HOOPS - Pillsbury Winthrop junior associate Meghan Hammond has nailed 46 out of 48 matchups thus far in Politico Playbook’s NCAA pool. Meghan Tribe reportsthat at one point, Hammond, who practices in the firm’s D.C. office, was one of eight people across the country with a perfect bracket. “It’s not so much that I’m a basketball savant, as it’s kind of a Slumdog Millionaire kind of thing,” she says.
UPWARD - Payouts by corporations to settle shareholder class actions tripled last year, compared with 2017. Amanda Bronstad reports that corporations shelled out $5 billion in 2018, according to a report by Cornerstone Research. The annual report found that there were 78 securities class action settlements in 2018, three fewer than in 2017, but five surpassed $100 million, including the $3 billion deal with Brazilian energy giant Petrobras. At the same time, the average settlement tripled to $64.9 million, compared with 2017, exceeding the average over the past nine years and reflecting a trend toward larger settlements overall.
