Wachtell Lipton co-chair who grilled Elon Musk departs for rival Gibson Dunn

One of Wachtell Lipton’s co-chairs is poised to exit the firm alongside a team of litigators, in the latest set of high-profile departures to hit the corporate law powerhouse.

Bill Savitt, one of the country’s most pre-eminent corporate trial lawyers who co-chairs Wachtell’s executive committee, is planning to leave the firm for rival Gibson Dunn alongside five other partners from Wachtell’s litigation department in the coming days, according to people familiar with the matter.

The potential departures would mark a blow for the highly regarded Wall Street firm, which has endured more than half a dozen defections to rival firms including Latham & Watkins and Kirkland & Ellis since the beginning of last year.

by FT Cryptofinance

Senate Confirms Jay Clayton as Intelligence Chief

The Senate confirmed Jay Clayton as the director of national intelligence on Tuesday, placing the federal prosecutor to lead an agency that underwent rounds of staff cuts in recent weeks.

Clayton, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York and a former chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, was confirmed by a vote of 51 to 47, along party lines.

Clayton takes over as the head of the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, which oversees 18 federal intelligence agencies and units. The size of ODNI has shrunk in recent weeks after President Trump named Bill Pulte as acting director and instructed him to cut staff. Pulte said on X on Tuesday that he has conducted five rounds of layoffs, trimming the staff by around 30% from several weeks ago.

by WSJ

Trump aide who bet on the president’s speeches no longer works for the government

Gabriel Perez, the White House staffer who allegedly used his advanced knowledge of President Donald Trump’s speeches to place bets on the prediction market Kalshi, no longer works for the federal government, a White House official said Tuesday.

The official, granted anonymity to discuss the matter, declined to answer questions about whether Perez was fired.

Perez could not be reached for comment.

The change in employment status comes less than two weeks after ABC News reported that Perez was in talks with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to settle allegations that he used his knowledge of Trump’s speeches to win more than $100,000 on Kalshi. Perez allegedly placed wagers on whether Trump would say specific words or phrases during speeches and events.

Reuters reported earlier this month that Perez is under CFTC investigation for potential insider trading. Brooke Nethercott, a spokesperson for the CFTC, said she could not comment on whether an investigation was happening.

by Politico

Will the SEC Scrap This Vague Texting Rule?

Atkins has derided the texting crackdown, which the agency conducted over a four-year period as focusing on, for example, "the lack of saving of text messages and what not at various financial services firms. There's not one instance in the sweep that the SEC did where they found fraud or manipulation of the markets due to those sorts of issues."

The agency brought more than 90 cases and ordered more than $2.2 billion in fines in a yearslong probe of firms' use of texting from personal phones and messaging from unapproved apps.

Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., asked Atkins in early February if the agency plans to propose "updated, common-sense recordkeeping rules that would give firms clear and reasonable guidance with what records they need to keep."

Atkins replied: "We are definitely working on that. I've instructed the staff to do that. The crazy quilt of different standards for different types of market participants — broker-dealers, advisors, rating agencies."

by ThinkAdvisor

BlackRock, Fidelity, other Wall Street giants back the Clarity Act

The biggest names on Wall Street are lining up behind the Digital Asset Market Clarity Act, marking one of the strongest public shows of support yet for legislation that would establish a new regulatory framework for the U.S. crypto industry and make sweeping changes to how the Securities and Exchange Commission and Commodity Futures Trading Commission oversee the sector.

Over the past week, firms including BlackRock, Fidelity, Franklin Templeton, Goldman Sachs and SoFi have all urged Congress to pass the bill, arguing that clear rules would protect investors, give companies regulatory certainty and help the U.S. stay competitive as digital assets become more mainstream.

by CoinDesk