In its 2024 edition of the Best Lawyers in America, 193 individual Pillsbury lawyers were honored.

Pillsbury’s May 20 alert “VC Update—The Down Round Is Back” described how the recent decline in public company valuations has caused venture investors to slow their investment pace, with the result that many companies are only able to attract venture investments at valuations which are substantially diminished from their prior financing rounds. Such “down round” transactions can negatively, sometimes devastatingly, affect the equity positions of a startup’s existing investors, founders and employees, giving rise to concerns around breaches of the fiduciary duties of directors (including the duties of due care, loyalty and candor), fiduciary duties to creditors, and controlling shareholder liability. This alert highlights these potential liabilities and offers proactive strategies to address them.

Pillsbury’s leading Japan Corporate practice has received numerous top-10 and top-20 rankings by renowned organizations such as Refinitiv, Bloomberg, FactSet and more. Most notably, the practice recently received top rankings in mergers and acquisitions by both FactSet (#7) and Refinitiv (#9) for deal count so far in 2022. Additionally, the practice closed 2021 with a ranking of #11 for the total number of M&A deals by FactSet.

Join host Joel Simon and guests as they discuss important and emerging topics impacting various industries in 15 minutes or less. 

Pillsbury Senior Policy Advisor and former U.S. Congressman William Lacy Clay Jr. was honored with a Lifetime Achievement Award at The Royal Vagabonds Foundation’s 2021 Leadership Luncheon. Congressman Clay was the only nominee to receive this distinguished recognition, the highest level of honor from the foundation.

In Rudolph v. United Airlines Holdings, Inc., No. 1:20-cv-02142 (N.D. Ill. Feb. 21, 2021), three airline ticketholders filed a class action against United, alleging breach of United’s contractual obligation to refund fares for flights cancelled during the pandemic. The three named plaintiffs alleged that they had purchased United tickets and that either: (i) the plaintiffs voluntarily cancelled nonrefundable tickets; (ii) United cancelled a leg of their journey at the last minute and offered to rebook or issue a credit; or (iii) United cancelled their flight altogether. In all three circumstances, plaintiffs alleged, United refused to issue refunds.

On May 11, 2021, the Senate voted to repeal a Trump Administration regulation that defines which party is the “true lender” in partnerships between banks and non-banks, including financial technology and other non-bank lending companies. The Senate resolution now heads to the House of Representatives, which is expected to pass the resolution. President Biden has signaled his support for the repeal and will likely enact the repeal following a vote in the House. The repeal of this rule could create regulatory uncertainty for fintechs and other non-bank lenders that were relying on the rule.

Pillsbury is pleased to announce that former U.S. Congressman Wm. Lacy Clay (D-Missouri) has joined Pillsbury’s Government Law & Strategies team in Washington, D.C. as Senior Policy Advisor.  Also joining Pillsbury as Senior Counsel is Yvette Cravins, an accomplished attorney and political professional who served for more than a decade on Capitol Hill as Congressman Clay’s Chief of Staff and as Counsel to the House Oversight & Reform Committee.

The RRF Program was created by Section 5003 of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), which President Biden signed into law on March 11, 2021. The purpose of the RRF Program, to which Congress has appropriated $28.6 billion, is to provide a boost to restaurants, bars, and other businesses that serve food or drink and have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We summarized the RRF Program provisions of the ARPA here.

The New York Legislature passed New York State’s Fiscal Year 2022 budget (Budget Bill) on April 6 and 7, 2021. The Budget Bill now awaits Governor Cuomo’s signature, which is expected this week. Under the New York Constitution’s Executive Budget process, the appropriations provisions included in the Governor’s original proposed budget became law immediately upon being passed by the Legislature. If Governor Cuomo takes no action, the entirety of the bills will become law ten days after being passed by the Legislature.

With time running short to introduce joint resolutions under the Congressional Review Act, Congress has begun to act. Legislators have now introduced three joint resolutions seeking fast-track procedures to overturn Trump-era regulations under the Congressional Review Act before the time limit expires on April 4, 2021. One of those joint resolutions seeks to overturn a methane rule issued by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which Pillsbury identified as a likely target in January of this year. The second joint resolution targets a rule approved by the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) which sets out the process for settling claims, sometimes called the “conciliation” rule. The third targets the “true lender” rule finalized by the Office of the Comptroller of Currency in October 2020.

When the pandemic started in the spring of 2020, most force majeure disputes revolved around relatively straightforward questions: did the clause in question cover pandemics and/or governmental shutdown orders (or, in some instances, the resulting economic fallout)?

President Biden signed into law the comprehensive relief bill known as the American Rescue Plan Act on March 11, 2021. The $1.9 trillion relief package delivers targeted support for foodservice operators and drinking establishments in the form of grants under the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, in addition to bolstering existing relief programs established under the CARES Act and Economic Aid Act such as the Paycheck Protection Program. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund will be administered by the Small Business Administration.

The Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program was created, at least on paper, on December 27, 2020, by Section 324 of the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Non-profits and Venues Act (Economic Aid Act). The Grant Program is intended to provide funding for live venue operators or promoters, theatrical producers, live performing arts organization operators, museum operators, motion picture theatre operators and talent representatives that have been significantly impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. We've previously summarized the Grant Program provisions of the Economic Aid Act and the SBA’s discussion of Frequently Asked Questions, published on February 5, 2021.

This is our third alert on Subchapter V issues, the first being on the CARES Act’s expansion of eligibility under Subchapter V, and the second regarding recent changes to section 365(d)(3) of the Bankruptcy Code. Here, we discuss the potential implications of the expiring $7.5 million debt ceiling and newly introduced legislation to extend the debt ceiling for an additional year to March 27, 2022.

Consistent with Pillsbury’s history of corporate social responsibility, the Pillsbury Foundation Board has donated $50,000 to the Houston Food Bank and Central Texas Food Bank (Austin).

After an unprecedented freeze that impeded travel and disrupted electricity, heat, internet, cellular and water services for days—upending lives and businesses across the state on a massive scale—the cleanup continues, with losses still to be tabulated, and for many, water still to be restored. And, it all happened against the backdrop of the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic in which vaccination efforts are in a race against new virus variants. For businesses picking up the pieces, deploying a few key crisis-management best practices will help: