Bitcoin Treasury Firm To Go Public Via $1.5B SPAC Deal

By Katryna Perera

Bitcoin investment company BSTR Holdings Inc. announced on Thursday that special purpose acquisition company Cantor Equity Partners I Inc. will provide it with up to $1.5 billion in financing in a go-public deal, guided by Ellenoff Grossman & Schole LLP and Skadden Arps Slate Meagher & Flom LLP.

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3 Crypto Bills Pass House, With Stablecoins Headed To Trump

By Aislinn Keely

The House of Representatives on Thursday agreed to send a bill to regulate stable-value tokens to the president's desk, in addition to advancing proposals to regulate crypto markets and ban the government from exploring the issuance of a digital dollar onto the Senate.

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SEC Atty Exits After Hiding Revoked License, OIG Says

By Jessica Corso

A longstanding employee of the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission resigned after it was discovered that they had falsely reported being in good standing with a state bar association, according to the regulator's inspector general.

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Fla. Judge Tosses Suits Over Errors In AI-Generated Filings

By David Minsky

A Florida federal judge on Thursday tossed four lawsuits that a disinfectant sprayer company brought against former executives and business associates after filings with fake legal citations produced by artificial intelligence were included in the record, saying the attorney who filed the documents violated duties owed to his clients.

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CFTC Restructures Enforcement Division Amid Layoffs

By Jessica Corso

The Commodity Futures Trading Commission plans to lay off around two dozen staff members and has restructured its enforcement division by eliminating some management positions, a person familiar with the matter told Law360 Thursday.

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Thrivent Challenges SEC Over FINRA Arbitration Rules

By Katryna Perera

Financial services giant Thrivent has filed a petition in the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals seeking to force the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to review three rules adopted by the Financial Industry Regulatory Authority that give the agency exclusive jurisdiction over arbitration disputes between brokers and their customers.

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EU Lawmakers Push For Tax Data Hub To Combat Evasion

By Josh White

Members of the European Parliament approved proposals for tax changes across the European Union, including a tax data hub to streamline compliance across the bloc and help combat tax avoidance and evasion.

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Couche-Tard Pulls $47B Takeover Bid For 7-Eleven Parent

By Al Barbarino

Alimentation Couche-Tard has withdrawn its nearly $47 billion bid to acquire Seven & i Holdings, the Japanese parent of 7-Eleven, citing "a persistent lack of good faith engagement" from Seven & i leadership.

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Pyrophyte's 2nd SPAC Raises $175M To Target Energy Biz

By Jade Martinez-Pogue

Special purpose acquisition company Pyrophyte Acquisition Corp. II began trading on the public markets on Thursday after raising $175 million in its initial public offering.

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Deals Rumor Mill

Google Lands $2.4B Windsurf Tech Deal, And More Rumors

By Al Barbarino

Google has agreed to pay $2.4 billion to license the technology of Windsurf, a private equity investment will value PCI Pharma Services at $10 billion, and KKR is mulling a potential buyout of Italian healthcare technology firm GPI SpA. Here, Law360 breaks down these and other deal rumors from the past week:

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2nd Circ. Overturns Ex-HSBC Exec's 2017 Fraud Conviction

By Sarah Jarvis

The Second Circuit on Thursday overturned the conviction of a former HSBC executive accused of defrauding a Scottish oil and gas company in a $3.5 billion currency exchange deal, finding his jury was improperly instructed on a now-invalid "right-to-control" theory of fraud.

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Brief

Musk, SEC Seek More Time For Response In Twitter Case

By Sarah Jarvis

Elon Musk and the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission on Thursday jointly asked a D.C. federal court to allow the billionaire more time to respond to the agency's complaint that he failed to timely report his Twitter purchases before buying the platform and renaming it X.

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Accolade Faces $4.8M Suit Over Pre-Merger Profit Claims

By Sydney Price

Personalized healthcare solutions company Accolade Inc. was hit with an investor suit Thursday accusing it and its CEO of making false statements about its profitability to prop up share prices before announcing its plan to go private via a merger with healthcare company Transcarent Inc.

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Circle's Bank Plans Include Regulatory Vets At Helm

By Jon Hill

Stablecoin giant Circle has tapped Heath Tarbert, its president and former top derivatives regulator, as well as a former Office of the Comptroller of the Currency chief counsel to help oversee its proposed national trust bank, according to application materials made public Thursday.

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Real Estate Finance Pro Returns To ArentFox Schiff In NY

By Aebra Coe

ArentFox Schiff LLP has added a real estate finance partner in New York from Greenspoon Marder LLP who returns to the firm after seven years away, the firm announced this week.

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GENIUS Act Creates 'Commodity' Uncertainty For Stablecoins

Half a century ago, Congress made trading in onion futures on commodity exchanges unlawful, and payment stablecoins could soon face a similarly unstable fate in the markets as the GENIUS Act heads to the president's desk for signature, says Peter Malyshev at Cadwalader.

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Feds' Shift On Reputational Risk Raises Questions For Banks

While banking regulators' recent retreat from reputational risk narrows the scope of federal oversight in some respects, it also raises practical questions about consistency, reputational management and the evolving political landscape surrounding financial services, say attorneys at Smith Anderson.

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'Loss' Policy Definition Is Key For Noncash Settlements

A recent Delaware decision in AMC Entertainment v. XL Specialty Insurance, holding that the definition of loss includes noncash settlement payments, is important to note for policyholders considering other settlement options — like two other class actions that recently settled for vouchers, say attorneys at Reed Smith.

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Defense Lessons From Freshworks' Win In Post-IPO Case

A California federal court’s recent decision to grant Freshworks’ summary judgment bid in a proposed investor class action helpfully clarifies two important points for defendants facing postoffering securities claims under Section 11 of the Securities Act, say attorneys at Paul Weiss.

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Series

Playing Mah-Jongg Makes Me A Better Mediator

Mah-jongg rewards patience, pattern recognition, adaptability and keen observation, all skills that are invaluable to my role as a mediator, and to all mediating parties, says Marina Corodemus.

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​​​​​​​3rd Circ. Pick 'Respected' By Trump, Mysterious To Senators

By Matthew Santoni

The senior White House lawyer nominated to represent Delaware on the Third Circuit is a constitutional scholar and presidential immunity defender touted as "highly respected" by President Donald Trump, although some Delaware lawmakers have questioned her ties to the First State.

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NYC Legal Services Strike Continues To Grow

By Andrea Keckley

A strike by hundreds of legal service workers in New York City grew even larger on Friday after three more member shops of the Association of Legal Aid Attorneys joined the picket line.

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Judge Unsure Of Alternatives To Nationwide Birthright Ruling

By Chris Villani

A Massachusetts federal judge on Friday wrestled with how the government would implement any alternatives to a nationwide block on President Donald Trump's order limiting birthright citizenship and what type of decision would comply with recent high court precedent.

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Seven Months In, Race-Blind Charging Faces Test In Calif.

By Marco Poggio

In January, California adopted race-blind charging as a statewide policy, after a law passed in 2022 went into effect. Now, seven months into the program's statewide rollout, race-blind charging is showing both promise and limitations.

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Trump Files $10B Defamation Suit Over WSJ Epstein Story

By Hailey Konnath

President Donald Trump filed a $10 billion defamation suit Friday against The Wall Street Journal over its July 17 article reporting that he was among friends who sent a "bawdy" letter to Jeffrey Epstein for his 50th birthday, calling the article "false, defamatory and malignant."

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California Courts Set AI Rules Allowing Flexibility For Judges

By Craig Clough

The Judicial Council of California approved a policy Friday for rules and standards on the use of generative artificial intelligence for judges and court staff, with the chair of the council's AI task force saying the policy provides flexibility by allowing courts to either adopt the technology or ban it.

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Geragos Owes $100K For Role In Nike Extortion, Jury Says

By Craig Clough

Celebrity attorney Mark Geragos was ordered to pay $100,000 to a youth basketball coach by a Los Angeles jury that found he aided and abetted disbarred lawyer Michael Avenatti in a failed attempt to extort Nike that landed Avenatti with a 2½ year prison sentence.

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Ex-CEO Again Pushes For Standing In Judge Romance Case

By Catherine Marfin

The former CEO of a defunct barge company has again urged a court to rule that he has standing to sue over a former bankruptcy judge's secret romance with an attorney, writing in a supplemental filing that "certain issues" had "not been fully briefed."

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Nadine Menendez Attys Say Relationship Has 'Broken Down'

By Carla Baranauckas

One of the law firms representing former U.S. Sen. Robert Menendez's wife in her bribery case told a New York federal judge Friday that it wants to leave the matter because the attorney-client relationship has "broken down."

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Trump Asks Supreme Court To Decline Early Tariff Challenge

By Natalie Olivo

President Donald Trump's administration urged the U.S. Supreme Court to reject a request from Illinois-based toy makers to hear their challenge against the White House's global tariffs, arguing the justices should not "leapfrog" parallel proceedings in circuit courts.

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Roundup

UK Litigation Roundup: Here's What You Missed In London

By Max Austin

This past week in London has seen the former owner of British oil refinery Prax Group sued following the collapse of his business empire, a unit of Shard Credit Partners target a married couple believed to have inflated the value of their companies before selling them, and Aerofoil Energy reignite patent action against AFE Group over the design of its F1-inspired cooling units.

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GC Cheat Sheet: The Hottest Corporate News Of The Week

By Sue Reisinger

President Donald Trump has chosen the chief labor counsel at Boeing Co. for one of two vacancies on the National Labor Relations Board, whose confirmation would help restore a quorum. And Meta reached a midtrial agreement with stockholders in an $8 billion suit.

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Law360's Legal Lions Of The Week

By Kevin Penton

Shapiro Arato Bach LLP leads this week's edition of Law360 Legal Lions, after the Second Circuit overturned the conviction of a former HSBC executive accused of defrauding a Scottish oil and gas company in a $3.5 billion currency exchange deal.

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In Case You Missed It: Hottest Firms And Stories On Law360

For those who missed out, here's a look back at the law firms, stories and expert analyses that generated the most buzz on Law360 last week.

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