Sullivan & Cromwell
-
On the one hand, it was a huge deal. On the other hand, their client got clowned on the deal.
-
* The Biden administration’s defense of its student loan relief programs arrived. It mostly revolves around the plaintiffs’ lack of standing, which has the benefit of being completely correct and the drawback of a majority of justices who don’t care. [Reuters]
* After yesterday’s southeastern merger news, now Maynard and Nexsen are merging to build a 550-attorney firm. [Daily Report Online]
* Coinbase will have to pay $100M in real people money for anti-money laundering compliance failures. [Law360]
* S&C takes overall deal value crown for 2022, shedding a bit of light on those Kirkland cutbacks we’ve been hearing about [American Lawyer]
* Preparing for a cyber threat is one thing. Getting lawyers to actually comply with your policies is another. [Legaltech News]
* Another story about facial recognition software, race, and mistaken identity. This time a man claims he was falsely arrested because of the software. [Gizmodo]
* In other news, I was on the most recent episode of WGN’s Legal Face-Off discussing a wide range of legal issues from bonuses to the Supreme Court. [WGN]
-
-
* S&C may be Trump’s second favorite law firm, but don’t count your chickens on SEC nominee Jay Clayton yet — the Office of Government and Ethics has flagged some potential conflicts of interest. [Law360]
* Law schools often discriminate against women by undercompensating positions that skew female. Sure this is important, but is it as egregious an act of discrimination as not valuing originalist scholarship? [Law.com]
* Three firms admit to overbilling for temp and staff attorneys. [Am Law Daily]
* Ninth Circuit says Dodd-Frank provides broad whistleblower protection, which sets up an intriguing circuit split for the roughly three weeks Dodd-Frank remains a law. [National Law Journal]
* Key cybertrends of 2017. [Legaltech News]
* Fried Frank has its best year ever while the rest of you experienced 2016 as a runaway train of sadness. [Am Law Daily]
* Robot lawyer assisting refugees, making it official that even cyborgs have more of a heart than some politicians. [BBC News]