After the M&A market’s disappointing end to 2022, it is hard to imagine M&A deal volumes dropping lower. But that is exactly what happened to begin 2023.

Activists launched the most Q1 investor activism campaigns since before the Covid-19 pandemic. Their efforts focused on two arenas: preparing for proxy season and targeting financial, biotech, and pharmaceutical companies after Silicon Valley Bank collapse.

IPOs are getting smaller during the current cold market, while some companies are choosing to wait for a better environment to go public.

More spinoff transactions have been announced so far in 2023 than in any of the last five years at the same point. Amid the ongoing M&A doldrums, 2023’s annual deal count for spinoffs may actually surpass the five-year-highs seen in 2021 and 2022.

On March 29, a federal court sentenced the first felony monopolization defendant charged in almost 50 years. The DOJ’s new cases provide a through-line to historical monopoly charges, suggesting that cartels are really the common element in cases where DOJ will criminally charge a monopolist.

DoNotPay, the self-proclaimed “world’s first robot lawyer,” has found itself involved in three separate legal actions in the last month. Will these actions against the company that’s seeking to make legal information “accessible to everyone” negatively impact access to justice initiatives?

The Uniform Commercial Code, amended in 2022, now covers digital assets including cryptocurrencies, NFTs, and other controllable electronic records (CERs). Look for the changes to be coming to a jurisdiction near you.