First up this week are Eugene Scalia, Helgi Walker and their team at Gibson, Dunn & Crutcher who won a ruling striking down new rules from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission requiring private funds to issue quarterly performance and fee reports, and barring them from giving some customers preferential treatment in redemptions. The Fifth Circuit this week found that sections 206(4) and 211(h) of the Advisers Act, which the SEC relied on to issue the rules, didn't actually give the agency that authority. The decision hands a major win to the firm's clients—a coalition of trade associations representing hedge funds, venture capital funds, syndicated loan funds, and private equity funds. The Gibson Dunn team also included associates Brian Richman, Max Schulman, Robert Batista and Stephen Hammer.

Peter Anderson and his team at Davis Wright Tremaine scored a win for Cher in a legal showdown over royalties from the music she made with her ex-husband, Sonny Bono. Anderson and his team filed a declaratory judgment action after Mary Bono, Sonny's fourth wife, used termination rights to retake control of Sonny's copyrights and stopped paying Cher. Mary Bono claimed she was not bound by the marriage settlement agreement Sonny and Cher entered in 1978 agreeing on a 50-50 royalty split. But U.S. District Judge John Kronstadt in Los Angeles last week granted summary judgment to Cher finding the federal rules around copyright termination didn't trump the marriage settlement agreement. The DWT team included Eric Lamm, Sean Sullivan and Sam Turner.