š§© Ex-Cravath partner takes on private credit's fees
PLUS: Kirkland plans to stop sharing its numbers.
October 8, 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:
A former Cravath partner challenges private credit's fee math
About $8,200 in ransom, about $150,000 on the client bill
Boots gets another buyer
Kirkland plans to stop supplying its financial results
THE VERDICT
Arguing today's litigation news
Fees before cash. Former Cravath partner and JPMorgan M&A co-head Jim Woolery is taking on private credit's fee math. His boutique represents investors in suits involving FS KKR, Ares and Blue Owl. Filed over recent months, the suits allege inflated valuations boost fees and challenge fees charged on payment-in-kind interestāinterest added to a borrower's debt instead of paid in cash, which might never be collected. The firms dispute the allegations and defend their fees as fair and standard for the industry.
Ransom markup. A ransom of about $8,200 became a client bill of about $150,000 in one transaction prosecutors cite against MonsterCloud owner Zohar Pinhasi. He was arraigned in Brooklyn yesterday on wire-fraud charges over allegations that his ransomware recovery company secretly paid attackers for decryption keys while selling clients recovery through proprietary technology. Some contracts disclosed possible payments; prosecutors say the company misrepresented how it recovered the data. Pinhasi pleaded not guilty.
PhRMA looks past the deals. White House deals could leave as few as four manufacturers covered by GLOBE, which links some Medicare Part B drug prices to foreign prices through rebates. PhRMA sued yesterday to scrap it anyway. The drugmakers' group says the agency running Medicare cannot use its power to test payment models to impose this pricing rule. The agency says the law permits it. PhRMA's general counsel told Reuters the rule could outlast those deals and administrations.
THE DEAL
Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news
Another buyer for Boots. The Canadian family behind Shoppers Drug Mart is buying into Boots, a year after Sycamore made it a standalone company. The Weston family's Wittington and Fairfax agreed to buy Boots businesses from Sycamore and Stefano Pessina for US$8.9 billion, including assumed debt. The sellers will keep the Mexican and German operations. Wittington will have operational control of the acquired businesses; Fairfax expects to own half the equity.
BOILERPLATE
Kirkland closes the books. The world's biggest law firm by revenue says 2026 will be the last year it supplies financial results to AmLaw and other publications. Kirkland says the disclosures offer no meaningful value to clients and numerical rankings miss the quality of its service. AmLaw's editor says it can still produce rankings when firms withhold their numbers.
Skadden to Davis Polk. Davis Polk hired Skadden's global media and entertainment head Glen Mastroberte as an M&A partner in Los Angeles. He reunites with former Skadden partner Jason Russell, who opened the office in May. The office now has seven lawyers.
Alright, back to billing. That's all, folks!
