Above the Law

Posts by Above the Law

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.15.26

* Elon Musk leaves country despite judge in OpenAI trial warning him that he wasn't excused. [Independent]

* Clients don't mind lawyers working from home, blowing up a key law firm excuse for aggressive back to office drives. [Roll on Friday]

* Supreme Court allows mifepristone telesales to continue -- suddenly Alito and Thomas are very angry about the shadow docket. [NBC News]

* Ethics lawyer calls out "fundamental threat" to profession in DOJ effort to sue D.C. Bar into refusing to enforce ethical rules against government lawyers [National Law Journal]

* Judge blocks Texas immigration law noting that "it is implausible to imagine" every state having its own immigration law. [Texas Tribune]

* Wilson Sonsini handing out big bucks to encourage pro bono work. [American Lawyer]

* Supreme Court says courts continue to have power over cases they've sent to arbitration. [Law360]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.14.26

* The DOJ takes the fight against law firms that refused to bow to Trump's intimidation campaign to the appellate court. [National Law Journal]

* Federal judge has concerns over SEC's sweetheart Elon Musk settlement. [Reuters]

* DOJ sues D.C. Bar for seeking professional discipline against Trump allied lawyers. There's a reason... they understand bar discipline is coming for them all and they want to get a head start in intimidating licensing authorities to stay out of it. [NY Times]

* Private equity firms are unhappy with lawyer rates. Boo hoo. [Financial Times]

* Anthropic bid to become the legal industry's AI front door and now it's up to the rest of the tech industry to figure out how to react. [Legaltech News]

* Judge McElroy absolutely lets the DOJ have it in attempt to subpoena hospital records of trans patients. [Boston Globe]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.13.26

* Claude launches legal industry blitz, announcing connectors across the legal tech industry. [LawSites]

* Former DLA Piper associate sues firm alleging she was fired after revealing her Palestinian heritage. [American Lawyer]

* SEC junks rule barring defendants from denying settled allegations -- a rule that exists because keeping market fraudsters from lying to their investors is kind of a big deal. [National Law Journal]

* Sam Altman tells jury he believes he's trustworthy. Which is also what ChatGPT says and we know how that turns out. [Law360]

* Interim NDNY US Attorney committed professional misconduct according to disciplinary authorities. [ABA Journal]

* Biden fighting back against DOJ plan to release tapes of meetings with biographer. [Politico]

* Judge Liman getting very tired of this Lively-Baldoni case. [Page Six]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.12.26

* Supreme Court lifts order barring Alabama from redistricting away Black voting power, three years after rejecting the same proposed redistricting. [Washington Post]

* ABA Committee recommends dropping law school diversity rules in order to protect accreditation status from Trump administration. [Reuters]

* Ye argues that his use of another person's song was "test drive" and not infringement. Pretty sure that's not in the hornbook. [Law360]

* Trump continues to pay his personal lawyers in federal appointments as opposed to cash. [National Law Journal]

* Virginia asks U.S. Supreme Court to overturn state supreme court decision. Which is crazy because the Supreme Court doesn't rule on exclusive state constitutional issues... unless it's Bush v. Gore. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Federal judge applauds Susman Godfrey for trusting young associate with high stakes copyright argument. [Litigation Daily]

* Lawyer spends evenings as extra on hit soap opera. [CBS]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.11.26

* Legal shared in this month's decent job report. But if recent history is any guide, expect a downward adjustment in a couple months. [Law360]

* David Lat talks to Neal Katyal about the flak the lawyer's faced since his TED Talk. [Original Jurisdiction]

* Lawyers getting worried about proliferation of AI notetakers. [NY Times]

* Alleged Correspondents' Dinner attacker seeks recusal of DOJ leaders who've spent the last several days publicly talking about being fact witnesses. [ABA Journal]

* Law students enrolling early to get around federal loan changes. [Reuters]

* DOJ investigating prosecutor for "preferential treatment" of undocumented migrants, which just means "not automatically sending them to black site prisons for jaywalking." [National Law Journal]

* Second hundred firms more cautious with their AI spend. [American Lawyer]

See Also

Biglaw’s Inside Job — See Generally

The DOJ's Insider Trading Case Is Basically A Vault 100 Firm Directory: Sidley, Latham, Goodwin, Weil, DLA Piper, Willkie, Wachtell -- this indictment would be for an impressive on-campus interview schedule.

Paul Weiss Technically Isn't Having Layoffs, It's Just That Associates Are Leaving Very Quickly And Not By Choice: The firm keeps losing litigation leadership and now its "performance" reviews have forced out a suspicious number of litigation associates.

A Newly Combined Firm Has Also Embarked On Layoffs: A newly merged top-20 Biglaw firm is working through growing pains that include layoffs, which is what "synergies" always meant in the fine print if anyone had bothered to read past the press release.

In Alito's Defense, The Made-Up Facts He Cited Would Have Been Convincing: The Supreme Court inserted fabricated factual claims into its opinion functionally striking down the Voting Rights Act.

But, Remember, Stop Talking About The Emperor's Lack Of Clothes: Chief Justice Roberts is disappointed that everyone seems to think the Court is political just because they decided to rewrite election law.

Virginia Supreme Court Rules 'Sure, The Text SAYS This Is Legal But What This Opinion Presupposes Is... What If It Didn't?': After Virginia voters approved congressional redistricting, the majority of the state supreme court spent 30 pages redefining one sentence.

Republicans Seem To Get Carded A Lot: Todd Blanche thinks you need ID to go to a restaurant (this guy must really want to start eating at a private club).

Good Things Come In Small (And Midsized) Packages: Vault drops its annual small and midsize firm rankings.

Law Students Create Content That Is More Watchable Than Anything The DOJ Filed This Week: The 17th annual ATL Law Revue Video Contest has a winner.

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.08.26

* The grand jury that investigated Trump’s alleged interference in the 2020 election heard from more than 60 witnesses. The transcripts are now available. [Lawfare]

* A dive into how John Roberts growing up in a whites-only neighborhood brought us to Callais. [Slate]

* Former Willkie Farr lawyer became the key cooperator in insider trading case. [Reuters]

* Todd Blanche tells CBS News that he doesn't know anything about Jim Comey getting indicted over "Sea Shellgate" and blames the whole thing on local prosecutors and that "I don't even know their names." Apparently the "we spent 9 months investigating this at the highest levels" line from the week before wasn't testing well. [CBS News]

* Trump loses new, revised tariffs case. Surely he will respond with dignity and grace. [AP News]

* The UCLA Federalist Society event that became a right-wing "campus free speech crisis" story was... not at all what how it was portrayed on social media. Shocking! [Dorf on Law]

* Kash Patel reportedly ordering polygraphs of more than two dozen current and former close staff in desperate effort to identify those talking to the press about drinking escapades... that he claimed never happened anyway. [MSNow]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.06.26

* Kim Kardashian seems to be giving up on bar exam dreams -- which is good because she's already doing more consequential legal work as a non-lawyer than she would ever do as a licensed attorney. [Yahoo]

* Jury told that Elon Musk wanted $80 billion in OpenAI funds to build a city on Mars. [Reuters]

* DHS instructed DOJ lawyer to hide murder warrant from judge so the Trump administration could publicly attack her when she released a detained immigrant with no apparent record. And the judge is very, very mad. [Politico]

* EEOC sues NY Times for not promoting a white guy. [NY Times]

* New lawsuit says Zuckerberg personally directed copyright infringement to train AI. Does plausible deniability mean nothing to these people? [The Recorder]

* Alabama allows graduates of non-ABA accredited to take the bar in continuing right-wing backlash against educational standards. [Law.com]

* Apple reaches settlement over iPhone hype claims. [Law360]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.05.26

* It Ends With... Settlement. Lively and Baldoni reach terms ahead of trial. [NY Times]

* Supreme Court issues exception to standard procedure and orders that Louisiana racial gerrymander take effect immediately. [Reuters]

* Consumer antitrust challenge brought against Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. In case you were wondering why Republicans spent the weekend in an all-out assault against antitrust law. [The Recorder]

* Gamestop considers buying Ebay though no one is quite sure how they have the money. [Law360]

* Trump countersues billionaire (that he pardoned!) for defamation over Justin Sun's claim that the Trump crypto business is engaged in extortion. Looking forward to Trump posing the defense "it's not extortion, we're just grossly incompetent." [Yahoo]

* How do second hundred firms keep up with ever-increasing partner payouts among the most elite? [American Lawyer]

* Thomson Reuters sued for state privacy law violations. [ABA Journal]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.04.26

* Todd Blanche hands Jim Comey selective prosecution gift, explaining on TV that the DOJ won't prosecute other "86" speakers. [ABC News]

* 8647 prosecutor who botched legal theory in indictment is so obsessed with earning Trump's favor that he dresses up like him. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Lawyer fined for passing out drunk in court. [Legal Cheek]

* Gorsuch complains about Supreme Court leaks citing the need for the justices to have "candid conversations," so they can "​find those places where we can reach agreement." Which would be more persuasive if the leaks we're seeing were anything but slightly more formal versions of "LOL, suck it!" [Reuters]

* Biglaw attorneys increasingly taking serious allegations to social media over HR. A product of law firm equity partnership becoming increasingly closed off? [American Lawyer]

* Spirit Airlines failed over the weekend amid skyrocketing fuel costs, but did succeed in making every Twitter user into an antitrust expert. [Law360]

* FTC encouraging states to cut ties with the ABA as law school accreditor. [Law.com]

See Also

Accidentally Filing A Draft Motion Might Be The Least Embarrassing DOJ Story Of The Week — See Generally

Tell Me The DOJ Didn't Check The Filing Without Telling Me: Justice Department files motion complete with giant "DRAFT" watermark on every page. Cracker jack lawyering!

Somehow This Wasn't The Most Racist Legal Story Of The Week: But this Georgetown professor gave it his best effort until the Supreme Court eclipsed him.

Donald Trump Scolds Democrats For Disrespecting The Supreme Court He Just Called A Disgrace: He might not like a Court that strikes down tariffs, but he'll defend to the death a Supreme Court taking voting away from Black people.

DOJ Can't Help But Feed The Conspiracy Theories: Hours after the White House Correspondence Dinner attack, the DOJ put aside the serious task of criminal justice to lean into "false flag" conspiracies by reorienting the response around salvaging Trump's illegal ballroom project. If that wasn't enough, Todd Blanche followed this up in the grand tradition of JFK and Trump's Butler attempt, by inventing a new magic bullet -- suggesting this attacker's bullet vanished into thin air.

Dementia Take The Wheel: The government followed up with a new brief demanding an end to the ballroom lawsuit and it reads as though the lawyers gave Donald Trump final cut.

The Biglaw To OnlyFans Pipeline: A 20-year Skadden veteran bolts for new business cards only slightly more awkward to hand out at bar association events.

Jeopardy Champ's Next Opponent: The DOJ: While Seton Hall law student turned Jeopardy megachamp preps for the Tournament of Champions, he's adding a new battle, taking on intervenor status in the fight in New Jersey's ongoing fight to protect its voter rolls from the Trump DOJ.

The Upper Crust Does Not Appreciate Bottom-Feeders: Todd Blanche is trying to join an exclusive Washington club -- members are not enthusiastic about it.

Shell Game: James Comey indicted over seashell picture.

The Invoice Says $2,000; The Check Says 'Let's Talk': Biglaw's optimistic quarter has some problematic caveats.

Drake Law Saves On Overhead By Eliminating The 'Justice' Part Of 'Justice Clinic': Law school shutters wrongful convictions clinic after a dispute involving a $154,000 estate.

Your Motion To Reconsider Has Been Reconsidered, And The Answer Is Now Worse: A federal judge received the government's motion to reconsider a prior ruling, thought about it carefully, and realized the DOJ had successfully argued itself into a less favorable position.

The Bar Is A Vague Suggestion For Federal Prosecutors Now: Trump's latest U.S. Attorney pick has a thin trial record but an impeccable resume for at least one very specific day in January 2021, which in this administration apparently counts as a distinguished credential.