Department of Justice
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Department of Justice, Disasters / Emergencies, Election Law, General Counsel, Law Schools, Morning Docket, Prisons, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Texas, Trials
Morning Docket: 10.20.14
* The Supreme Court is allowing Texas to enforce its strict voter identification law during the upcoming election, but Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, hero to the masses, wrote a rather scathing dissent in opposition. [New York Times]
* Michael Millikin, GM’s beleaguered GC, will be stepping down from his position while the Justice Department continues its probe into the company’s fatal ignition switch failures. A replacement has not yet been named. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Baltimore Law and Maryland’s HBCUs hooked up to assist underrepresented minorities get into law school. Full scholarships come with GPAs of at least 3.5 and LSAT scores of at least 152. [USA Today]
* Kent Easter, the lawyer who was convicted for planting drugs in a school volunteer’s car, was sentenced to serve six months in jail. His law license will likely be suspended (just like his wife’s was). [OC Weekly]
* Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev isn’t doing well in court, and his trial hasn’t even started yet. Motions to dismiss his case and to suppress evidence were denied. [National Law Journal]
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Antonin Scalia, Biglaw, Books, Boutique Law Firms, Crime, Department of Justice, Immigration, Mergers and Acquisitions, Morning Docket, Pro Bono, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Morning Docket: 10.02.14
* Justice Scalia spoke at CU-Boulder last night. For his sake, we certainly hope he didn’t speak about any issues that might someday appear before SCOTUS, lest he be asked to recuse. [Boulder Daily Camera via How Appealing]
* Another one bites the dust over at Main Justice: David O’Neil, the head of the criminal division, is stepping down in the wake of the BNP Paribas case, and will likely have many white-shoe law firm suitors. [DealBook / New York Times]
* Fox Rothschild picked up a 18-lawyer boutique firm in Texas, which will serve as the home of its first outpost in the Lone Star State. Energy law, surprisingly, wasn’t the driving factor. [Legal Intelligencer]
* “I have a heart and I have two kids.” That’s a pretty damn good reason for Biglaw attorneys to take a break from their corporate billable hours to represent undocumented children pro bono. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Scott Greenfield reviews Lat’s forthcoming novel, Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link). Of course, in SHG style, it contains a spoiler. Try to skip that clearly marked paragraph. [Simple Justice]
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Barack Obama, Department of Justice, Eric Holder, Federal Government, Glenn Reynolds, Patrick Fitzgerald, Politics
Who Will -- And Who Should -- Replace Eric Holder As Attorney General?
Who are some of the legal luminaries being suggested as possible AG picks?
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Department of Justice, Drugs, Eric Holder, Federal Government, Immigration, Politics, Senate Judiciary Committee
When The Confirmation Of The Next Attorney General Gets Political, Thank Eric Holder
The battle to confirm Eric Holder’s successor will be messy, according to conservative columnist Tamara Tabo. -
Books, Department of Justice, Eric Holder, Facebook, Non-Sequiturs, Politics
Non-Sequiturs: 09.26.14
* A list of lawyers who followed their passions. Let’s be honest: I just like that Lat’s in the same listicle as Jerry Springer. [One 400] * Another report on the Brian Leiter kerfuffle (by Professor Jonathan Adler). [The Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * Postal carrier hoarded 40,000 pieces of mail. Newman! [The Smoking Gun] * Another court allows service via Facebook. [Peter S. Vogel] * Eric Holder is resigning. Time for the speculation that he must have done something awful to begin! [New York Observer] * D.C. lawyer Ronald Goldfarb reviews John W. Dean’s new book (affiliate link) about the Nixon tapes. [Washington Independent Review of Books] -
Department of Justice, Eric Holder, Federal Government, Politics
Sources Say Eric Holder Will Step Down
You won't have Eric Holder to kick around anymore. -
9th Circuit, Barry Bonds, Baseball, Department of Justice, White-Collar Crime
Barry Bonds And The Lengths DOJ Will Go To Protect AUSAs
It's apparently really important to protect AUSAs from having to do the same basic work that the rest of the legal community does routinely. -
Crime, Department of Justice, Intellectual Property, Tobacco / Smoking
Criminal Intellectual Property Prosecutions and Corporate Police Work
Hiring a former FBI agent to work up an investigation has got to be cheaper than hiring a law firm to litigate. - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Department of Justice, Eric Holder, In-House Counsel, Law Schools, Legal Ethics, Morning Docket, Tax Law
Morning Docket: 09.18.14
* In light of today’s vote on Scottish independence, here’s an article on the opportunities for the legal industry if Scotland breaks free. [Business For Scotland]
* What are the biggest pet peeves of corporate counsel. Surprise, surprise, billing “surprises” makes the list. [ALM]
* Attorney General Holder is offering bigger payouts to Wall Street whistleblowers. Start saving your emails low-level finance folks! [Legal Times]
* Later today, Baker Hostetler’s John Moscow will try to convince Judge Griesa that he shouldn’t be disqualified for breaching the confidentiality of a prior client. [Law Blog / Wall Street Journal]
* As if Bingham didn’t have enough trouble, Akin Gump swept in and poached a gaggle of lawyers in Europe. [Law360]
* Skadden is really good at inversions. Elie would like to thank them for their work undermining American society. [The Am Law Daily]
* Yale Law is teaching students basic financial literacy. While some are hailing this program, my question is: how are kids getting to 20-something without learning this stuff already? [Yale Daily News]
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Department of Justice, Federal Government, Immigration, Job Searches, Law Schools
Reminder: DOJ (And Other) Honors Program Applications Are Due Soon
Are you aware of all these great job opportunities for graduating law students and recent law school graduates? -
Department of Justice, White-Collar Crime
DOJ Says They Can No Longer Afford To Respect The Attorney-Client Privilege
The DOJ really knows how to make the Sixth Amendment come alive! -
Celebrities, Department of Justice, Kids, Lateral Moves, Law Schools, LSAT, Morning Docket, Munger Tolles & Olson, Solicitor General's Office, Trials, Trusts and Estates
Morning Docket: 07.22.14
* From Big Government to Biglaw: Our congratulations go out to Benjamin Horwich, most recently of the Office of the Solicitor General at the U.S. Department of Justice, as he joins Munger Tolles & Olson as counsel. Nice work. [Munger Tolles & Olson]
* The number of law school applicants took a nose dive for the fourth year in a row, this time by 8 percent, summarily crushing the hopes and dreams of law deans praying for a change of their otherwise most dismal fortunes. [National Law Journal]
* Considering the latest slump in applicants, whether a law school evaluates your average LSAT score or highest LSAT score matters little. Admissions officers will jump for joy that you have a pulse. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]
* “You don’t have to convict on every count to have a win.” Azamat Tazhayakov, friend of accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, was convicted of obstruction and conspiracy to obstruct justice. [Bloomberg]
* Per documents filed by a lawyer appointed to represent Philip Seymour Hoffman’s children, the actor didn’t set aside money for them because he didn’t want them to become “trust fund kids.” [New York Post]
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Crime, Department of Justice, Drugs
Major Corporation Indicted For Dealing Drugs?
Major corporation tries to kill another small business -- in this case, drug dealing.
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Department of Justice, Email Scandals, Eric Holder, Politics, R. Ted Cruz, Tax Law
Celebrate July 4th Like Our Founding Fathers Intended: By Questioning The Government
Wouldn't it be great if the government didn’t spoliate -- er, “recycle” -- any more evidence in the investigation of the IRS? -
Department of Justice, Election Law, Law Schools, Non-Sequiturs, Politics, Racism
Non-Sequiturs: 06.19.14
* Donald Sterling allegedly threatened to kill Shelly Sterling’s lawyer. Look Don, threatening to kill lawyers will certainly help your image, but you may be too far gone. [New York Daily News] * “Tagger arrested for tagging courtroom while awaiting prosecution for tagging.” [Lowering the Bar] * You know public law schools are more expensive today than in 1985. But just how much more expensive may absolutely shock you. [Lawyers, Guns & Money] * Law school tutor seems creepily excited about making students cry. [Sunshine and Potatoes] * 17 bizarre lawsuits. I don’t know, I view the people making sure I get every delicious inch of my meatball sub as heroes. [Crime Wire] * Dallas just threw its support behind reparations for slavery. Because obviously they didn’t bother to read the resolution. Democracy in action! [Gawker] * J. Christian Adams misunderstands an election law. This shocks me not at all. In the past, he complained to me that Pam Karlan didn’t understand voting rights based on a panel I covered. She’s now the Deputy Assistant Attorney General for Voting Rights and Adams is still spouting off (affiliate link) about how the DOJ is bending over to service the Black Panthers. [Election Law Blog] * Did you know the history of drones in America dates back to the Civil War? Well, now you do. And knowing is some proportion of the battle. Infographic below…. [Criminal Justice Degree Hub] -
Crime, Department of Justice, White-Collar Crime
The Perils of A Criminal Trial Redux; or, DOJ Belatedly Notices It Has Recording Equipment
A policy change at DOJ will hopefully reduce the ambiguity of interviews. -
Biglaw, California, Department of Justice, Gay Marriage, Law Firm Mergers, Law Schools, Morning Docket, Partner Issues, Patton Boggs, Sexism, Television
Morning Docket: 05.21.14
* A DLA Piper partner was cleared by the firm in connection with a string of sexist emails exchanged with a client because real lads don’t get in trouble for such trifling behavior. We’ll have more on this later. [Am Law Daily]
* Patton Boggs partners started voting on the firm’s merger with Squire Sanders yesterday. Apparently there’s at least one partner who will not be allowed to join the new firm because of prior conduct. Sucks to be you, guy. [Reuters]
* “It’s the best way to prepare for a whole variety of things.” Right now is one of the best times to go to law school, say California law school deans who really need to get asses in empty seats. [Daily Transcript]
* ““We are a better people than what these laws represent.” Pennsylvania’s ban on gay marriage was struck down yesterday, making it the 14th victory in a row for the marriage equality movement. [Bloomberg]
* Showtime just bought a law firm comedy about “four smartass, workaholic associates” in Biglaw trying to make partner and avoid being murdered by the office serial killer at the same time. Uh, yeah. [Deadline]
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Copyright, Department of Justice, Football, Law Schools, Non-Sequiturs, Technology
Non-Sequiturs: 05.20.14
* The best part of the DOJ’s charges against the Chinese hackers is definitely the fact that we now have a “Wanted” poster for “Wang Dong.” Third graders of the world, go ahead and snicker. [What About Clients] * This is a literal way of sticking it to the banks — man arrested for attempting to have sex with an ATM machine. He was charged with public intoxication. And solicitation… goddamned $3.00 out of network charge. [The Smoking Gun] * A new NFL lawsuit alleges that the NFL illegally used painkillers to cover up injuries. This story is brought to you by the letters D, U, and H. [Sports Illustrated] * In an interview, the admissions dean of the University of Texas says the school “extend[s] opportunities to students who aren’t 100% perfect on paper.” No kidding. [Tipping the Scales] * Australian lawyers are trying to argue that their cease and desist letters are copyrighted and cannot be republished. Professor Volokh explains why that’s not a viable argument in the United States. We. Totally. Concur. [The Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * A transwoman was denied a requested name change. The judge? The former counsel to Liberty University. Of course. [GayRVA] * Twitter icon Judge Dillard cited Wikipedia in a decision. Didn’t Keith Lee just have an article about that? [Court of Appeals of Georgia] * More analysis of Gaston Kroub’s look at Biglaw’s Scarlet Letter. [Law and More] * The DOJ announced that LSAC will pay $7.73 million and institute systemic reforms over its ADA violations. If only the DOJ could get on top of LSAC’s problems securing your private personal information. [U.S. Department of Justice (press release)] -
Books, Department of Justice, Eric Holder, Hillary Clinton, Media and Journalism, Politics, Quote of the Day
Blowing Up Eric Holder's Phone
What does Glenn Greenwald think of Hillary Clinton, and how much did he earn as a first-year Wachtell associate back in the 1990s? -
American Bar Association / ABA, Cass Sunstein, Department of Justice, Eric Holder, Non-Sequiturs, SCOTUS, Supreme Court, Tax Law
Non-Sequiturs: 04.01.14
So which of these are real and which are not? * Cass Sunstein is writing listicles on the best Supreme Court justices. [Bloomberg View] * Attorney General Holder is really going to get to the bottom of these serious allegations that the IRS targeted conservative groups. [TaxProf Blog] * The ABA is ending the mandatory use of the LSAT to allow some struggling schools more flexibility in filling empty seats. [The Faculty Lounge] * The DOJ is looking into whether or not “God” has such a stranglehold on religion in America that it constitutes an antitrust violation. [The Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * A pair of Texas lawyers tussle over the rights to a motorcycle club they ran. [Texas Lawyer] * Americans in the 80s made fun of lawyers more than any other society. [Overlawyered]