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

Welcome to Lookzy. In today's Lookzy:

• Fireball sued for selling "fake" Fireball

• MSG may be prohibited from banning lawyers

• Elon blames the Saudis for "ass-covering"

• Microsoft makes major OpenAI investment

Last chance: please take 2 minutes to fill out this fully anonymous survey so that we can better tailor Lookzy to your interests. Thank you.

Was this email forwarded to you? Subscribe below.

A CLASS ACTION AGAINST FIREBALL

A woman named Anna Marquez was at a gas station one day when she saw a "huge" display of airplane-sized mini-bottles of what appeared to be Fireball Cinnamon Whisky, the popular flavored liquor. Marquez was confused; in New York, only liquor stores are allowed to sell spirits. She wondered if the gas station was "doing something they're not supposed to be doing."

As it turns out, Marquez believes it is Sazerac Company, Inc., the maker of Fireball, who is doing something they're not supposed to be doing. Marquez learned that those $0.99 mini-bottles of "Fireball" being sold at gas stations, bodegas and grocery stores are in fact different than the liquor commonly known as Fireball despite appearing almost identical.

Fireball Cinnamon is actually a malt-based beverage with 16.5% ABV, while Fireball Cinnamon Whisky is whisky-based and has an ABV of 33%. The labels, however, look nearly identical, and Marquez alleges this is entirely intentional.

Marquez has now filed a proposed class action suit against Sazerac, seeking “unspecified statutory and punitive damages” for anyone in Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Idaho, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Mississippi, North Dakota, South Carolina, Utah, or Wyoming who has purchased Fireball Cinnamon. The courts will now decide whether the Sazerac's label is misleading and justice should be served with 33% ABV.

ECON SNAPSHOT

The difference between special bonuses and layoffs

THE VERDICT

Arguing today's litigation news

Kicking out lawyers. A New York state bill was introduced yesterday which would prohibit Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. from barring lawyers involved in litigation against the company from entering MSG and its other venues. A number of lawyers have recently been barred or kicked out of MSG for various events, often being removed from the venue by security when facial recognition alerts MSG that the lawyer is attending an event. Often, the lawyers being removed aren't even directly involved with litigation against MSG but instead simply work at a firm that's involved.

Venezuelan oil. Oil refiner Citgo asked a Delaware federal judge to disqualify a special master currently organizing the sale of shares in Citgo's Venezuelan parent company in order to repay over $1 billion in debts Citgo owes to Crystallex and other miners.

SCOTUS opinions. Just two weeks after oral arguments, SCOTUS dismissed an appeal by an unnamed law firm as "improvidently granted". The firm was seeking to appeal a court order which held it in contempt for not sharing records related to one of its clients, with the firm arguing that it was covered by attorney-client privilege despite including a mix of legal, tax and other advice.

Bored Ape Legal Campaign. Following the suit discussed in detail here against two NFT copycat artists by Yuga Labs, the creators of the highly popular and valuable NFT series the Bored Ape Yacht Club, Yuga Labs also sued Ryan Hickman, who Yuga alleges created and commercialized websites to sell the copycat NFTs (which use the same images as Yuga Labs' NFTs). Fenwick is representing Yuga Labs.

Musk on the stand. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, defending against securities litigation regarding his "funding secured" tweet about taking Tesla private, told a California federal jury that a representative for Saudi Arabia's sovereign wealth fund verbally supported the deal, but later publicly "backpedaled" from the pledge and engaged in "ass-covering."

THE DEAL

Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news

Water wars. Water technology company Xylem Inc. agreed to acquire water treatment company Evoqua for $7.5 billion in an all-stock deal. Xylem had previously attempted to acquire Evoqua for $2.5 billion before Evoqua decided to IPO. Gibson Dunn is representing Xylem and Jones Day is representing Evoqua.

Takeover tweak. After Ritchie Bros. initial $7.3 billion takeover of online vehicle marketplace IAA Inc. was questioned by Ancora, an activist investor and IAA's largest shareholder, Ritche Bros. agreed to amend its takeover to provide IAA shareholders with more cash and simultaneously announce a $500 million related investment from Starboard Value LP into IAA.

Buying the machines. Microsoft has officially made a sizable investment in OpenAI, the AI lab behind AI-creation tools such as DALL-E and ChatGPT. While an official investment amount was not disclosed, a source believed the total to be around $10 billion over several years, on top of the $1 billion (not inclusive of Azure credits) Microsoft has already invested, which aligns with previous rumors of Microsoft's potential investment. The rumored ownership structure caps Microsoft's potential profit at $92 billion before reverting full ownership back to the OpenAI team. Akin Gump is representing OpenAI.

Bankrupt loans. Bankrupt crypto company BlockFi Inc. reportedly plans to sell approximately $160 million in loans backed by around 68,000 Bitcoin mining machines in an auction, with bids due today.

Update your fee tables. The SEC announced that fee rates for most securities transactions will be set at $8.00 per million dollars starting February 27th.

BUSINESS OF THE FIRM

Lateral Moves:

• Following layoff announcements earlier this month, Goodwin confirmed it hired 14 partners from Troutman Pepper. Rumors also swirled that Goodwin has now announced bonuses and raises.

• Simpson Thacher hired partner Stephanie Biggs from Travers Smith.

• Kramer Levin hired partner Alexander Woolverton from Paul Weiss.

• K&L Gates hired seven partners - Chris Thel, Ron Aulbach, Curt Anderson, John Wingerter, Lauren Crossett, Andrea Steiner, and Jeff Berkey - from Dentons Cohen & Grigsby.

Industry News:

• AZ legal rules. Following the Arizona Supreme Court's 2020 decision to loosen rules surrounding non-lawyers owning an economic interest in law firms, flexible legal talent company Axiom opened its own AZ-based law firm, Axiom Advice & Counsel, structured as an LLC.

• California dreaming. Reed Smith opened an Orange County, California office.

BOILERPLATE

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