Above the Law

Posts by Above the Law

See Also

Supreme Court Justices Spend Opinion Sniping At Each Other — See Generally

SCOTUS Justices Spend 170 Pages Airing Office Drama: Supreme Court nukes Trump's tariffs and treat us to all their petty grievances. Except for Thomas who just wrote some ramblings about the powers of the crown.

Another Biglaw Firm Decides Two's Company When It Comes To Partnership Tiers: Global giant unveils shiny nonequity track and tweaked lockstep, pushing the single-tier partnership model doomsday clock closer to midnight.

Trump Judge Admits The Constitutional House Is On Fire: If it's not yet a “constitutional crisis,” it's rounding third with a head of steam.

DOJ Plays 'Name The Crime' And Loses: Trump administration wanted to prosecute Democratic lawmakers but never bothered to figure out a single statute that got broken.

No Facts, Pound The Law. No Law, Pound The Table. No Table, Pound The... Uh Oh: Texas prosecutors argue that a defendant masturbating during testimony wasn't "inappropriate" if the judge and jury didn't notice.

Another Am Law 100 Firm Discovers AI Is Not A Lawyer: Major firm accused of filing a hallucination-laced brief. When will this end?

Pentagon Decide Its Lawyers Need To Be Dumber: Defense Department tells future military lawyers that they can no longer attend the best law schools in the country.

Deposition Advice Of The Year Goes To “I’ll F---ing Kill You”: Brevity is the soul of wit and depostion responses.

Judge Declares Mistrial Over Shirt: Lawyer's civil rights celebration shirt causes judge to cry bias.

Law Professor Arrested On 50 Counts Of Child Sexual Abuse Material: Barry University law professor and interim associate dean arrested in Florida; prosecutors say hundreds of thousands of images were found.

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.20.26

* Files reveal Kathy Ruemmler conferred with Jeffrey Epstein on Secret Service prostitution scandal. On the one hand, it's important to confer with experts. On the other... [Yahoo Finance]

* "A furious daughter has sent an email to hundreds of law firms alleging that a legal recruiter had an affair with her father. The outraged daughter sent the email with the subject heading of “WHORE”..." [Roll on Friday]

* DHS issues new order asserting more authority to potentially detain legal refugees. [PBS]

* JPMorgan Chase argues Donald Trump fraudulently added them to his $5B debanking LOLsuit. [CNN]

* Practicing for 17 years after losing license earns $30,000 sanction. [ABA Journal]

* Trump nominating his lawyer from E. Jean Carroll losses to the Eighth Circuit. [National Law Journal]

* DOJ claims former Google engineers took trade secrets to Iran. So, soon, the Iranians will have their search results buried under 30 sponsored links too. [Law360]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.19.26

* Biglaw lawyers are charging $3400/hour and clients are paying. Because no matter how much they gnash their teeth, they always do. [WSJ]

* Remember the episode of JAG where the military lawyer paradropped into a Minnesota habeas mess and instantly got held in contempt for failing to comply with court orders? No? Well, it's real life now. [Fox 9]

* The Artist Formerly Known as Prince... Andrew arrested in connection with Epstein investigation. Meanwhile, our [CNN]

* More lawyers sanctioned for AI-generated brief errors. [Reuters]

* DOJ defections flood the labor market with qualified attorneys. [CBS News]

* "Roberts, Alito Face New Criticism of Stock Ownership After Rule Change." Actually, it's the same old criticism, but it's nice we get to talk about it again. [National Law Journal]

* Law professor arrested and charged with possession of child porn. Somehow this is not about Jeffrey Epstein. [News 6]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.18.26

* Federal judges granted limited freedom to respond to "illegitimate forms of criticism and attacks." [ABA Journal]

* Law firms continue to drive the commercial real estate market, with Linklaters committing to expand office by 50 percent. Maybe Biglaw isn't planning to lay everyone off and switch to AI after all. [New York Law Journal]

* Trump administration sued over removing Pride flag from Stonewall monument as if it's a national monument for its drink specials. [NY Times]

* Justice Department isn't acting like it used to say Criminal Defense Lawyers For Understatement. [NPR]

* CFTC asserts its regulatory authority to affirmatively shield websites skirting gambling laws from meaningful regulation. The president's son is deeply invested in Polymarket... probably just a coincidence. [CNBC]

* Judge declares mistrial over lawyer's attire. [Guardian]

* Harvey signs Suits star whose character inspired its name as spokesperson. [LawSites]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.17.26

* Law student convicted over fake bomb threat. [Legal Cheek]

* Jeanine Pirro can't win a case in D.C., so she's hoping to win one in New York by suing her hometown for a $250,000 slip and fall. [The Independent]

* Law schools and students worry about new lending cap. [Reuters]

* Attorney disbarred over alleged harassment campaign against "Law by Mike." [La Jolla Village News]

* NFL discrimination claim will head to court after league effort to force arbitration fails. [Law360]

* Steve Bannon and Boris Epshteyn sued over crypto promotion. [National Law Journal]

* Judge cites Orwell in striking down Trump bid to erase mentions of slavery from historical exhibits. [CNN]

See Also

Layoffs, And Mergers, And Epstein, Oh My! — See Generally

Top 10 Biglaw Firm Decides The Future Is Smaller: Hundreds of support staff are out, and leadership cites AI as a key factor. Should lawyers be worried? If AI comes for the attorneys, it's going to be a matter of the firm's business model.

You'll Never Guess Who Ken Starr Called “My Friend, My Brother”: Oh, of course you will... it was Jeffrey Epstein.

Those Kathryn Ruemmler Emails Deserve A Closer Look: The soon-to-be-former Goldman Sachs legal chief tried to downplay her Epstein connections. Here's why they still mattered.

Biglaw Pumps The Brakes On Early Recruiting: For once, law students may get to finish a semester before firms start treating them like draft picks.

The World’s Richest Law Firm Goes Country: Biglaw’s financial juggernaut joins Nashville market.

Jeanine Pirro's Office Not Ready For Its Closeup: The latest epic fail from Pirro's tenure as U.S. Attorney involved bringing one of her old assistants out of retirement to pursue a case while running his dance photography studio.

Perkins Coie Eyes Retention Bonuses As Merger Nerves Set In: Nothing says “we’re excited about this tie-up” like quietly calculating how much it costs to keep partners from bolting.

HBCU Law School Told “Black” Is Off-Limits For Black History Month: In latest culture-war absurdity, administrators thought the safest word is no word at all.

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.13.26

* Goldman Sachs Chief Legal Officer Kathy Ruemmler announces resignation amidst Epstein fallout. [Above the Law]

* Kirkland ends its concierge service that acted as personal assistants for associates. [Legal Cheek]

* Donald Trump takes the position that he's too busy as president to be sued. He also takes the position that he has plenty of time to file lawsuits against others. [Reuters]

* AI won't automatically make legal services cheaper. I'll go one better... it won't make them cheaper in any event. [Lawfare]

* Apple cleared of patent infringement. [Law360]

* Antitrust chief out as right-wing activists gain upper hand in pushing megamergers for their clients. [National Law Journal]

* Fun with patents... the human launcher! [Lowering the Bar]

* Analysis shows there's now effectively no laws against pollution in the United States. [The Guardian]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.12.26

* Lawmakers grilled Pam Bondi over the DOJ cover-up of the Epstein files, which included both improper redactions of perpetrators and illegal disclosures of victims. Bondi responded by yelling a lot. [Reuters]

* The last remaining enforcement attorney in the Chicago CFTC office resigned. It's like the movie The Purge except for pork belly futures. [Barrons]

* Prosecutor who left Minnesota U.S. Attorney's Office joins the Don Lemon defense team. [ABA Journal]

* Trump fires the official U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of New York to continue using the guy squatting on the job with no lawful authority. They say "no person is illegal," but then how do you explain John Sarcone? [New York Law Journal]

* Increasingly irate that the public hates him, Donald Trump started threatening to sue the media for reporting his polling numbers. So Gallup is going to stop polling. [The Hill]

* Tom Goldstein testifies to losing millions on poker in 2016. [Law360]

* Clients are figuring out what we already told them -- law firms aren't going to pass on AI savings. [Artificial Lawyer]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.11.26

* Trump administration tried to indict lawmakers who accurately described the military's obligation to not follow illegal orders. Jeanine Pirro couldn't get a grand jury would indict. [NY Post]

* Accreditation function looks to become even more autonomous from rest of ABA. [Law.com]

* FBI raid on Georgia elections facility included government sharing classified intelligence data with crackpot lawyer rehashing debunked claims. [Politico]

* Judge Rakoff rules that materials that the defendant shared with attorneys were not privileged and confidential because they were created with assistance from a third-party AI service. [Law360]

* The Eastern District of Virginia takes another hit as white-collar chief bolts to start own firm. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Law professors argue that states should be able to write their own labor laws. [The Hill]