Insights

Washington – January 22, 2024: Richard Holbrook has rejoined Crowell & Moring as a partner in the firm’s Corporate Group, where he brings over 25 years of experience.

Since the economic downturn in 2008, the legal market has been in a constant state of change. Companies are demanding budget predictability, shared risk and reward, improved efficiency, more transparency, and a new way to define value, and law firms have rushed to respond. Firms cannot rely on the billable hour as they once did. This development has led to the rise of Pricing Departments whose job it is to manage value-based billing arrangements, profitability, and legal project management. Law firms and in-house counsel need to understand each type of alternative fee arrangement, its strengths and weaknesses, how to accurately scope and budget an engagement, and how to manage it once it has begun.

On March 25, the Securities Exchange Commission (the "Commission") proposed revising Rule 15b9-1 (the "Proposed Rule"), in a move designed to require broker-dealers engaged in proprietary high-frequency trading (HFT) of securities or other applicable products to register with a regulatory association (an "Association"). Since FINRA is the only Association that currently exists, all such HFT firms would be required to register with FINRA. 

On March 25, 2015, the SEC approved the long anticipated Final Rules to implement Title IV of the JOBS Act, or as it is being colloquially called, "Regulation A+." The SEC has published the adopting release for the Final Rules here, and the Final Rules will become effective 60 days after publication in the Federal Register. We will provide a more detailed analysis in an upcoming Client Alert, but we wanted to provide a brief summary of our initial reactions to Regulation A+ (for our report last year on the Proposed Rules for Regulation A+, please see here).

The Daily Journal highlights Crowell & Moring in the paper's "Dealmaker" column for the firm’s representation of Signature Group Holdings Inc. (SGH), a Sherman-Oaks-based holding company, as it offered 3.7 million shares of common stock in an underwritten public offering. The firm provided additional representation when SGH offered over four million shares of common stock for $6.50 per share. San Francisco-based senior counsel, Murray A. Indick, served as counsel for SGH for both of these deals.

Washington, D.C.-based partner and co-chair of the firm's Corporate Group, Bryan Brewer, speaks with Law360 as part of their dealmaking movers and shakers Q&A series. Brewer shares his personal perspective on an array of questions such as what advice he would give to other inspiring dealmakers and what aspects of regulation affecting his practice are in need of reform. In response to what upcoming trends or under-the-radar areas of deal activity to anticipate, Brewer believes that, "Based on a competitive intelligence view of the market, we do not see divestitures or complete transformative transactions as ruling the deal landscape in the short term. For example, based on recent deal flow and other trend data, technology, pharmaceutical, medical, and biotech M&As have all demonstrated a strong opening in the first quarter of 2014, and we expect that to continue."

Asset-based financing is a key source of credit for small and medium-size companies and for some larger, publicly traded companies as well. In contrast to equity financing where ownership in the company is diluted, asset-based financing allows companies to use their own assets to generate cash flow.

Two days of workshop-style learning on value-based fee structures and the management skills and tools to support them, valuable take-home resources, and opportunities to network with other attendees

Contract negotiation skills and contract dispute experience are two great things that work even better together.  Some common contract provisions frequently generate litigation, either because they are unclear as drafted, or because they operate in an unexpected and undesirable way.  At Crowell & Moring, our corporate lawyers and our commercial litigators take a collaborative approach, using integrated corporate and litigation strategies to draft and structure contracts to reduce the likelihood of disputes.