Insights

Los Angeles – October 19, 2021: Latinvex has for the second consecutive year named Nicole Janigian Simonian, co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s International Trade practice and International Employment and Global Mobility Lead, as one of Latin America's Top 100 Female Lawyers.

New York – October 14, 2021: The New York Law Journal has recognized Jennifer K. Grady, co-chair of Crowell & Moring’s Corporate Group, as a 2021 “Distinguished Leader.” The award honors lawyers in leadership roles who have achieved impressive results in the past year. All of the winners were honored at the New York Legal Awards held on October 13 at the Marriott Marquis in New York City.

London—October 13, 2021: Legal 500 has again listed Crowell & Moring as one of the top UK law firms in The Legal 500 UK 2021 for its asset-based lending work.

New York – October 7, 2021: S. Starling Marshall, a partner in Crowell & Moring’s Tax and Litigation groups in New York, has been appointed as chair of the Federal Bar Association’s (FBA) Section on Taxation for the 2021-2022 committee year.

Washington – October 7, 2021: Crowell & Moring partner Preston Pugh has been elected to the American Bar Association’s Criminal Justice Section Council. The Criminal Justice Section brings together a “diverse membership of judges, private criminal defense attorneys, prosecutors, public defenders, academics, and other professionals,” and as part of the Section’s leadership, Pugh will assist with the implementation of the organization’s goal of “addressing today’s most pressing criminal justice issues.”

San Francisco – October 1, 2021: Field Complete, a startup SaaS platform designed to support service agencies and property owners, raised $1.9 million. Crowell & Moring represented Field Complete in the transaction. Field Complete is based in the U.S. with an office in Kyiv, Ukraine.

Washington – September 21, 2021: The National Law Journal has named partner Kris D. Meade a 2021 Crisis Leadership Trailblazer. The list features lawyers who have “launched new initiatives through times of crisis to help their communities, colleagues, or clients.”

Washington – September 17, 2021: Crowell & Moring has achieved Mansfield Rule 4.0 Certification status for 2021. The Mansfield Rule measures whether law firms have affirmatively considered women, lawyers of color, LGBTQ+ lawyers, and/or lawyers with disabilities — at least 30 percent of the candidate pool — for significant leadership and governance roles and client pitch teams, as well as promotions to equity partner and senior lateral hiring decisions.

Washington – September 16, 2021: The Talbot County Council has adopted a resolution to remove the last Confederate statue remaining on public grounds in Maryland. This is a change of position for the Council and follows a lawsuit filed by Crowell & Moring and the American Civil Liberties Union of Maryland. The resolution, passed on September 14, 2021 with a 3-2 vote, orders the movement of the Talbot Boys statue from the Easton courthouse to a private park in Virginia “as soon as is practicable.”

San Francisco—September 15, 2021: On September 8, 2021, InBrace, a dental company focused on teeth straightening, announced the closing of an oversubscribed $102 million Series D financing. Crowell & Moring represented co-lead investor Marshall Wace, a global alternative investment manager, in the transaction.  InBrace intends to use proceeds of the Series D financing to accelerate growth by expanding its sales force, launching new marketing initiatives, and driving further support and integration with new and existing orthodontic providers across the country.

San Francisco – September 15, 2021: Crowell & Moring client Payload, a new digital media company focused on the business and policy of space, raised a $650,000 seed round, to provide business and policy news and analysis to aerospace and defense industry professionals. Winklevoss Capital, the venture firm owned by Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss, as well as Andy Weissman and Sam McIngvale, is the primary source of financing source for this seed round.

Brussels – September 14, 2021 – Crowell & Moring has launched IP Check-Up—a new app that is intended to help companies identify potential problem areas and the risks in how they protect their IP portfolio.

San Francisco—September 14, 2021: Crowell & Moring represented Honeywell in its multimillion-dollar investment in Alder Fuels, a cleantech company that is pioneering first-of-its-kind technologies for producing sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) at scale by converting abundant biomass, such as forest and crop waste, into sustainable low-carbon, drop-in replacement crude oil that can be used to produce aviation fuel. 

San Francisco - September 13, 2021: Crowell & Moring advised X-Margin, a pioneer in applying privacy-preserving technology to credit and financial market risk, in its $8 million Series A funding round. X-Margin enables lenders of all sizes to operate a scalable, data-driven lending business. X-Margin's risk engine currently monitors $2 billion of trading portfolio assets. X-Margin Credit connects institutional lenders and borrowers, and addresses a key issue holding back the growth of credit in the crypto space. Currently, lenders have little visibility over a borrower’s trading risk and often no control over the assets purchased with the credit extended. Borrowers can establish their creditworthiness without revealing sensitive portfolio information through X-Margin’s privacy preserving technology and cryptographic proofs.

Brussels—September 2, 2021: Sari Depreeuw is joining Crowell & Moring’s Brussels office as a partner in its Technology & Brand Protection Group, expanding the firm’s capability to counsel clients on complex intellectual property matters in the visual arts, digital, and audiovisual sectors.

San Francisco - August 31, 2021: Crowell & Moring represented Journey.ai, a leading digital trusted identity platform provider, in its series seed financing led by Avaya Holdings Corp.(NYSE: AVYA). Denver, CO-based Journey is now part of the Avaya DevConnect partner ecosystem. With its use of multi-modal biometric technologies—including facial and voice authentication—Journey can confirm customer identity with 99.9999% accuracy in less than two seconds. The Journey digital trusted identity platform, enables enterprises to interact and transact with customers in a secure and simple manner.

Washington – August 31, 2021: Crowell & Moring is expanding its tax and Employee Retirement Income Security Act (ERISA) capabilities with the addition of Anthony G. Provenzano, a veteran executive compensation and employee benefits lawyer.

Washington – August 19, 2021: The 2022 edition of The Best Lawyers in America® has recognized 53 firm lawyers as "Best Lawyers" and 13 lawyers as “Ones to Watch.” The publication also named partner William H. Frankel the Best Lawyers 2022 Copyright Law "Lawyer of the Year" in Chicago.

Washington – August 16, 2021: Crowell & Moring’s Derek Hahn and Dj Wolff have co-authored the United States chapter of WorldECR’s Managing Investigations: Best Practice in Government and Internal Investigations. The guide provides information about investigatory authorities in 21 countries responsible for sanctions, export control, anti-corruption, and AML enforcement, and answers questions on related policies, procedures, and best practices in each jurisdiction. The United States chapter covers the American “enforcement landscape, and the key issues faced by those hoping to successfully navigate it.”