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Major U.S. law firms advised on fewer deals with a larger combined value, as worldwide mergers and acquisitions activity increased during the first quarter of 2024, according to the latest London Stock Exchange Group rankings of M&A legal advisers. The first quarter’s total announced deal value clocked in at $797.6 billion, a 38% increase compared with the same period last year, our colleague David Thomas reports.
The number of transactions hit a nine-year low in the past quarter. More than 10,700 deals were announced then, a 31% drop compared with the same period one year ago. There’s more willingness among clients this year to “take a bigger swing on big-ticket M&A items,” said Mark Bekheit, the global vice chair of Latham’s M&A practice.
Skadden edged out Wachtell to top LSEG’s rankings for global announced deals by value among firms that advised any party in a transaction. Goodwin took the top principal adviser spot by deal volume. Latham was involved with 129 global announced deals valued at $84 billion last quarter, notching third place by LSEG in terms of the number of deals it worked on.
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- Former Weil partner Alfredo Perez was selected to fill a judicial vacancy in the Houston bankruptcy court, according to sources familiar with the matter. Perez, who retired from Weil’s partnership in 2023, previously managed the law firm’s Houston office and has worked on complex restructurings including Lehman Brothers, the city of Detroit, and American Airlines.
- The former head of legal and compliance for OneCoin was sentenced to four years in prison for her role in a $4 billion fraudulent cryptocurrency scheme, Manhattan prosecutors said. U.S. District Judge Edgardo Ramos also ordered Irina Dilkinska, 42, to forfeit more than $111 million. Dilkinska pleaded guilty in November to one count of conspiracy to commit wire fraud and one count of conspiracy to commit money laundering. Her lawyer did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
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That was the national average score on the Multistate Bar Exam in February, according to early data from the National Conference of Bar Examiners. The average ticked up .7 of a point, suggesting pass rates will increase and the attorney licensing test has stabilized after several years of volatility attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic, Karen Sloan reports.
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Manhattan federal judge Jesse Furman has ordered an unnamed corporation engaged in private arbitration with a man under criminal investigation to turn over documents and transcripts subpoenaed by a Manhattan grand jury, even though the materials are under an arbitrator’s protective order. Because of heavy redactions in the decision and the briefs, we don’t know a whole lot about the underlying arbitration or criminal investigation. But Alison Frankel explains why Furman decided not to extend the 2nd Circuit rule shielding confidential discovery in civil litigation to arbitration.
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“Wiretaps used to be tapping of a wire with alligator clips and all that, and eavesdropping was done by bugs back in the day.“
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—Justice Frank Gaziano of Massachusetts’ top court during oral argument where justices weighed whether to let a pair of lawsuits move forward alleging two hospitals violated the state’s wiretap law by allowing third-parties to harvest data about their websites’ users. The court appeared open to finding that the 1960s law prohibiting eavesdropping on phone calls and telegrams also bars website operators from collecting users’ browsing activities without their consent using popular analytics tools produced by Google and Meta. Industry groups are closely watching the case.
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- British billionaire Joe Lewis will be sentenced in Manhattan federal court after pleading guilty in January to U.S. insider trading charges. Prosecutors last year accused him of a scheme to enrich friends and associates. Lewis, 86, pleaded guilty to one count of conspiracy to commit securities fraud and two counts of securities fraud. As part of his plea deal, Lewis can appeal if the judge in the case sentences him to prison time, his lawyer David Zornow of Skadden said. “I am so embarrassed and I apologize to the court for my conduct,” Lewis said at a previous hearing.
- A Tennessee judge will consider whether to issue a temporary injunction blocking the state’s abortion ban against women who are suffering severe pregnancy complications and in cases of lethal fetal conditions. The lawsuit was brought by lawyers at the Center for Reproductive Rights and others, including Morrison & Foerster, on behalf of several women. Watch the hearing here in Tennessee Twelfth Judicial District Court.
- U.S. District Judge Diane Gujarati in Brooklyn will take up a request from the former chief executive of the sexual wellness company One Taste and its sales head to dismiss charges that they participated in a forced-labor conspiracy. Nicole Daedone, the former CEO, and Rachel Cherwitz have pleaded not guilty. Their defense lawyers are also pressing the government to provide a more detailed look at the parameters of the conspiracy charge.
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Court calendars are subject to last-minute docket changes.
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- United Wholesale Mortgage was hit with a proposed consumer class action accusing it of scheming with brokers to push home buyers into expensive mortgages, costing them billions of dollars in excess fees. Four residents of North Carolina, Florida and Tennessee filed the complaint in federal court in Detroit. United Wholesale called the lawsuit a “sham” and said it would fight the allegations.
- Luxury handbag maker Coach sued Gap, accusing the retailer’s Old Navy unit of illegally selling T-shirts emblazoned with the word “Coach.” In a trademark infringement lawsuit, Coach and its parent, Tapestry, said they never gave Gap permission to sell the T-shirts, and the sale was likely to confuse customers into believing Coach was involved.
- The estate of George Carlin settled a legal dispute with two podcasters over their unauthorized, AI-generated comedy routine imitating the legendary comedian, according to court filings. Carlin’s estate and the makers of the podcast Dudesy told U.S. District Judge Maame Ewusi-Mensah Frimpong that the podcasters had agreed to permanently remove “George Carlin: I’m Glad I’m Dead” from the internet and stop using Carlin’s image, voice or likeness without its permission. No other settlement terms were disclosed.
- A pair of lawsuits against Yeshiva University brought by more than 50 men who say they were sexually abused decades ago by teachers and staff while in the Orthodox Jewish high school associated with the college can move forward, New York Supreme Court Justice Alexander Tisch ruled.
- Two men pleaded guilty to insider trading of securities in the company that ultimately took former U.S. President Donald Trump’s media business public. Prosecutors charged a trio last year with illegally trading on inside information about Trump Media & Technology Group’s plan to go public through a merger with a blank-check company. TMTG operates Truth Social, Trump’s main social media platform.
- Environmental advocacy group Friends of the Earth sued the U.S. Department of Energy seeking to block $1.1 billion in federal funding that aims to help California’s PG&E continue running its aging Diablo Canyon nuclear power plant. The group said the Energy Department approved the funding in January without adequately updating the government’s 50-year-old environmental analysis and other old review documents for the power plant near San Luis Obispo, in violation of federal law.
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- Kirkland added Sarah Mallett as a Dallas-based partner. She most recently was an assistant director in the enforcement division of the SEC’s Fort Worth regional office. (Kirkland)
- Public Justice, a nonprofit legal advocacy organization, hired Katz Banks Kumin partner Sharon McGowan as its next CEO. (Public Justice)
- McDermott hired Chicago-based tax controversy litigator Susan Ryba as a partner in Chicago. She most recently was at Baker McKenzie. (McDermott)
- Barnes & Thornburg added labor and employment partner Rebecca Bernhard in Minneapolis. She was previously at Dorsey & Whitney. (Barnes & Thornburg)
- Akin hired partner Ian Goldberg in Houston from Hunton Andrews Kurth, where he led the energy transactions practice. The firm also brought on former OFAC chief counsel Jason Prince in D.C., who was most recently at Crowell.
- Sidley added M&A and private equity partner John Godfrey in New York from Paul Weiss. (Sidley)
- Manatt brought on white-collar partner Kareem Salem in the firm’s San Diego office from Baker & Hostetler. (Manatt)
- Paul Hastings hired two finance lawyers in New York from Weil, including partners Matthew Nemeth and Shawn Kodes, who joined the firm as co-chair of the asset-backed finance practice. (Paul Hastings)
- Nixon Peabody added Tim Maloney, an IP litigation partner, in Chicago. He arrives from Fitch, Even, Tabin & Flannery. (Nixon Peabody)
- Crowell picked up Stephen Bentfield, former vice president and group general counsel at DaVita Integrated Kidney Care, as a partner in Denver. (Crowell)
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Over the last several years, a number of U.S. states have enacted laws that limit or ban the use of non-compete and other restrictive covenant agreements. Even in jurisdictions that no longer permit non-compete agreements, however, one important carve-out remains: An employer may still protect their trade secrets from their competitors, write Mark Goldstein and Sean Shabbar of Reed Smith. As the landscape facing restrictive covenants continues to shift, ensuring proper trade secret protections has become ever more important for employers.
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