🧩 Kirkland and Skadden’s $2M ethics bill
PLUS: Nvidia pays $11.9B for Hugging Face and sets aside up to $1B for retention, the pay-to-play rule heads for repeal, and a court refers lawyers over an AI brief...
September 4, 2026
Lookzy: all your daily legal news in 0.1 billable hours. Plain English coverage of deals, litigation and legal trends trusted by lawyers at Cravath, Latham, Skadden, Gunderson and elsewhere.
Welcome to Lookzy. In today's Lookzy:
Kirkland and Skadden agree to a $2M sanction
X’s rebrand leaves “Tweet” and the bird behind
The SEC moves to repeal its pay-to-play rule
Nvidia signs for Hugging Face
A court refers lawyers over an AI brief
THE VERDICT
Arguing today's litigation news
A $2M sanction.
Kirkland and Skadden agreed to pay $2M after Judge Marc Treadwell found they helped eClinicalWorks hide records and make false representations in an FCA case. He singled out Skadden partner Richard Bernardo and Kirkland partner Geoffrey Wyatt for relying on expert testimony they knew was false. The money will fund ethics and professionalism instruction at Georgia law schools.
The Twitter leftovers.
Chief Judge Colm Connolly preliminarily blocked Operation Bluebird from using the Twitter name after finding likely confusion. Nonetheless, he cited Musk’s promises to “bid adieu” to “all the birds” and cut the building logo off “with blow torches” in declining, at this stage, to block Bluebird’s use of “Tweet” and the original bird logo.
Pay-to-play repeal.
A covered political donation—even one made before an employee joins—can cost an investment adviser two years of compensated work for a government client. The SEC published a proposal Thursday that would leave advisers’ other fraud, fiduciary-duty, compliance and ethics rules in place, but would rescind the two-year bar and corresponding recordkeeping provisions related to such political donations.
THE DEAL
Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news
The Hugging Face price.
Nvidia signed a deal to pay about $11.9B to Hugging Face stockholders, with a separate equity retention pool of up to $1B for employees who join Nvidia. Closing is expected in the first half of 2027 after regulatory approvals. The 8-K also commits Nvidia to keep Hugging Face open and supporting other chip vendors, putting that competitive promise in the public deal record.
Buy, then spin.
Flex agreed to acquire EPC Power at a value of $4.4B, subject to customary adjustments, and place it in Cloud and Power Infrastructure before the segment’s intended public-company separation in the first calendar quarter of 2027. EPC expects about $800M of 2026 revenue; Flex expects debt and equity funding, with Freshfields on its side and Vinson & Elkins for EPC and its controlling holders.
PlusAI’s second SPAC.
PlusAI signed an $800M pre-money SPAC deal with Texas Ventures Acquisition III after its earlier Churchill Capital IX combination ended. The deal could bring up to approximately $300M: more than $60M is committed, while about $236M is in the SPAC trust before shareholder redemptions. Closing is expected this year after TVA’s shareholder vote and customary conditions, with Wilson Sonsini advising PlusAI and DLA Piper advising the SPAC.
BOILERPLATE
A brief without cases.
The District of Columbia Court of Appeals struck a brief filed for a Deutsche Bank subsidiary after finding it cited nonexistent cases generated by AI. Lawyer Loishirl Hall said she used Google AI and tried to verify its work; the court said every signer remained responsible and ignorance of hallucination risk was no longer credible. It referred the matter to disciplinary counsel.
Cooley to King & Spalding.
King & Spalding hired Cooley business-litigation partner Phil Bowman in New York; the firm says it has added 64 partners this year, including 23 litigators and 18 in New York.
Alright, back to billing. That's all, folks!
