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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

ICO – A federal judge has given preliminary sign off to what appears to be a first-of-its-kind class action settlement involving an initial coin offering. Ross Todd reports that Judge Richard Seeborg in California's Northern District indicated during a hearing Thursday that he was granting preliminary approval to a $25 million proposed deal that the Tezos Foundation reached last month to settle claims brought on behalf of investors who claimed that the initial coin offering on the Tezos blockchain violated U.S. securities laws.

CLOSED – No decisions will be made before the end of June about when to reopen the Second Circuit in New York, Tom McParland reports. Chief Judge Robert Katzmann said he'll reassess reopening the lower Manhattan courthouse later this summer, even as a timeline for resuming in-person operations is not clear.

BELT-TIGHTENING – Law firms are adopting drastic measures to shore up their finances and mitigate the economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic. For a roundup of the Big Law cutbacks, go here.

TOSSED – A federal judge has knocked out an antitrust suit brought by the city of Oakland against the Raiders and the NFL over the club's move to Las Vegas, finding that the city hadn't sufficiently alleged that it suffered an antitrust injury. Ross Todd reports that U.S. Chief Magistrate Judge Joseph Spero of the Northern District of California held that the city hadn't plausibly alleged that it would have retained the Raiders or attracted another team to the city without the league's 32-team cap on franchises.

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EDITOR'S PICKS

Gilead's Suing the Feds, and Working With Them, Amid Coronavirus Outbreak

Why Commercial Tenants, Property Owners Should Be Cautious When Seeking Rent, Mortgage Relief

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WHILE YOU WERE SLEEPING

OUT - Deutsche Bank's group general counsel and chief governance officer has stepped down after just over two years in the role, Varsha Patel reports. Florian Drinhausen, who replaced Deutsche Bank's co-general counsels Christof von Dryander and Simon Dodds in January 2018, will leave the company on May 31. According to a statement by the bank, Drinhausen is departing by "mutual agreement."

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WHAT YOU SAID

"Minimizing touches is going to become a very big deal."

— Natalie Pierce, partner at Littler Mendelson, on automation in the workforce accelerated by the pandemic.

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