FTX

The lawsuit alleges Biglaw assisted FTX in its misconduct.

When Sam Bankman-Fried was initially accused of ripping off investors to the tune of billions, it was difficult to imagine any trial overshadowing his.

The well of cryptocurrency investor tolerance runs deep.

There is a lot to this story. Fortunately for the reading public, we are about to find out just how deep this rabbit hole went.

Talk about turning digital lemons into lemonade.

That's Sam Bankman-Fried's planned strategy.

They say it's the only way to stop the attempted witness tampering.

* FTC will drop its opposition to the Microsoft-Activision merger. While it’s going to go down as a loss, the agency secured some key concessions from Microsoft over cross-platform access. [Yahoo]

* Everything you need to know about Elon Musk’s complaint over Wachtell’s success fee. [Legal Eagle-YouTube]

* It’s the Women’s World Cup and that means Bethany England will miss her law degree graduation… for a second time. [LegalCheek]

* Federal public defenders likely victims of a congressional budgeting error. As a reminder, the Department of Defense has failed five consecutive audits and can’t find hundreds of millions of dollars. But, yeah, cutbacks at the public defenders. [ABA Journal]

* The importance of the DOJ joining the fight over Mississippi’s whites-only court regime. [Reuters]

* AI companies offer up guardrails in bid to quell growing government scrutiny. Because that always works well when industries self-regulate. [Bloomberg Law News]

* FTX wants hundreds of millions back from SBF. Will they take it in bored ape NFTs? [Law360]

* Joe Biden criticizes Supreme Court but confirms that he’s unwilling to do a single thing about it so… good talk, champ! [NY Times]

* It’s never RIC-O My God It Is!!! Former Ohio House Speaker gets 20 years in bribery case. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Reed Smith associate who first reported racist messages posted by trial lawyer testifies at disciplinary proceedings. [Law360]

* FTX sues its former attorney for allegedly aiding in fraud. [Reuters]

* Divorce attorney writes incest-fueled romance novel. [Roll on Friday]

* Trump’s unofficial election lawyer superteam sanctions to be sanctioned for ‘whole raft’ of baseless claims. [ABA Journal]

* Microsoft lawyer accidentally informs judge that Elder Scrolls 16 is coming in 2026, which is funny because it would require Bethesda to put out 10 non-buggy games without multiple years of delays. [Game Rant]

SBF wants the Biglaw firm treated as part of the prosecution team.

Perhaps SEC head Gary Gensler, who dodged a congressional hearing question six times about whether the cryptocurrency ether was a commodity or a security, should have phoned Swift to bring him up to speed.

Name Taylor a Securities and Exchange Commissioner right now, you cowards.

* At Paul Hastings the client is always right and they’ll move mountains for them… potentially including pushing past conflicts. [Corporate Counsel]

* Could the reports of its death be greatly exaggerated? Shearman posts tidy Q1 M&A haul. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Shaq served in FTX suit after initially avoiding process servers. How did they miss him? [Cleveland.com]

* If Dominion and Fox delayed the trial to talk settlement, that seems to have fizzled with jury selection on deck this morning. Perhaps there’s still more public embarrassment to dole out after all. [Reuters]

* In light of the horrific Yarl shooting, the local paper tries to explain that the law doesn’t allow people to just try to murder anyone who comes to the door. Which is true, but highlights the problem with these broad self-defense laws… they make ginned up gun nuts think they can and you can’t really put the toothpaste back in the tube when they act on that misinterpretation. [Kansas City Star]

* Second time’s the charm: new NY Chief Judge pick rolling through the process. [NY Times]

* EY to cut 3000 jobs after spinoff failed. [Law360]

* New York braces for Trump surrender. A lot of people are talking about how it’s going to be just the best surrender. HUGE. Very classy. [Reuters]

* Security measures in the city follow a fake bomb threat that turned out to be a Russian ploy. Because… obviously. [Law360]

* Fenwick & West: Which client is this federal law enforcement subpoena for? Feds: Funny story… [Bloomberg Law News]

* “Disney didn’t do anything secret. They publicized it, they advertised it,” [a law professor and former GOP legislator] said. “If you’re in Tallahassee, and you’re replacing the board, how do you not know what that board is doing in their public meeting? This was negligence on the part of the governor’s office and Republican legislators.” Yup. [Wall Street Journal]

* Judge Ho expands clerk hiring boycott to Stanford, ditching “free speech” rationale in favor of religious discrimination claim in bid to reclaim spotlight from Judge Duncan. Well played. [Washington Free Beacon]

* Lawyers don’t want to be state judges any more. If you can’t drag law schools into a phony Passion play in the WSJ editorial pages, what’s even the point of being a judge? [Law.com]

* Google doesn’t think much of the government’s antitrust action. It might want to try a quick Bing search on antitrust law. [Reuters]

* Asking ChatGPT to write a poem about being a law student. [LegalCheek]

* Insiders may find it a little sketchy, but Goodwin coupling layoffs with a big lateral hire may be the norm in a market where the “recession” is only hitting specific groups. [Law.com]

* A deep dive into Sullivan & Cromwell’s cryptoexchange adventure. [Financial Times]

* Elon Musk testifies that publicly stating that he had “funding secured” when he had not, so much, “secured” any “funding” was “the right thing to do.” Juries appreciate a complete lack of remorse! [Law360]

* First razor blades in chocolate, now this?! [Reuters]

* The Department of Transportation is tripping over Southwest’s refund policies. [Slate]

* Ding Dong! The taxes are in! I’m sure this won’t prove a bunch of illegal activity! [NBC Philadelphia]

* Forget Bitcoin, FTX customers want mum to be the word. [Reuters]

* Biden’s work to diversify the judiciary is leaving quite the legacy. Thanks, Obama. [AP News]

Notes to my (legal) self.

Notes to my (legal) self.

SBF doesn't pull any punches complaining about Sullivan & Cromwell.

It is very likely that the activities being investigated would meet the definition of theft.