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The logo of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (ICBC) is pictured at the entrance to its branch in Beijing, China April 1, 2019. ICBC, whose U.S. arm was hit by a ransomware attack that disrupted trades in the U.S. Treasury market on Nov. 9, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. "They paid a ransom, deal closed," the Lockbit representative told Reuters via Tox, an online messaging app. "The market is mostly back to normal now," said Zhiwei Ren, a portfolio manager at Penn Mutual Asset Management. The ransomware attack came at a time of heightened worries about the resiliency of the $26 trillion Treasury market, essential to the plumbing of global finance, and is likely to draw scrutiny from regulators.

Persons: Florence, BNY Mellon, Zhiwei Ren, Ransom, Allen, James Pearson, Davide Barbuscia, Carolina Mandl, Tatiana Bautzer, Pete Schroeder, Michelle Price, David Goodman, Jonathan Oatis, Alexander Smith Organizations: Industrial, Commercial Bank of China, REUTERS, Commercial Bank of, Reuters, U.S . Treasury, Penn Mutual Asset Management, Treasury, U.S . Treasury Department, Financial, Authorities, Boeing, Overy, Washington DC, Thomson Locations: Beijing, China, Commercial Bank of China, U.S, Tox, United States, London, Carolina, New York, Washington

☆ Law firm Allen & Overy hit by 'data incident'
▼ + stars: | 2023-11-09 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Kacper Pempel/Files Acquire Licensing RightsLONDON, Nov 9 (Reuters) - Allen & Overy has suffered a "data incident", the London-founded law firm said on Thursday, after social media posts suggested it had been hacked by the Lockbit cybercrime gang. An Allen & Overy spokesperson said the firm had "experienced a data incident impacting a small number of storage servers", but its email and document management system had not been affected. The spokesperson also said Allen & Overy has suffered "some disruption", but that it continued to operate normally. Lockbit took credit for the hack and gave a deadline of Nov. 28 for Allen & Overy to negotiate, according to the criminal group's website on the dark web. The cyber attack on Allen & Overy follows last month's confirmation of its merger with U.S. law firm Shearman & Sterling, to create one of the world's largest legal practices.

Persons: Kacper, Overy, Lockbit, Allen, Wales –, Shearman, Sam Tobin, James Pearson, Sarah Young, Tomasz Janowski Organizations: Allen, Financial Times, Overy, Overy's, Boeing, Royal, Authority, Wales, U.S, Sterling, Thomson Locations: Warsaw, London, United States, Britain, England

AMSTERDAM, Aug 17 (Reuters) - Investment company Exor (EXOR.AS) was able to build a 15% stake in Dutch healthcare group Philips (PHG.AS) without triggering the usual disclosures thanks to derivatives deals through Goldman Sachs, regulatory filings show. Exor's investment was seen as a vote of confidence in Philips and boosted the Dutch company's shares. Filings by the Dutch Financial Market Authority AFM dated Aug. 14 but published late on Wednesday showed Goldman Sachs had taken an 12.11% stake in Philips using a derivatives structure that included 95 million call options. Sources confirmed to Reuters earlier this week that Goldman Sachs acted on behalf of Exor but could not give more details. Exor and Goldman Sachs (GS.N) declined to comment.

Persons: Goldman Sachs, Italy's Agnelli, Roy Jakobs, Exor, Allen, Overy, De Brauw, Philips, Toby Sterling, Pablo Mayo Cerqueiro, Andres Gonzalez, Valentina Za, Victoria Farr, Jane Merriman Organizations: Investment, Philips, Dutch, US Securities and Exchange, Reuters, Overy, Thomson Locations: Philips, Dutch

☆ ChatGPT isn't good enough to take jobs and is unlikely to cause mass layoffs: 'The hot takes have run into reality'
▼ + stars: | 2023-08-15 | by ( Alex Kantrowitz | Douglas Gorman | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +5 min

Kantrowitz writes that AI is still not good enough to handle most jobs. As soon as artificial intelligence began to read, write, and code, all manner of professions were supposed to automate — fast. AI technology, however impressive, is still not good enough to handle most jobs. Such complexity exists in every field, so anytime you see a company announce that it's replacing workers with AI, read that with some skepticism. To be sure, there will be jobs affected by this wave of AI, as when any new technology arrives.

Persons: Alex Kantrowitz, Kantrowitz, —, Sarah Guo, Harvey, hasn't, it's, Daren Orzechowski, Orzechowski, Aaron Levie, Bradley Erickson Organizations: Big Technology, Morning, Allen, Overy, Mayo Clinic, Mayo, IBM Locations: United States

☆ Morning Bid: Tech politics, debt cap brinkmanship
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-22 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +5 min

Well-choreographed brinkmanship over the debt ceiling standoff looks set to go down to the wire, while technology firms have once again become a battleground in tense geopolitics. As AI-fueled U.S. technology stocks have led the way this year, the S&P (.SPX) has gained almost 10% this year and hit its highest level in nine months on Friday. Minneapolis Fed chief Neel Kashkari said on Sunday he could support holding rates steady at the next meeting. Futures markets see more than an 80% chance of a June pause and still price almost 50bp of cuts by yearend. They do not reflect the views of Reuters News, which, under the Trust Principles, is committed to integrity, independence, and freedom from bias.

☆ London’s Allen & Overy to Merge With Shearman & Sterling to Create $3.4 Billion Global Law Firm
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( Erin Mulvaney | ) www.wsj.com time to read: 1 min

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☆ Law firms Allen & Overy and Shearman & Sterling plan merger
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-21 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Allen Overy Shearman Sterling, which will be called A&O Shearman for short, "will be the only global firm with U.S. law, English law and local law capabilities in equal measure," the two firms said in a joint statement. They said the deal will give Allen & Overy greater access to the U.S. corporate client base of Shearman & Sterling, which in turn would benefit from A&O's global reach. The planned merger comes just months after Shearman & Sterling abandoned talks over a tie-up with transatlantic firm Hogan Lovells. Shearman & Sterling announced in February it was laying off attorneys and business professionals in the United States. Adam Hakki, senior partner at Shearman & Sterling, said "merging with Allen & Overy will dramatically accelerate our ability to meet (clients') needs in an increasingly complex environment."

☆ Real Madrid lose $440 million sponsorship battle with Abu Dhabi fund
▼ + stars: | 2023-05-13 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

MADRID, May 13 (Reuters) - Spanish soccer's Real Madrid have lost a $440 million court battle with Abu Dhabi sovereign investor Mubadala (MUDEV.UL) over the proposed sponsorship of its stadium in Madrid, sources with knowledge of the case told Reuters. Real Madrid had claimed 400 million euros ($440 million) from Mubadala because it said the Abu Dhabi sovereign investor failed to honour a sponsorship deal under which it would acquire rights to name the Santiago Bernabeu stadium for 20 years. In 2014, Real agreed a strategic partnership with Abu Dhabi fund International Petroleum Investment Co (IPIC), now Mubadala, to help finance a planned stadium overhaul. However, in 2015, a Madrid court halted the original modification of the stadium. The court ruled the sponsorship contract had expired by the time the second expansion was agreed in 2017.

SummarySummary Law Firms Naomi Moore joins from Akin Gump to head DLA Piper's APAC restructuring practiceMoore will split her time between the firm's Hong Kong and Sydney officesMay 2 (Reuters) - Law firm DLA Piper has hired a partner from U.S.-founded rival Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld in Hong Kong to serve as its new restructuring practice leader for the Asia Pacific region, the firm said Tuesday. Naomi Moore, who has been on sabbatical since she left Akin Gump in January, will divide her time between DLA Piper’s Sydney and Hong Kong offices, the firm said in a statement. In Hong Kong, Moore joins Trinh Hoang, DLA Piper’s only other restructuring-focused partner in the office, who joined the firm from Linklaters in October last year. Linklaters added a restructuring head in Hong Kong from Allen & Overy in October. An Akin Gump spokesperson wished Moore well on her new role.

April 26 (Reuters) - With more and more lawyers at major law firms using fast-advancing generative artificial intelligence tools, legal AI startup Harvey said Wednesday that it raised $21 million in fresh investor cash. Sequoia Capital, which is leading the Series A fundraising round, said more than 15,000 law firms are on a waiting list to start using Harvey. The company says it builds custom large language models for law firms. Technology companies and investors have rushed to embrace large language model-based generative AI since Microsoft-backed OpenAI's ChatGPT debuted in November. Casetext in March released its AI legal assistant product, CoCounsel, which uses GPT-4 to speed up tasks like legal research, contract analysis and document review.

REUTERS/Dado RuvicLONDON, April 19 (Reuters) - Crypto firms have been left scrambling to find banking partners after the collapse of three crypto-friendly lenders in the U.S. last month, creating a risk their business will become concentrated in smaller financial institutions. Mainstream banks have become increasingly wary of crypto clients following a series of high-profile collapses, including the bankruptcy of major exchange FTX in November last year, and a lack of regulation. "Crypto and Web3 start-ups are telling us they simply cannot get a business bank account," said Marcus Foster, head of crypto policy at Coadec, a body representing UK start-ups. A spokesperson for ING said the bank does not "target or focus actively on crypto firms" so its exposure is "very limited." But for smaller crypto start-ups, securing a banking partner could be more difficult, said Ricardo Mico, the U.S. CEO of Banxa (BNXA.V), a payment and compliance infrastructure provider for crypto.

☆ Startup aims to help climate companies unlock billions in Inflation Reduction Act tax credits
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-13 | by ( Catherine Clifford | In Catclifford | ) www.cnbc.com time to read: +9 min

There's a problem with tax credits, though. A September report from Credit Suisse estimates approximately $500 billion of tax credits will be monetized over the next decade. "There are a few institutional players in the market that purchase tax credits at discount to market value in exchange for buying at volume. Sellers can list their tax credits on option, get bids on those credits, and compare offers. Tax credits have a wide base of support politically because a lot of very diverse stakeholders benefit from them.

☆ Exclusive: Buzzy legal generative AI startup Harvey taps Sequoia to lead funding round at a $150 million valuation
▼ + stars: | 2023-04-11 | by ( Stephanie Palazzolo | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +3 min

Legal generative AI startup Harvey has raised a funding round from Sequoia, Insider has learned. This funding round landed the startup a $150 million post-money valuation. Industry-specific generative AI startups have emerged in nearly every industry, from healthcare to gaming, to offer specialized services beyond the capabilities of general models like OpenAI's GPT-4. Legal generative AI startup Harvey has raised a Series A round of funding at a $150 million post-money valuation from Sequoia Capital, according to three people with knowledge of the financing who were not authorized to speak publicly. The relatively few customers makes Harvey's valuation seem rich in comparison, the source said, pointing to a broader trend of elevated valuations and round sizes in the hyped-up generative AI space.

With large language models like OpenAI's GPT-4 and Google's Bard quickly increasing their power and reach, vLex and Fastcase are betting their combined document library will be a rich training data set for legal AI products. "It will always make sense to train legal LLMs on legal data instead of the World Wide Web," Walters said. The merger creates a law library that is "the biggest legal data corpus ever assembled," the companies said. Other large law firms are using new products from companies like Casetext, a legal research company that last month released a new generative AI legal assistant product. Casey Flaherty of legal innovation collective LexFusion predicted the new vLex would be a "serious player" among legal information companies as AI progresses.

"Indian firms that do not increase their prices and (don't) focus hard on profitability do so at their own peril. The move, while long-sought by overseas law firms, appears to have been somewhat unexpected in its timing. Foreign law firms have yet to announce plans for new offices in India but international firms like Allen & Overy and Herbert Smith Freehills told Reuters they are examining the new rules. Lalit Bhasin, who heads the Society of Indian Law Firms, said there were concerns that a foreign law firm might de facto operate as a full-service firm by hiring local law firms to advise on areas concerning Indian law. "Who is going to monitor whether that foreign law firm is not engaged in practice of Indian laws?"

(Reuters) - PricewaterhouseCoopers said Wednesday that it will give 4,000 of its legal professionals access to an artificial intelligence platform, becoming the latest firm to introduce generative AI technology for legal work. Other companies, law firms and professional services firms have also started to experiment with generative AI technology. Global law firm Allen & Overy last month became the first major legal business to publicly partner with Harvey. Other legal technology companies are rushing to incorporate generative AI capabilities into products. Casetext, a legal research company, said Tuesday its recently-released AI legal assistant product is also built on OpenAI's latest model, GPT-4.

Under the deal, Nexi will buy 80% of Paycomet, Sabadell's payments subsidiary, for 280 million euros, with the Spanish lender retaining a 20% stake for at least three years. The business that handles shopowners' payments is a source of stable income for banks, but the need for hefty investments has prompted an increasing number of banks to dispose of all or part of their payments operations. With the deal, Nexi will come to handle transactions worth around 48 billion euros for more than 380,000 Spanish shopowners, adding around 30 million euros of core profit based on 2023 data, it said. The sale is at an enterprise value for the unit of 11.5 times earnings before interest, tax, depreciation and amortisation. Rothschild and Jefferies were financial advisers to Nexi which also worked with BCG, KPMG and Allen & Overy.

"[But] private equity funds still have significant amounts of dry powder, and by the second half of next year, they will be looking to put some of it to work," he said. Private equity firms normally buy companies with a combination of debt and equity. "Ticket sizes across the private credit industry are likely to come down depending on the deal. Banks often highlight debt funds' - or direct lenders - higher prices and more stringent documentation requirements as competitive disadvantages to the syndicated loan and junk bond markets. But some see private credit as part of the solution at a time when money is scarce.

Nov 14 (Reuters) - UK-founded law firm Linklaters on Monday said it has hired a finance-focused partner from Sidley Austin in New York to head its energy and infrastructure practice in the Americas. Ron Erlichman specializes in the financing and development of infrastructure projects, particularly renewable energy and carbon neutral projects, according to an archived profile on Sidley Austin’s website. Prior to Sidley, Erlichman co-chaired the project finance group at Houston-headquartered law firm Bracewell. Erlichman’s experience in the renewable energy and project finance practices “will be invaluable as we guide domestic and international clients through the rapidly changing and complex U.S. energy and infrastructure market,” Linklaters global energy and infrastructure group leader Daniel Tryer said in a statement. A Sidley Austin spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Erlichman’s departure.

The watchdog's latest annual report said it had 72 open insider dealing cases as of 31 March 2022, compared to 71 the prior year. It had 88 open insider dealing cases as of March 2020, before the pandemic gripped Britain. Stamping out market abuse such as insider dealing – trading a company's publicly-quoted securities with access to confidential, market-moving information - is a key enforcement area for the FCA. The FCA said the insider dealing arrests and searches disclosed to Reuters related to suspect activity both before and after March 2020, when Britain first imposed COVID-19 lockdowns. The watchdog added they were unrelated to four insider dealing prosecutions it had commenced since March 2020.

☆ Attention Gmail users: Your inboxes are about to get way more spammy with political email thanks to a new ruling by federal regulators
▼ + stars: | 2022-08-11 | by ( Dave Levinthal | ) www.businessinsider.com time to read: +7 min

Google asked federal regulators to OK a plan for easing spam filters on political emails. Even a commissioner who wasn't thrilled with the notion of unleashing more political emails on an overloaded electorate concluded Google's program proposal is legal. "If people want political spam, let them sign up for it. Before the final vote Thursday, Weintraub motioned to approve a alternate ruling that would have effectively prevented Google from launching its pilot program. Gmail users will retain the right to opt-out of receiving political emails, but this will require more vigilance on their part.

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