🧩 Book deals leave SCOTUS one justice short
PLUS: Weil is in merger talks, Freshfields says sorry to the Gulf, Tradeweb buys Trumid for $1.97B...
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Welcome to Lookzy. In today's Lookzy:
- Four recusals hand a songwriter his worldwide rights
- Weil tells partners it's negotiating a merger
- "Do I believe the president, or you?"
- Silgan and AIP's $3.4B Trivium buy
FOUR JUSTICES, ONE PUBLISHER
The Supreme Court couldn't hear BMG's appeal in a major music copyright case Monday because it didn't have a quorum. Justices Sotomayor, Gorsuch, Barrett and Jackson sat out. BMG is owned by Bertelsmann, which also owns Penguin Random House, the publisher of all four justices' books.
Five justices is one short of the six the law requires, so under 28 U.S.C. § 2109 the Fifth Circuit was simply affirmed. That means Cyril Vetter, who co-wrote "Double Shot (Of My Baby's Love)," keeps the worldwide rights he reclaimed. The Fifth Circuit broke with a long industry consensus that termination rights stop at the US border, and lawyers expect a "race to the courthouse" over catalog rights.
It's at least the second Bertelsmann case to lose its quorum (Alito also sat one out in May 2025). Fix the Court says the justices have netted over $13 million from book deals, and its director says that in these cases "the Supreme Court is no longer supreme."
THE VERDICT
Arguing today's litigation news
Settled expectations. The Supreme Court also turned away Google's challenge to the Patent Office's "settled expectations" policy, which has been used to shut down more than 200 challenges to patents that are at least six years old. Munger Tolles repped Google; Russ August & Kabat repped patent owner VirtaMove.
Yell at me, not him. Judge Ana Reyes (D.D.C.) spent a seven-hour hearing sparring with DOJ over Trump's plans for the East Potomac golf course, a day after rejecting the department's "baseless" bid to get her off the case. When a DOJ lawyer said Trump's post that work would start "immediately" was "true with a caveat," Reyes asked: "Do I believe the president of the United States, or do I believe you?"
Fine print. The European Commission sent KKR a Statement of Objections, saying it at least negligently gave misleading information in the 2024 review of its Telecom Italia network (NetCo) deal. KKR told Brussels existing wholesale contracts could only change by mutual agreement; rivals say FiberCop raised their prices anyway. The fine can reach 1% of global turnover, and the Commission can even revoke the clearance.
Hang up. A federal judge preliminarily approved Genesys Cloud's $2.5 million settlement of claims that its AI tools recorded calls to a domestic-abuse hotline. Class members are looking at roughly $392 each if 3% file claims.
THE DEAL
Wheelin' and dealin' today's corporate news
Canned. Silgan is teaming up with American Industrial Partners to buy Trivium Packaging for about $3.4 billion and fold it into Silgan's metal can business, creating a $7.3 billion company. Jenner & Block is repping Silgan, Sidley is repping the new Silgan MCC, Weil and Paul Weiss are repping Trivium and Simpson Thacher is repping AIP.
Bond trip. Tradeweb agreed to buy Trumid, the electronic credit trading platform, for about $1.97 billion, mostly in cash. Fried Frank and Simpson Thacher are repping Tradeweb and Latham is repping Trumid.
Silence is golden. Germany's Merck KGaA agreed to buy Silence Therapeutics for about $1.3 billion in cash, or $20 per ADS, a 130% premium to Friday's close. A&O Shearman is repping Merck and Cooley is repping Silence.
Insuring a sale. DXC Technology is in advanced talks to sell its insurance software unit to Eldridge Industries for about $2.4 billion, Reuters reports. Eldridge would combine it with Zinnia, its insurance tech platform.
BOILERPLATE
Lateral Moves:
- Kirkland hired trial lawyer Alex Kaplan in Houston from Susman Godfrey, where he spent more than two decades and sat on the executive committee.
- A&O Shearman hired debt finance partner Christopher Kwan from Milbank and capital markets partner Dan O'Shea from Sidley.
- Hunton Andrews Kurth hired commercial litigator Chalon Clark in Dallas from Husch Blackwell.
Industry News:
- Weil leadership told practice group heads the firm is negotiating a merger memorandum with an unnamed firm, and an announcement could come as early as this week. It follows a run of exits, and former corporate co-managing partner Michael Hickey is expected to join Sullivan & Cromwell.
- Freshfields apologized "unreservedly" after a leaked email chain about spinning out its Freshfields Lab AI unit showed US corporate co-head Ethan Klingsberg suggesting the pitch should probably rule out Middle Eastern sovereign wealth money. The firm has offices in Abu Dhabi, Dubai, Bahrain and Riyadh.
Alright, back to billing. That's all, folks!
