discourage reporting, says Caroline Henry at Maynard Nexsen.

  • Series

    ESG Around The World: South Korea

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    Numerous ESG trends have materialized in South Korea in the past three years, with impacts ranging from greenwashing prevention and carbon neutrality measures to workplace harassment and board diversity initiatives, say Chang Wook Min and Hyun Chan Jung at Jipyong.

  • General Counsel Need Data Literacy To Keep Up With AI

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    With the rise of accessible and powerful generative artificial intelligence solutions, it is imperative for general counsel to understand the use and application of data for myriad important activities, from evaluating the e-discovery process to monitoring compliance analytics and more, says Colin Levy at Malbek.

  • Navigating Discovery Of Generative AI Information

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    As generative artificial intelligence tools become increasingly ubiquitous, companies must make sure to preserve generative AI data when there is reasonable expectation of litigation, and to include transcripts in litigation hold notices, as they may be relevant to discovery requests, say Nick Peterson and Corey Hauser at Wiley.

  • Finding Focus: Strategies For Attorneys With ADHD

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    Given the prevalence of ADHD among attorneys, it is imperative that the legal community gain a better understanding of how ADHD affects well-being, and that resources and strategies exist for attorneys with this disability to manage their symptoms and achieve success, say Casey Dixon at Dixon Life Coaching and Krista Larson at Stinson.

  • How Fla. Bankruptcy Ruling May Affect Equity Owners

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    A Florida bankruptcy court’s recent ruling in Vital Pharmaceuticals — which rejected the Third Circuit’s Majestic Star decision that determined a bankrupt corporation’s flow-through status was not protected by the automatic stay — may significantly affect how equity owners can mitigate the impact of flow-through structures in bankruptcy, say Eric Behl-Remijan and Natasha Hwangpo at Ropes & Gray.

  • How Shareholder Activists Are Targeting Insurers

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    As shareholder activists take a closer look at the insurance industry, they are pushing insurers to take value-enhancing and climate-related measures — but insurers can prepare by anticipating activist concerns, maintaining robust shareholder engagement, and considering changes in response to the universal proxy rules, say attorneys at Debevoise.

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