Welcome to Lookzy. Lookzy: all your daily legal news in 0.1 billable hours. Litigation, deals, lateral moves and industry news; we cover it all.

We hope you had a billable-hour free Thanksgiving.

In today's Lookzy:

• Who's next to announce annual bonuses?

• An analysis of state crypto enforcement actions

• A shareholder throws a wrench into Murdoch's merger plans

• A breakdown of major players in the FTX bankruptcy

BAKER MCKENZIE BONUSES; WHO'S NEXT?

Baker McKenzie announced annual bonuses on Friday, November 18th. No big surprises; its bonus scale remained the same as last year. Without last year's supplemental COVID-related bonuses, associates' total compensation is down materially compared to last year. But in this economy, we'll take it.

A week-plus later, though, all remains quiet on the bonus front. Who's next?

Last year, Cravath was first to announce, circulating its bonus memo on Monday, November 22nd. In 2020, Baker McKenzie also announced first. In 2019, Milbank made a surprise first move in early November.

These dates have come and gone, so it's anyone's game. Cravath notably holds a standing partner meeting at lunch on Mondays. We expect that if Cravath announces first, we'll hear today late afternoon. If not, it is another firm's opportunity to set this year's scale, not that we expect anyone to raise it. Stay tuned.

ECON SNAPSHOT

The difference between special bonuses and layoffs.

THE VERDICT

Arguing today's litigation news

COVID litigation. Live Nation and Factory Mutual Insurance are seeking to have their COVID-19-related coverage litigation stayed until 30 days after the next ruling in their case in order to allow the parties time to discuss a potential settlement based on the results.

Golf IP. Famous golfer Jack Nicklaus is prohibited from signing commercial endorsement deals while he litigates the terms a $145 million IP sale, a judge ruled. Nicklaus testified in the trial.

State crypto enforcement. A study from Bloomberg Law analyzed 109 securities enforcement orders related to crypto from January 1 through October 28, 2022. Of those 109 orders, 103 were related to the unregistered offer or sale of securities, 89 were related to fraud or misstatements or omissions, and 54 were related to unregistered broker-dealer issues.

Hope vs. lawyer fees. Hope Solo argued that the $24 million settlement between the US women's national soccer team and the US Soccer Federation in their pay discrimination lawsuit shouldn't be approved until the fees for the team's lawyers are reduced. As we reported previously, Winston & Strawn, counsel for the players, previously requested $6.6 million in legal fees, representing 30% of the settlement.

Bad legal advice. A magistrate judge recommended that Massachusetts law firm Bowditch & Dewey face a legal malpractice suit by Hudson-RPM Distributors LLC, a newspaper and books wholesaler, who alleged that faulty legal advice related to a pension liability resulted in a $20 million fine. Bowditch has filed suit against the company's accounting firm for contribution.

THE DEAL

Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news

Rupert Murdoch's empire. Major News Corp. shareholder T. Rowe Price, which owns 12% of the company, has "strong reservations" about Chairman Rupert Murdoch's plan to combine News Corp and Fox, alleging that such a deal would undervalue News Corp.

Crypto contagion. Crypto lender and prime broker Genesis Global Capital has hired Moelis & Company to explore options, potentially including bankruptcy. Never a good sign when you have to hire Moelis. Genesis' current financial position is part of the contagion of FTX's collapse.

Termination fee time. Paramount Global terminated its sale of Simon & Schuster to Penguin Random House following a judge's ruling in favor of the DOJ on antitrust grounds. Paramount Global will receive a $200 million termination fee.

Some SPACs are still around. Electric motorbike maker Zapp Electric Vehicles will go public via SPAC, having agreed to merge with CIIG Capital Partners II. The company is expected to trade on Nasdaq at a post-money valuation of $573 million in H1 2023. Latham is repping Zapp.

Elon's Twitter. More than half of Twitter's in-house legal staff is no longer with the company. The remaining lawyers are likely busy; everything is apparently being renegotiated or cut - software contracts, travel bills, vendor agreements, land leases, etc.

FTX bankruptcy. FTX, the crypto exchange which allegedly exploded as a result of massive fraud, has kicked off bankruptcy proceedings, which has provided insight as to involved legal counsel:

• FTX's representatives are James Bromley and Brian Glueckstein of Sullivan & Cromwell.

• The judge is Delaware District Court Judge John Dorsey.

• US Trustee attorney is Ben Hackman.

• FTX's new, interim CEO John J Ray III, a lawyer who was similarly brought in to Enron to guide the company through its bankruptcy, is reportedly charging $1,300 an hour. Almost seems cheap given the mess he is working through.

BUSINESS OF THE FIRM

Lateral Moves: 

• Nicholas Groombridge, Jennifer Wu, J. Steven Baughman and Eric Alan Stone have left Paul, Weiss to start a boutique patent litigation firm called Groombridge, Wu, Baughman & Stone with offices in NYC and DC.

Industry News:

• A council of the ABA voted to eliminate the requirement that schools use the LSAT or another standardized test when admitting students.

• UChicago Law, currently #3 on the US News & World Report ranking of law schools, decided to continue providing information to USNWR despite Yale, Harvard, Stanford, Berkeley, Columbia, Michigan, Duke, Northwestern and GULC dropping out.

• The ABA urged SCOTUS not to change existing attorney-client privilege rules in In re Grand Jury, a case involving a law firm's efforts to shield tax advice from grand jury subpoenas. Munger Tolles is involved in the SCOTUS case.

BOILERPLATE

Get yourself a client willing to tattoo "Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom LLP and Affiliates" onto themselves.

Alright, back to billing. That's all, folks!