TRENT ANDERSON—In 1997, David Bowie made waves in both the music and finance worlds by transforming his back catalog into a $55 million financial instrument. The first of what became known as “Bowie Bonds,” this deal allowed him to raise immediate cash by securitizing future royalties from twenty-five of his albums. Consistent with Bowie’s persona, […]
PAIGE-TATUM HAWTHORNE—This past August, American Eagle Outfitters (AEO) launched a campaign featuring actress Sydney Sweeney. In the advertisement, a camera pans Sweeny’s body clothed in AEO jeans, as she suggestively whispers, “Genes are passed down from parents to offspring, often determining traits like hair color, personality, and even eye color. My jeans are blue.” A […]
JANAYE DOWERS—Most private settlements slip quietly into obscurity, shielded from public scrutiny. But Bartz v. Anthropic stands apart. This case proceeded as a class action that required court approval, which placed its settlement terms in the public record and cast a rare light on a process that usually remains hidden. That visibility, combined with the […]
ITIEL WAINER—On March 20, 2025, a federal judge in the Northern District of Illinois approved an unconventional class action settlement that grants class members a 23% equity stake in Clearview AI, a facial recognition start-up the class sued over privacy harms, even though the company’s sucess hinges on those harms. Despite objections from a bipartisan […]
THOMAS PUDAS—Arizona has once again positioned itself as a pioneer in legal reform, this time by approving a license for KPMG, one of the world’s largest accounting firms, to practice law in the state. This decision comes as part of Arizona’s broader effort to modernize legal practice by allowing non-lawyers to own and operate law […]
