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.  Our apologies for the interruption in last week's Lookzy - back to regularly scheduled programming.  In today's Lookzy:

• Why White Castle might owe $17 billion

• Will SBF's search history cause his bail to be revoked?

• WallStreetBets founder sues Reddit

• Allen & Overy launches AI chatbot for lawyers

TECH'S LIABILITY SHIELD AT COURT

Two Supreme Court cases up for argument this week may carve up social media's long-standing liability shield, Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act.  

Gonzalez v. Google will be heard today and Twitter v. Taamneh will be heard tomorrow.  At stake is immunity for social media companies from lawsuits based on content created by their users.  

Both cases are in their own ways, extremes. Each case was brought by families of terror victims abroad.  Google is defending against a claim that it should face liability for amplifying extremists' content on YouTube, including via its recommendation algorithm.  Twitter's potential liability rests on its failure to enforce policies against pro-terrorist content.  

Despite the 'extreme' fact patterns here, the rest of the tech ecosystem will be closely watching the outcomes of both cases to determine to what degree the status quo may be changed by the justices. 

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ECON SNAPSHOT

The difference between special bonuses and layoffs

THE VERDICT

Arguing today's litigation news

White Castle.  The Illinois Supreme Court ruled that a company violates the state's biometric privacy law each time it misuses a person's fingerprint data, not just the first time.  This ruling requires fast food chain White Castle to face claims that it repeatedly scanned its 9,500 employees' fingerprints without their consent, which White Castle says could cost it more than $17 billion.  

WallStreetBets.  The founder of WallStreetBets, the Reddit community which exploded in use during the retail 'meme stock' trading phase of early COVID, sued Reddit in California federal court.  The WSB founder claims that Reddit wrongfully banned him from moderating the WSB subreddit which prevented him from trademarking the brand, which other subreddit-based brands have successfully done.  

Fake Vogue.  Drake and 21 Savage settled a lawsuit filed against them by Conde Nast related to their creation and promotion of a fake version of Vogue magazine, which they used when promoting their album "Her Loss".  

Back at trial.  After defeating a shareholder suit alleging that Robinhood Markets Inc.'s IPO disclosures were misleading, a California federal judge ruled that Robinhood must face a separate proposed class action suit alleging that Robinhood fraudulently concealing their actual trading costs while promising "commission free" trades, which were ultimately passed down to customers.  

Crypto catchup:

• FTX VCs. A proposed class action suit was filed against investment funds Sequoia, Thoma Bravo and Paradigm, which in aggregate invested more than $550 million into now-defunct crypto exchange FTX. The suit claims that such investors were co-conspirators, rather than victims.

• Terra / Luna. The SEC sued crypto firm Terraform Labs and its CEO, Do Kwon, on fraud claims and claims that the firm's Luna token, its protocol, and several affiliated tokens are all securities. Terraform Labs' Luna token and Anchor protocol collapsed in May 2022, setting off contagion in the crypto ecosystem.

• SBF's bail. Sam Bankman-Fried, founder of defunct crypto exchange FTX, may potentially have his bail revoked due to reports that he has attempted to contact witnesses, used encrypted messengers and VPNs.

THE DEAL

Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news

IPO upvoted.  Reddit is reportedly planning to IPO in the second half of 2023, pending market conditions.  Reddit had previously confidentially filed to IPO in December 2021 but never went through with the offering.  

Truck stops.  Energy company BP agreed to acquire travel and truck stop company TravelCenters of America Inc. for $1.3 billion in cash.  The deal now goes to TravelCenters shareholders for approval.  Sullivan & Cromwell is representing BP and Ropes & Gray is representing TravelCenters.  

High deductible.  Truist Financial Corp. agreed to sell 20% of its subsidiary Truist Insurance Holdings Inc. to funds managed by PE firm Stone Point Capital for $1.95 billion.  Davis Polk is representing Truist and Truist Insurance Holdings.  Simpson Thacher is representing Stone Point.  

Scent business.  International Flavors & Fragrances Inc. agreed to sell its Flavor Specialty Ingredients business to PE firm Exponent for $220 million in cash.  Cravath is representing International Flavors and Allen & Overy is representing Exponent.  

FTC changes.  The sole Republican member of the Federal Trade Commission, Christine S. Wilson, unexpectedly announced that she will leave the FTC, citing Chair Lina Khan's "disregard for the rule of law and due process."

BUSINESS OF THE FIRM

Lateral Moves: 

• The Senate voted to confirm current Cooley partner, former federal prosecutor Lindsay Jenkins to federal district court in Chicago.

• Cozen O’Connor hired eight IP attorneys from Lathrop GPM in Boulder, Colorado and will formally open an office in the city this year.

Industry News:

• Legal AI tools.  Allen & Overy announced Harvey.ai, a legal artificial intelligence tool backed by OpenAI the firm is using. Check out the tweet thread in today's Boilerplate section for details.

• Litigation funding. Litigation finance advisory firm Westfleet Advisors announced in their latest report that litigation funders committed $3.2 billion to lawsuits in 2022, a record.

• SEC v. Covington. Today is the deadline for any amicus briefs to be filed in the SEC's suit against Covington & Burling regarding the SEC's attempt to forced Covington to disclose nearly 300 client names following a cyberattack on the firm. Gibson Dunn is representing Covington.

BOILERPLATE

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