Keep your finger on the legal world's pulse

The Antitrust Division of the U.S. Justice Department has cleared Paramount ​Skydance's planned $110bn acquisition of Warner Bros. Discovery, saying the deal was unlikely to harm competition or consumers. The DOJ approved the merger without requiring any divestitures, behavioral remedies or concessions, according to a source. The deal is opposed by many in the entertainment industry who fear it could precipitate mass layoffs, among other concerns. The Antitrust Division said its eight-month review “determined based on the evidence received in its investigation that the transaction is not likely to result in harm to competition or American consumers” and could ultimately increase it by creating a stronger competitor across streaming, television and film.

 

Politico

Reuters

Wall Street Journal

President Trump has nominated James McDonald, a partner at Sullivan & Cromwell and one of his personal attorneys, to serve as U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York. McDonald would succeed Jay Clayton, who has been nominated as director of national intelligence. A former federal prosecutor and ex-enforcement director at the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, McDonald brings experience in white-collar crime, public corruption and financial regulation. His appointment continues a pattern of Trump selecting current or former personal lawyers for senior administration roles.

 

The Wall Street Journal

Sam Bankman-Fried, the co-founder of cryptocurrency exchange FTX, has failed in his attempt to overturn his fraud conviction and 25-year prison sentence. In a unanimous decision, a three-judge panel of the Manhattan-based 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said prosecutors' evidence against Bankman-Fried "was, conservatively stated, robust." Circuit Judge Barrington Parker wrote on behalf of the panel: "While he was publicly reassuring customers, investors and regulators that FTX customer funds were ​safe, he was simultaneously using FTX as his own personal piggy bank, spending customer funds on real estate, ​political contributions, and investments." 

 

Forbes

Financial Times

Reuters

A federal judge has extended a temporary block on the Trump administration’s proposed $1.8bn compensation fund, citing concerns that public statements alone do not guarantee the plan has been abandoned. The fund, created as part of a settlement between Donald Trump and the IRS over the leak of his tax returns, sparked bipartisan criticism when announced. Judge Leonie Brinkema said she would lift the order if senior administration officials formally certify the fund will not proceed. Legal challengers welcomed the ruling, arguing the proposed taxpayer-funded program raised serious constitutional and public spending concerns.

 

AP News

The International Labour Organization (ILO) has agreed ​to adopt the first binding employment standards for gig workers in sectors such as ride-hailing and food ‌delivery. The Decent Work in the Platform Economy Convention, which was adopted at the 114th annual International Labour Conference in Geneva, aims to extend labor protections to hundreds of millions of people worldwide who work through digital platforms. A growing number of workers are being excluded from standard labor protections due to their classification as independent contractors rather than employees, and the protections include an end to such classification, as well as enforcement of minimum wage requirements and obligations including healthcare, sick leave and social security contributions. “For the first time in the history of international law, the women and men who move our cities, who clean and care in our homes . . . will be named, recognised and protected by a binding international standard,” said Amanda Brown, vice chair of the ILO’s Workers’ Group.

 

Al Jazeera

Reuters

Daily Star (Bangladesh)

Stockholm-headquartered legal AI start-up Legora plans to more than double its global headcount by year-end, and is looking to grow from 650 employees to around 1,500, according to CEO Max Junestrand.

 

Financial Times

Senior Anthropic technical staff are in Washington to ​meet with White House officials in a bid to resolve a dispute that has taken the ⁠San Francisco-based AI start-up's most advanced AI models offline, Axios reports. The Trump administration ordered ​Anthropic to block any foreign nationals, whether inside or ‌outside ⁠the U.S., from using its latest models, Fable 5 and Mythos 5. In response, Anthropic said it would disable access ​to the ​models globally. 

 

Axios

Euronews

Wall Street Journal

Meta has ordered its employees to stop using Manus tools for internal projects and is blocking the Singapore-based firm's staff from accessing the Facebook parent company's internal data systems from this month. The operational split comes as Manus and Meta move to comply with Chinese regulators' demands to reverse the deal, which CNBC says has become a test case for how far Beijing will go to safeguard its strategic technology and talent. Bloomberg observes that Meta’s landmark acquisition of Manus, which was initially celebrated as a blueprint for Chinese AI startups keen to expand on a global stage, quickly drew criticism for handing over key technology to a geopolitical rival.

 

CNBC

Palantir has lost a legal bid to force Swiss magazine Republik to publish its responses to articles detailing how the country’s government repeatedly rejected its services. Zurich’s commercial court dismissed 22 out of 23 counterstatement requests filed by the data analytics company and its Swiss subsidiary, finding that only a single passage in one article warranted a published response. Jennifer Steiner, co-founder of Swiss research collective WAV, which conducted and published the one-year investigation with Republik, said: “It was a lot of work and time invested. After four months waiting for a verdict, it’s good to have such a ruling now.”

 

Financial Times

The Guardian

Thailand's Revenue Department has said it may launch bankruptcy proceedings against former prime minister Thaksin Shinawatra over 17.6 bn baht in unpaid tax liabilities. Following a Supreme Court ruling that upheld the tax assessment, the department is actively pursuing collection efforts, including asset investigations. Acting Revenue Department director general Somsak Anuntawat said: "If . . . the outstanding tax liability remains unpaid in full, the department will consider initiating bankruptcy proceedings against Thaksin." The tax bill stems from Thaksin's 2006 sale of Shin Corp, which triggered protests leading to his ousting.

 

Business Times SG

So-called “backdoor” job references, which have long played a role in hiring, are being used more than ever by businesses desperate for human insight now that candidates are using AI to write résumés and coach them through virtual interviews. “They’ve become a lot more important,” observes headhunter Mark Toscano. “The tools that people are using to present themselves in the best light possible are the same reason that companies are resorting to these backdoor references.” Although such references offer the potential for score-settling by rivals, independent recruiter Kelli Hrivnak says: “I’ve actually seen backdoor references help people more often, as opposed to being a detriment.”

 

Wall Street Journal