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:

• MSG retreats on its attorney ban...for a select few

• Greenberg finally manages to serve Kanye

• Davis Wright Tremaine's staff layoffs

• Stroock & Stroock's potential merger targets and challenges

MSG WALKS BACK ATTORNEY BAN... FOR SOME

Madison Square Garden Entertainment Corp. announced that is is walking back its policy of banning lawyers at firms litigating against MSG from attending events at any of the company's venues - but only for a very select group of lawyers.

MSG's revised policy will no longer ban lawyers involved in litigation against MSG-owned Tao Group Hospitality. The reason? MSG is preparing to sell Tao Group Hospitality, so it will soon no longer be part of MSG CEO James Dolan's empire.

Although MSG is refusing to make any serious concessions with respect to its attorney ban in this move, it's clear the company's policy is affecting the company's business.

As we've reported extensively, including with an exclusive interview of an attorney banned from entering any MSG venue, the New York AG and even NY State Liquor Authority are investigating this practice.

Although CEO James Dolan has previously taunted the State Liquor Authority, MSG has now sued to quash a subpoena that the State Liquor Authority issued to the one of the law firms suing MSG in Delaware over the company's restructuring in 2021, seeking to prevent the State Liquor Authority from accessing Dolan's sworn testimony in that case.

King & Spalding is representing MSG in their attempt to quash this subpoena. We will continue to report on the latest developments in MSG's anti-lawyer policy and on the contents of Dolan's sworn testimony, if ever made public.

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ECON SNAPSHOT

The difference between special bonuses and layoffs

THE VERDICT

Arguing today's litigation news

Lawyers' fault. The owner of healthtech company claimed in NY federal court that Seyfarth Shaw's legal advice to him caused him to lose over $50 million when he accepted a low-ball offer in the sale of a suite of companies the firm was advising him on. The owner is seeking $13.5 million in damages from Seyfarth.

Crypto insider trading. While former Coinbase product manager Ishan Wahi pleaded guilty to the DOJ for his role in an insider trading scheme whereby he tipped his brother as to new tokens that would shortly be listed on Coinbase, he simultaneously filed a strong motion to dismiss in the SEC's civil case against him, claiming that the tokens are not securities. Jones Day is representing Wahi in his case against the SEC. Wahi's case is considered the first cryptocurrency insider trading case.

Fake meat. Louisiana urged the Fifth Circuit to revive a law restricting the use of words traditionally used for meat in the marketing of meat-substitute foods (e.g., "burger" or "hot dog" describing a plant-based version of such foods), which meat-substitute company Turtle Foods had previously argued was unconstitutional.

Order of operations. US prosecutors have requested that civil suits by the SEC and CFTC against FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried be postponed until the criminal case against him concludes.

Ye got served. After months of failed attempts at serving Kanye West in order to notify him that it is withdrawing from representing him, Greenberg Traurig reportedly finally managed to serve him. Greenberg Traurig at one point requested to serve Kanye by publishing notice in two newspapers, but that approach was rejected by the judge.

THE DEAL

Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news

Private credit. Carlyle Group Inc. is reportedly in talks to acquire health tech firm Cotiviti Inc. from Veritas Capital for $15 billion, including debt. Carlyle is seeking to raise as much as $5.5 billion of financing from private credit firms, such as Blackstone and Apollo. This could serve as one of the largest ever direct loans or non-bank buyout loans arranged in the private credit market. While such loans are typically provided by banks, many of the largest Wall Street banks have pulled back from providing debt for new buyouts after struggling to offload major loans related to the Citrix and Twitter buyouts.

Exploring options. Five years after going public, peer-to-peer ride share company HyreCar Inc. disclosed that it engaged a financial advisor to help explore potential strategic alternatives such as going private and potentially teeing the company up for a sale or merger.

No magic. Fintech holding company Majic Wheels Corp. and OceanTech Acquisitions I Corp., a SPAC, announced that they've terminated their merger agreement which would have taken Majic Wheels public at a $333 million valuation.

HS memories. Platinum Equity is considering the sale of Jostens Inc., the yearbook and other high school and sports mementos maker. Platinum acquired Jostens for approximately $1.3 billion in 2018 but currently has over $925 million in debt.

Long receipts. CVS Health Corp officially agreed to acquire primary care provider Oak Street Health Inc. (previewed yesterday) for approximately $9.5 billion in cash, representing an enterprise value of $10.6 billion. Shearman & Sterling, Dechert and McDermott are representing CVS and Kirkland is representing Oak Street Health.

BUSINESS OF THE FIRM

Lateral Moves:

• DLA Piper hired former US Senator Richard Burr as a principal policy advisor and former DOJ trial attorney David Stier as a partner.

• Kramer Levin hired partner Scott Welkis from Akin Gump.

• King & Spalding hired partners Russell "Chip" Gaudreau and Jessica Gold from Greenberg Traurig.

• Gibson Dunn hired partner David Woodcock, previously assistant general counsel at ExxonMobil Corporation.

• Judge Joseph A. Greenaway will retire from the US Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in June.

• Twitter's former Chief Privacy Officer Damien Kieran joined social media app BeReal as its General Counsel.

Industry News:

• Staff layoffs. Davis Wright Tremaine laid off 21 staff employees citing 'excess capacity'.

• Seeking a merger. Stroock & Stroock & Lavan has reportedly been seeking another firm with which to merge, but the Stroock's accounting system and pension program have complicated its efforts. Stroock, which laid off attorneys and staff in early January, has reportedly been in merger talks with McGuireWoods, Steptoe & Johnson and, most recently, Squire Patton Boggs.

• SCOTUS ethics. The ABA's policymaking body recommended that the Supreme Court adopt a binding code of ethics applying to justices following questions about Justice Thomas choosing not to recuse himself in matters involving his wife.

BOILERPLATE

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