Morning Docket

  • Morning Docket: 01.02.24
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 01.02.24

    * The answer to the question of whether the fake case citations tussle would be stupid or bad news for Michael Cohen has been answered: bad news for Michael Cohen. But also… how does the lawyer not check random research provided by a client?!? [NPR]

    * Steamboat Willie is now public domain… so obviously dumb people are turning it into NFTs. [Cointelegraph]

    * Key antitrust questions that the courts could — but inevitably won’t — answer. [Reuters]

    * Lawsuit alleges the NFL engaged in strong-arm, monopolistic practices? No, that can’t be! [Courthouse News Service]

    * DOJ plans to open the new year with a lot of white-collar guilty pleas. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * More than 130 lawyers join Pierson Ferdinand from Fisher Broyles. [American Lawyer]

  • Morning Docket: 12.29.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.29.23

    * The law firms we lost in 2023. Turn up your speakers and hit Sarah MacLachlan’s Angel for this one.[American Lawyer]

    * Maine joins Colorado and invokes the Fourteenth Amendment to bar Trump from the ballot. Critics point out that, politically, this is only happening in states Trump would lose in November — which is true — but it could compromise the nomination if he’s stripped of delegates from a significant number of states. Or could have compromised the nomination before Nikki Haley decided to blow up her career over a remedial American History question. [CNN]

    * DOJ threatens to sue Texas over its new border law because the Supremacy Clause still exists. [Houston Chronicle]

    * Meanwhile, employers are desperate for immigrant work options as full employment and labor shortages collide. So, obviously, the next election is going to turn on “blood poisoning.” [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Trial over NRA finances moves forward as NYAG believes she has smoking gun. [Reuters]

    * NY bans lawyers from practicing without an office in the state. WeWork definitely missed its moment. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

  • Morning Docket: 12.28.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.28.23

    * John Oates has moved on from partnership with Daryl Hall amid legal tussle. [People]

    * Trump wins right to appear on Michigan ballot. [CNN]

    * Judge took 5-year-old away from his mother to build the child’s “stress muscles” by depriving him of his primary caregiver. [Daily Montanan]

    * Bar looks to snatch Marilyn Mosby’s law license. [CBS]

    * Every Grand Canyon University ad seemed a little off. The FTC appears to agree. [Reuters]

    * Court stops the clock on Apple Watch import ban. [Bloomberg Law News]

  • Morning Docket: 12.27.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.27.23

    * Lawyer in trouble for having holiday spirit. [Fox News]

    * In-house looks to cut budgets again. [Corporate Counsel]

    * Ninth Circuit says former congressman convicted for taking illegal cash shouldn’t have been tried where he got his bribe, but could be tried again where he lied about the bribe. [Reuters]

    * Cryptocurrency creates boom market for lawyers… in bankruptcy. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Apple Watch imports halt as White House declines to veto international ban. [Law360]

  • Morning Docket: 12.22.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.22.23

    * There’s a math theorem in the making that whatever the severity of an existing allegation against Donald Trump, a more severe allegation exists. [CNN]

    * Paul Weiss office move becomes the biggest real estate transaction in the country this year. [Law360]

    * Many demand that Clarence Thomas recuse himself from January 6 cases which will never happen because it presumes a modicum of ethics. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Deals hit 10-year low in 2023, but conditions are on the upswing. [Reuters]

    * AI doesn’t require new agencies, the existing ones are just fine. True… but what happens when the Supreme Court overturns Chevron and guts those agencies? [WSJ]

    * Perhaps Ed Blum’s Bigot Brigade is done messing with law firms. [American Lawyer]

  • Morning Docket: 12.21.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.21.23

    * Former Gibson attorney sentenced to 2 months for insider trading. Shoulda taught not leaving a paper trail in school. [Law360]

    * It’s possible that team Trump isn’t sending their best. Or they are… which is more sad. [Politico]

    * Best holiday decorations in UK Biglaw. Anyone want to start that contest over here? Let us know. [LegalCheek]

    * SEC reworking rule after lawless federal judges blew up regulation and no one said “Fifth Circuit” but you all knew it was Fifth Circuit didn’t you? [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Supreme Court poised to explain how the smartest slaveholders in history understood ozone pollution and knew it was no biggie. [Reuters]

    * More litigation against AI for learning from published works. [New York Law Journal]

    * Crime rate is lowest in like forever… and yet. [NBC News]

  • Morning Docket: 12.20.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.20.23

    * Colorado Supreme Court kicks Trump off the ballot, which was inevitable since the trial court opinion had turned on the “the presidency is the only government office that is not held by an officer” argument. So now the U.S. Supreme Court is going to concoct some legal gibberish to make that fly… but John Roberts is a font of gibberish so this should work out for Trump. [Guardian]

    * AI cannot secure patents for its inventions in the UK. [Law360]

    * WilmerHale probing the wild weekend where OpenAI bounced Sam Altman and then… didn’t. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * More states jump on new bar exam. [Reuters]

    * New Mexico will bring back public court records after litigation between New Mexico and CNS. [Courthouse News Service]

  • Morning Docket: 12.19.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.19.23

    * John Roberts doesn’t need billionaire handouts to be the richest justice. [Forbes]

    * Greg Abbott prepares to squander Texas taxpayer dollars on supremacy clause fight. [AP]

    * Insurers jumping into the litigation finance game. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * The final law school class admitted before the Supreme Court struck down affirmative action is most diverse ever. [Reuters]

    * Every Norton Rose has its thorn. [American Lawyer]

    * Remember when Rudy Giuliani responded to his defamation case by defaming the same people again? Well, they also understand how to do the same thing twice. [Law360]

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  • Morning Docket: 12.18.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.18.23

    * After a successful pilot program, firm makes reduced pay for reduced hours option permanent. [LegalCheek]

    * Most lawyers don’t brag about getting sanctioned, but Alina Habba isn’t most lawyers. [RawStory]

    * Regulators reject fake money company’s offer to new fake money regulations. [Law360]

    * Looking back at a year of layoffs. [American Lawyer]

    * Law.com puts out its “go-to” law schools ranking for non-Biglaw career paths. [Law.com]

    * Southwest Airlines shells out over its catastrophic holiday collapse. [Reuters]

    * Lengthy profile of a legal typographer’s battle against AI run amok. [Bloomberg Law News]

  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.15.23

    * After being ordered to write an apology to Georgia voters, Sidney Powell and Ken Chesebro wrote perfunctory one-sentence letters. Seems totally sincere. [Law360]

    * Food and drug claims run rampant on TikTok and the FDA isn’t doing much about it. Look, if the Framers intended to prevent false advertising over smartphone video platforms, they would’ve written that in the Constitution. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Prince Harry scores victory over tabloids. [Reuters]

    * Stephen Miller’s America First Legal spends almost all of its money on publicity? Who could’ve imagined? [Daily Beast]

    * Male plaintiff wins big gender discrimination case. [Legal Intelligencer]

    * Everyone appears to be civil and professional in California today. [San Diego Union Tribune]

  • Morning Docket: 12.14.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.14.23

    * Big day of Supreme Court news as the justices consider curtailing the reach of obstruction charges in January 6 cases in a move that must delight Capitol riot cheerleader Ginni Thomas. [Politico]

    * Throw the mifepristone restrictions case on there too so they can overturn Chevron and declare food and drug safety unconstitutional for naked political reasons too. [National Law Journal]

    * And the Supreme Court’s affirmative action ruling driving law schools to abandon admissions tests entirely to avoid metrics that can be cherrypicked in future challenges. [Reuters]

    * Federal Circuit argues that Judge Pauline Newman’s lawsuit challenging the circuit’s suspension is moot because they’ve lifted the suspension and there’s no risk that the judge could fall behind on opinions again because they’re going to keep her suspended from hearing cases and actual judges committed this reasoning to paper and have the gall to question someone else’s acuity. [Law360]

    * An AI story with a Mr. Roboto reference. Well played. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Legal tech requires lawyers and engineers to talk to each other. That should be obvious, but maybe it wasn’t. [Forbes]

    * SBF lawyer agrees that his client sucked on the stand. [Futurism]

  • Morning Docket: 12.13.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.13.23

    * “How Some Big Law Firms Can Afford Associate Salary Raises.” They make tons of money. That’s the secret. [Law.com]

    * Florida AG begins official probe of college football for excluding Florida State from the playoffs in bid to squander even more taxpayer money on dumb publicity stunts. [WPTV]

    * Meta used copyrighted material to train AI, which shouldn’t necessarily constitute a copyright violation but we’re going to have a lot of stupid litigation about how it is. [Reuters]

    * DLA Piper stress testing artificial intelligence tools as it looks to the future. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Trump rests in NY. Prepares to rage in Truth Social. [Law360]

    * Now that Republicans no longer control the New York Court of Appeals, the state will undo its gerrymandered maps. [Washington Post]

    * Charlie Adelson sentenced to life. [NBC News]

  • Morning Docket: 12.12.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.12.23

    * Copyright office declines to register AI art for lack of creativity. I guess they haven’t seen Dan Epps create Muppet originalists. [Law360]

    * Now that she announced that she would leave the state to get the abortion to save her life, the Texas Supreme Court felt comfortable ruling that she wasn’t entitled to an abortion in Texas. But make no mistake, these cowards were trying to delay this so they didn’t have to put life and death stakes on their own misogyny. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * “Kirkland & Ellis: is it party over for the world’s most profitable law firm?” Fascinating deep dive. [Financial Times]

    * Some Shearman partners slashed their own pensions up to 50 percent to make the merger happen in case you were wondering how thirsty they were for a merger. [American Lawyer]

    * Judge bans family separation policies for 8 years. That should hold until roughly January 2025. [ABA Journal]

    * Epic beats Google. [Reuters]

    * Big 4 firm getting out of law in Hong Kong. [Law.com International]

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  • Morning Docket: 12.11.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.11.23

    * Donald Trump has decided not to testify proving that it’s at least hypothetically possible for him to listen to the advice of counsel. [CNN]

    * Texas Supreme Court issues stay on emergency abortion procedure. [Reuters]

    * WilmerHale under fire for prepping congressional testimony of several university presidents described by the Times as “dodging questions about their policies.” Technically, they accurately answered those questions but there’s a reason why NY Times Pitchbot is such a popular account. [NY Times]

    * Boies Schiller names Matthew Schwartz as its new chair after David Boies announced his plan to step out of the role next year. [Law360]

    * About a quarter of law schools plan to use the JD-Next admissions exam. [Law.com]

    * California admits youngest lawyer. [USA Today]

    * Murdaugh case spawns legal battle between lawyers over TikTok ethics charges. Bless this case for getting even stupider. [Daily Beast]

  • Morning Docket: 12.08.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.08.23

    * Transactional practices coming back just in time to pay for all those raises. [American Lawyer]

    * Meanwhile, the Wall Street Journal literally used the phrase “slower economy” after a quarter with 5 percent growth. You really have to appreciate the commitment to the bit. [Wall Street Journal]

    * ASS Law gets non-compliance notice? What an absolute shock to absolutely no one. [ABA Journal]

    * Canadian firm wins libel suit over bad review. [Law.com International]

    * Republican judges recast “incompetence” as “pattern of eliminating white males.” [Reuters]

    * Woman in Texas granted right to abort non-viable fetus threatening her, but the state sure tried to stop her. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Of all the conspiracies that Fox News imagined, it may turn out that Hunter Biden is really just bad at taxes. [Law360]

  • Morning Docket: 12.07.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.07.23

    * Lawyer asks that Donna Adelson, accused mastermind of the murder of law professor Dan Markel, be moved out of jail… preferably somewhere with easy access to an international airport. [Tallahassee Democrat]

    * Cocaine’s a hell of a drug. [ABA Journal]

    * Wolf assures public that sheep are safe if the Supreme Court eliminates wolf repellent. [Law360]

    * Hunter Biden says he’s only going to testify in a public hearing, irritating House leadership who really want something they can twist later. [NPR]

    * After firing cancer patient over marijuana test, company had the opportunity to show basic humanity. Guess what it did instead. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Spencer Fane moves into Salt Lake City market after merging with Snow Christensen & Martineau. [Reuters]

    * Proskauer chief steps down. [American Lawyer]

  • Morning Docket: 12.06.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.06.23

    * Texas woman heads to court to get an abortion after learning the fetus is not viable and seriously threatens her health. You know, the sort of medical tragedy that definitely needs more lawyers, judges, and briefing. [Reuters]

    * While Joshua Wright files more ill-advised lawsuits, the judge tossed his first $108M suit until he can allege some actually defamatory statements. [MLex]

    * Sam Alito wants to help his buddy defund the United States. It’s not working out for him. [Slate]

    * Wisconsin’s radical anti-union law could soon meet its match. [The Nation]

    * NY case considers whether 401k plans should be barred from making investment decisions that make politicians unhappy. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Professor Jim Park discusses the history of securities fraud in the United States and it’s as bad as you’d think. [Oh My Fraud]

    * A pair of mid-sized firms pair up to create a firm that should make the next Am Law 200. [Law360]

  • Morning Docket: 12.05.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.05.23

    * Law firm leaders less optimistic going into 2024, in case you were still wondering if the average law firm leader has any clue how business works. They entered 2023 in the midst of flagging growth and 8 percent inflation combining to bring deal activity to a near halt and they felt BETTER than they do going into 2024 with red-hot 5.2 percent growth and inflation that’s going to settle just under 3 percent (and bring down interest rates with it)? [American Lawyer]

    * Court struggles to determine if Second Amendment covers switchblades. Time to scour the work of 18th century greasers to see what they thought. [Courthouse News Service]

    * Supreme Court looks into legality of shield protecting Sackler family from opioid settlement. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Meanwhile, The Onion has coverage of how Clarence Thomas is approaching this case. [The Onion]

    * DeSantis cronies on new board governing Disney property accuse the company of controlling the old board. Which it acknowledges wasn’t illegal. These people really can’t get any dumber. [Reuters]

    * Golden Gate is done, but the challenges for students are just getting started after ABA nixes school’s teachout plan. [ABA Journal]

    * Former Biglaw attorney begins second murder trial. [Law360]

  • Morning Docket: 12.04.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.04.23

    * Could it be that originalism revolves around blatant historical falsehoods? Yes, don’t be silly, of course it is. [Politico]

    * Supreme Court eyes blowing up tax law while it’s at it. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Judge characterizes Google’s tactics as deeply troubling. If these shenanigans offend him, don’t let him see what’s going on in any of the Trump cases. [Law360]

    * Trump’s legal team suggests delaying trial until Trump leaves office after the hypothetical next term because… reasons. [Washington Post]

    * Federal judiciary asks for less money this year but still warns of shortfall. Congress shouldn’t even pay the heating bills until the Supreme Court adopts ethics rules with teeth. [Reuters]

    * The Fifth Circuit does a lot of stupid stuff, but its new AI regulation is a low-key contender for its dumbest [Law.com]

    * Amazon’s approach to unionizing workers was unsurprisingly illegal [CNBC]

  • Morning Docket: 12.01.23
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.01.23

    * Miss Manners asked the appropriate way to respond when people make fun of lawyers. Somehow the answer wasn’t, “just suck it up you weenie.” [Washington Post]

    * Study confirms that there aren’t enough legal aid lawyers. [ABA Journal]

    * Giving the judges a Nazi salute seems like it should be worth a lot more than a 250 quid fine. [RollonFriday]

    * Google takes aim at Microsoft with UK antitrust regulators. [Reuters]

    * Another Biglaw firm yanks an offer over public statements supporting Palestinians. This one’s headed to the EEOC. [Bloomberg Law News]

    * Biglaw associate approved for admission to Maryland bar despite cheating issues. [Law.com]

    * In resounding triumph for free speech, Montanans can watch stupid videos again. [Law360]