Above the Law

Posts by Above the Law

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.27.26

* Do you know who won the 2020 presidential election? Because this Trump judicial nominee doesn't! [National Law Journal]

* UK voting to restrict jury trials. [Roll on Friday]

* Anthropic already secures legal victory in "what the hell is wrong with the Pentagon" case. [Law360]

* Google is not due diligence says department of duh. [Law.com]

* Maduro needs legal bills paid. [PBS]

* "White & Case employee claims he was photographed naked while unconscious at firm retreat" [Legal Cheek]

* Georgia would like its ballots back. [Reuters]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.26.26

* Having faceplanted once already, Trump housing chief proposes all new frivolous criminal charges against Letitia James. [Guardian]

* Biglaw drew less from litigation funders last year. [American Lawyer]

* Justice Department agrees to give Michael Flynn a chunk of taxpayer money over a crime Flynn confessed to committing. [CNN]

* NAACP hires former Civil Rights Division chief Kristen Clarke. [Reuters]

* Elon Musk is citing LinkedIn in effort to get rid of Delaware chancellor. [Delaware Business Court Insider]

* As the Metaverse ends, is this the fall of virtual law offices? Did they ever actually exist? [Legaltech News]

* Lawyer gets prison for defrauding clients. [ABA Journal]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.25.26

* Tom Goldstein asks judge to toss the verdict. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Lawyer vibecoded himself. This should end well. [Business Insider]

* The Justice Department may have leaked grand jury testimony and violated court order. THIS Justice Department? Shocking. [Courthouse News Service]

* Judge says the supply chain risk designation that the Trump administration put on Anthropic looks like retaliation. Well, she's not hallucinating! [Reuters]

* Supreme Court appears willing to bring back policy to deny refugees the right to even ask for asylum at the border. [ABA Journal]

* DOJ's new fraud chief confirmed. [Law360]

* Lateral hiring booming. [American Lawyer]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.24.26

* NJ federal judges have picked another new U.S. Attorney. How long will it take for them to be fired and replaced illegally? [New Jersey Law Journal]

* Now departed SEC Enforcement chief had pushed back against administration officials demanding sweetheart deals for allies. [Reuters]

* Supreme Court signals interest in adding voting obstacles in advance of the Midterms. [New York Times]

* Trump DOJ looking to drop case against officers charged with knowingly using false information to secure the warrant that ended with other officers police killing Breonna Taylor. [ABA Journal]

* SEC must turn over video of its Elon Musk interview to documentary filmmaker. [Law360]

* Magistrate given a formal sanction over a private message about Winston Churchill was deemed "racially inappropriate." Of note, the judge pointed out that he was criticizing colonialism and that he probably wasn't trying to be racist about himself. [Legal Cheek]

* DOJ eliminates office providing legal counsel for indigent immigrants. [CBS News]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.23.26

* Robert Mueller died over the weekend. Mueller's investigation found widespread criminality among Trump's circle including ample evidence -- under ordinary circumstances -- to pursue obstruction charges against Trump himself. [NY Times]

* "Good, I’m glad he’s dead," Trump wrote, reacting to news of Mueller's passing with all the class one would expect. Clearly the same people who called for private citizens to be fired as insensitive for merely quoting Charlie Kirk after he was killed. [CNN]

* Jurors conclude Elon Musk tried to mislead investors when he threatened to back out of the Twitter deal. [BBC]

* Fifth Circuit knocks down FTC cease-and-desist over TurboTax misleading consumers. Happy tax season! [Law360]

* Kirkland lawyer who represented Epstein retiring from the firm. [American Lawyer]

* Supreme Court prepares to hear challenge to latest state voting obstacle. [New York Times]

* Ruemmler receiving $25 million as she departs Goldman. [Bloomberg Law News]

See Also

What If We’re Just Mad This March? — See Generally

ATL Bracket: Which Of These Ghouls Should Get Disbarred First? There are still a few hours left to vote in our annual March anger bracket. Which Trump lawyer's ethically fraught work most warrants disciplinary inquiry. We have 4 regions worth of matchups... here, here, here, and here.

Back In The Day, Megafirms Cut Local Back Office Staff, Moving It All Offsite... AI Now Comes For Those Jobs: The jobs that were once cheaper in Tampa are now a lot cheaper with Claude.

Judge Calls Out NJ US Attorney's Office For Three-Raccoons-In-A-Trench-Coat Management Style: Who is actually running the NJ US Attorney's Office? Because the Trump DOJ's inability to do anything right is starting to risk putting child predators back on the streets. I mean... other than the ones in the redacted Epstein files.

Todd Blanche Still Laser Focused On Covering Up For Pedophiles: The Deputy AG seems to take a personal interest in blocking anything that might reveal Epstein's accomplices.

Weil Gotshal Names First Female Executive Partner: Ramona Nee will become Weil's first woman to hold the executive partner title in firm's history.

Trump Rage-Posts 1,000 Words About The Supreme Court At 11 PM On A Sunday: With a war in Iran, a China-Taiwan standoff, and DHS in shutdown, the president still found time for a meandering rant about the Court he packed.

Because I Got Sued (Because I Got Sued): Afroman mocked the cops who wrongfully raided his house... so they sued him for hurting their feelings.

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.20.26

* James Comey subpoenaed in "grand conspiracy" investigation. [Reuters]

* Simpson Thacher missed a deadline and now client's merger could collapse. [Roll on Friday]

* Non-equity partners aren't loving it. [Bloomberg Law News]

* New Antitrust chief tells staff not to worry about criticism and just sit back and be the best rubberstamps for donors they can be. [Law360]

* Epstein's lawyer claims he had no knowledge of criminal activity. [BBC]

* DOJ sets up another fight over a phony prosecutor. [ABA Journal]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.19.26

* Colorado aims to shield AI companies from unauthorized practice of law claims. No way this can go wrong! [ABA Journal]

* Luigi looks to delay trial until 2027. [Courthouse News Service]

* Justice Alito used to recuse himself from these cases... guess not so much anymore [Slate]

* Microsoft considers suing over OpenAI deal with Amazon. [Financial Times]

* Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy's son-in-law is running for Congress, and transportation lobbyists are showering him with cash. [Pro Publica]

* Markwayne Mullin's DHS confirmation process is off to a disastrous start courtesy of his inability to even try to be nice to Rand Paul. [Slate]

* Firms and clients aren't talking to each other about AI. [Thomson Reuters]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.18.26

* Chief Justice Roberts says personal attacks against judges have got to stop. But, one might ask, what if those attacks are official acts of the president? [Reuters]

* Jurors must ponder whether Elon Musk was deliberate or stupid. [Law360]

* The Senate Commerce Committee asks "Liability or Deniability?" as Section 230 turns 30. A milestone birthday that, like most 30th birthdays, will be celebrated with existential dread and questioning whether it should even still exist. [Senate Commerce Committee]

* Weil finds its new leader. [American Lawyer]

* Donald Trump wants election tamperer Tina Peters out of prison with his "full pardon" of exclusively state crimes, but after scuffling with fellow inmate, Peters has new legal trouble. [Denver Post]

* SEC announces guidelines for cryptocurrency clearing the way for fake money Ponzi schemes. [Coindesk]

* Trump administration files its defense of the Pentagon's supply chain risk designation for Anthropic arguing that Anthropic presents an incurable threat to the United States... that the government needs to use for its most sensitive applications immediately. [US News]

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.17.26

* DOJ announces that it will start hiring prosecutors straight out of law school. At this point, replacing a whole US Attorney's Office with ChatGPT wouldn't be a huge dropoff. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Supreme Court taking up case of Haitian and Syrian temporary status holders challenging the administration decision to arbitrarily cancel the program. But, the Supreme Court did not use its shadowy authority to overturn the existing stays blocking Trump action... maybe publicly insulting the Chief Justice does have consequences. [MS Now]

* CEO blows off lawyers and asks AI to get him out of a $250 million contract. Yadda yadda yadda, he owes $250 million. [404 Media]

* Judge voids illegal government appointment. [National Law Journal]

* Todd Blanche throws DOJ behind effort to help void guilty plea of a man with ties to Russian intelligence who was sent to prison for 6 years for making up a fake story about Joe Biden receiving a bribe. [Mother Jones]

* Children sue Elon Musk's AI operation for generating sexually explicit images of them. [Reuters]

* RFK Jr's bid to cancel many essential childhood vaccines blocked by federal judge. [Law360]