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WHAT WE'RE WATCHING

LATE NOTICE - There's no good time to receive a debt collection notice, but an emerging litigation trend suggests there is, in fact, a particularly bad time to find one in your inbox. As Law.com's Charles Toutant reports, debtors are increasingly filing suits claiming emailed collection notices sent at night are in violation of federal law. The brewing conflict could bring new opportunities for lawyers representing debtors, and new headaches for collection agencies. But guidance from the courts about whether such cases violate the Fair Debt Collection Practices Act appears to be lacking so far. Richard Perr, chair of the Consumer Financial Services Practice Group at Kaufman Dolowich in Philadelphia, said he expects to see such suits become more common as the collection industry abandons phone calls and postal mail in favor of less costly methods of contacting debtors.

BULLS ON PARADE - While overall M&A activity fell to its lowest point in a decade last year, the market has also shown signs of life, both at the end of 2023 and to kick off 2024. M&A activity rose by 23% in Q4, marking the strongest quarter for worldwide dealmaking since Q2 of 2022. And, as Law.com's Andrew Maloney and Dan Roe report, Big Law firms have announced a slew of corporate hires this week, including at Willkie Farr & Gallagher, Mayer Brown, Kramer Levin and Baker & Hostetler.  Recruiters at Major, Lindsey & Africa are seeing upticks in demand for attorneys in every major practice, said partner and vice president Kirsten Keegan Vasquez, including a turnaround for M&A. "People are really gearing up to address more deal work. With money as expensive as it was and recession worries throughout 2023, deal work wasn't the priority, but firms are now gearing back up because they're anticipating an increase," she said.

ON THE RADAR - Biotech company Immunogen Inc., its directors and AbbVie Inc. were hit with a shareholder lawsuit Jan. 8 in Massachusetts Superior Court for Middlesex County over the sale of ImmunoGen. The court case, filed by Hutchings Barsamian Mandelcorn and the Brualdi Law Firm on behalf of shareholder Robert Garfield, objects to the transaction because the price was well below the intrinsic value of the company, and the process leading to the sale was influenced by the personal interests and motivations of the defendants and the company's financial advisors.  Counsel have not yet appeared for the defendants. The case is 2481CV00033, Garfield, Robert vs. Arbuckle, Stuart et al. Stay up on the latest state and federal litigation, as well as the latest corporate deals, with Law.com Radar.  

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