Morning Docket

* Billing rates are up and somehow the narrative around this never mentions that we had a spate of overall inflation in the middle. [American Lawyer]

* Lawyer pleads guilty to paying clerk for referrals. The hustle is real. [ABA Journal]

* DOJ asks court to strip Eric Adams of control over Rikers Island. Was he trying to sell that to Turkey too? [Gothamist]

* Bob Menendez hires Paul Hastings. [Reuters]

* Federal Circuit asking judge to let them continue to pocket impeach Pauline Newman just like it doesn’t say they can in the Constitution. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Abuse lawsuit against Diddy settles instantly. Seems like something that could’ve been handled with a demand letter. [Law360]

* David Boies plans to step back from firm leadership in 2025. [Litigation Daily]

* Mistrial in the Breonna Taylor case. [CNN]

* DEI consulting is booming after the Supreme Court rollback of affirmative action. [Bloomberg Law]

* Progress on an alternative to the bar exam in California. [Reuters]

* Judge in Google search case keeping a very open mind. [Law360]

* Alex Murdaugh one step closer to a new trial. [Law & Crime]

* Lawyers didn’t realize plaintiff was dead. The peril of contingency work, because with monthly billing they would’ve been all over that. [Bloomberg Law News]

* The antitrust case for cheating at football. [Wall Street Journal]

* Judiciary Committee Dems prepared to take the most cowardly way out again. [Courthouse News Service]

* AI passes ethics exam, proving that the ethics test fails to catch the sort of advocate who would just blatantly make up fake caselaw. [Reuters]

* Lawsuit against Amazon focuses on social casinos.[Law.com]

* Attorney for Georgia co-defendant leaked the proffer videos saying the world had a “right to know” what was in there. [Law360]

* John Kennedy continues to ask inane Black’s Law Dictionary questions of federal judiciary nominees waiting for them to be confused about what he’s trying to get at when he’s asking about a random legal concept. It’s basically a latter day version of a segregationist literacy test: struggle to figure out the nuance, get blasted as “unable to answer basic questions”; answer with a simplistic definition, get called out for “having only the most basic understanding.” [Fox News]

* Fifth Circuit says state bar dues violate the First Amendment. Alexander Hamilton must have mentioned something about it in a pamphlet somewhere once. [Courthouse News Service]

* The Blind Side saga continues as player asks court to stop giving his money to the folks that allowed everyone to believe they’d adopted him. Sandra Bullock is getting another Oscar for this sequel. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Oregon’s recent reform to attorney licensing continues to inspire hope for other jurisdictions. [Oregon Live]

* Muslim bar associations write Biglaw firms arguing that public statements and actions over the past few weeks have fueled Islamophobia. [CNN]

* Meanwhile, NYU sued over disparate and discriminatory application of its procedures when it comes to antisemitic attacks. The complaint alleges that the school isn’t doing anything about chants like “gas the Jews” and “Hitler was right,” which stray pretty far from the sort of difficult line drawing between criticizing the war and bigotry other institutions grapple with.  [Reuters]

* Court hands full control of the Pac-12 to the only 2 schools left in the Pac-12. [ESPN]

* Trump tries to explain how his property valuations get so wacky. [Law360]

* Suing the bar exam doesn’t work no matter how broken it is. [ABA Journal]

* Look what the guilty plea fairy just coughed up in the Trump case! [Guardian]

* For our next trick, watch the Eighth Amendment disappear before your very eyes! [Reuters]

* WeWork’s auditor moves out. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Not content to just complain about rates, in-house counsel complain about the whole concept of hourly billing. [Corporate Counsel]

* Google CLO searches for answers. [Law360]

* Orangetheory’s lawyers use AI to complete job in half the time. Gyms… always looking for the easy way out. [Fortune]

* Law schools turn to Taylor Swift to teach material. “So you see class, that’s why when there’s no body, there’s no crime.” [AP]

* Judge denies motion to probe jurors over alleged group chat in Charlie Adelson murder trial. [ABA Journal]

* DeNiro’s former assistant wins $1.2 million in gender discrimination suit. [Courthouse News Service]

* Trump wants criminal trials televised in latest test of his theory that he can commit a crime in public and still have supporters. [Reuters]

* Cleary plans to add half a billion in revenue. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Chambers is getting sold for $490 million… which seems like a lot for Chambers, right? [Law360]

* It’s time, once again, for GCs to whine about law firms raising their rates slightly below the rate of inflation. [American Lawyer]

* “US appeals court calls Biden’s ‘ghost gun’ limits unlawful.” You have five guesses which appeals court and the first four don’t count. [Reuters]

* Embattled NYC Mayor Eric Adams hires WilmerHale after FBI raids top fundraiser and Adams say it as personally threatening enough to cancel a meeting with Biden to come home and deal with it. [Gothamist]

* Cyberattack on A&O-not-yet-Shearman. How many times do we have to tell you guys not to click that link? [Law360]

* Partner resigns over misconduct claims. [RollOnFriday]

* American economy desperately needs an influx of workers and there’s a 9 million application backlog on work visas. So, obviously, the country is flirting with closing the borders next election. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Torts making a comeback, baby! [Law.com]

* Prince Harry’s case against the Daily Mail continues. [Daily Beast]

* Senate set to subpoena Leonard Leo and Harlan Crow to chat about the not-so-lost art of buying influence. [Reuters]

* How non-equity partners solve one nagging problem for Biglaw. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Forbes is doing a lawyer ranking. They have such a great track record with their other rankings. [Forbes]

* Reacting to Biglaw’s open letter on campus antisemitism, law school deans “unsure, though, what the letter is asking the schools to do.” Could that be because the letter was a vapid PR stunt? [American Lawyer]

* American lawyer pulls gun and kills two environmental protesters in Panama. [Daily Beast]

* Citi ordered to pay up over pattern of discrimination against Armenians, which seems weirdly specific. [Law360]

* Michigan reportedly hiring Williams & Connolly in anticipation of Big Ten discipline. Well, that certainly sends a… signal. [Wolverines Wire]

* It’s Ivanka’s turn to take the stand. On a school day? [Reuters]

* It seemed as though there might be a majority for the idea that the Second Amendment might not have envisioned an unfettered right for violent criminals to keep guns. [Law360]

* Wachtell names new leadership. [American Lawyer]

* Lawyer taking home about another 50 percent on top of his salary with social media influencer hustle. [LegalCheek]

* NY puts off looking into proposals that could allow non-attorneys to provide some legal services to cover justice gap. [New York Law Journal]

* WeWork hoping to use bankruptcy law to storm back for the hybrid work world. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Idaho charging family with kidnapping for taking daughter out of state to get abortion care. [ABA Journal]

* Supreme Court set to hear whether or not states can bar Grand Theft Auto caricatures from having guns. As a reminder, the Fifth Circuit said “no” and then preemptively suggested any justice who ruled differently was a spineless RINO. So the judicial system is having a normal one. [CBS News]

* Charlie Adelson guilty of murdering of law professor Dan Markel. [NY Times]

* Trump’s day of testimony was exactly as bonkers as promised. [CNN]

* WeWork files for bankruptcy having flopped right before “hey we might need flexible office space” became a key business need. [Law360]

* Biglaw’s not plugged into AI yet, but AI it’s coming to Biglaw and it’s bringing more tech with it. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Supreme Court finds bacon challenge undercooked [Reuters]

* Donald Trump set to testify in New York. Be there, will be wild. [Reuters]

* Stroock files notice that it’s laying off roughly 140 people in New York. [Bloomberg Law News]

* The administration’s antitrust push hasn’t netted all the results one might’ve hoped, but Lina Khan’s tenure at the FTC may have some knock on effects as law students embrace antitrust work. [Politico]

* More firms are condemning senior associates to a holding pattern. [American Lawyer]

* Defamation filings are on the rise and it’s a real, shall we say, SLAPP in the face. [ABA Journal]

* It’s Pro Bono Week in the UK — the sort of annual recognition of good works that frightens and confuses Americans. [LegalCheek]

* NCAA faces billions in damages after feasting at the free labor trough for decades. [Law360]

* Ivanka Trump cited “undue hardship” because her testimony was scheduled during “a school week.” The appellate court… disagreed. [CNN]

* Sam Bankman-Fried is guilty. But Alex Kirshner’s burning question is… why was the defense so bad? [Slate]

* Rudy asks DC to please not disbar him. [Reuters]

* Retiring Biglaw leaders have firms thinking about succession. Presumably multiple rounds of Boar on the Floor. [Bloomberg Law News]

* George W. Bush judge declines seems disinclined to shut down NC Supreme Court’s probe of its only Black justice for saying the North Carolina court system isn’t particularly diverse, which seems like more a statement of fact than a controversial claim. [Law360]

* Survey finds that 17 percent of Biglaw attorneys feel emotionally depleted at work. An additional 83 percent have already had their capacity for human feeling permanently drained. [ABA Journal]

* BLM — the law firm, not Black Lives Matter or the Bureau of Land Management — accidentally gave videos of a kid to a pedophile. [Roll on Friday]

* Surge Pricing: Uber and Lyft to pay $328 million over wage theft probe. [Courthouse News Service]

* If you thought the bar exam was bad, in the UK they just made applicants wait 6 hours for the SQE and then sent them home because of IT issues. [LegalCheek]

* Donald Trump Jr. testifies that he was clueless as to how the company kept track of money, and if there’s anyone who comes across as plausibly clueless, it’s Jr. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Trump Sr. is already putting together his second-term legal team. [The New Republic]

* After the U.S. Judicial Conference reversed the Second Circuit, which had glibly looked the other way in an ethics case involving judges hiring a clerk with a public record of racist remarks, the Second Circuit ruled that the matter is closed because they refuse to take orders from the national judicial conference. [Reuters]

* Single-tier partnerships getting battered by market conditions. [American Lawyer]

* Former Goldman banker gets 3 years. [Law360]

* D.C. attempts to get free legal services to evicted tenants. [Washington Post]

* Could it be that associates actually want to work as hard as ever, they just don’t have any patience for bad management? No… it’s the children who are wrong. [Law.com]

* On that note, lateral partner moves increasingly driven by quest for more associate support. [American Lawyer]

* Ohio clerk tries to hide public records to maintain control. It’s not going well for her. [Courthouse News Service]

* New bar exam already has buy-in from a handful of states. [Reuters]

* Lawyers eyeing more stock drop suits because why admit you misjudged the market when you can sue a company? [Bloomberg Law News]

* After getting into the weeds, jury awards $332M in Roundup case. [Law360]

* Judges can’t bust into people’s homes without warrants… who do they think they are? Cops? [ABA Journal]

* Biglaw and finance shouldering the commercial real estate load as they fight to return to the office load while every other industry embraces the 21st century. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Cross-examination teaches SBF that you can’t cover the lows by borrowing from other people’s good testimony. [Law360]

* Firms plan to pursue rate hikes over the next year while client spin warns of the recession that’s still never materialized. [American Lawyer]

* London more popular than New York for commercial disputes. [LegalCheek]

* Artists lose opening bid to hold AI legally liable for training on existing art work. [Courthouse News Service]

* Just in time for Halloween, the government seeks to protect JetBlue from taking in an evil Spirit. [Reuters]

* Florida lawyers looking to put Anthony Fauci on trial because… Florida. [Newsweek]

* State AG’s explain how Facebook algorithms are just like tobacco and opioids. Except, you know, instead of killing you it recommends you a new toaster oven. [Law.com]

* Adelson defense team argues that dental hygienists decided to murder Dan Markel herself and extort Adelson family on the theory that law enforcement would blame them once they caught her and determined that she was close to the family… or something. [ABA Journal]

* Not with a bang but with a whimper: After failing to find a merger partner, Stroock may wither away with over 30 partners making individual lateral moves to Hogan Lovells. [Law360]

* Trump gag order back in place. Notably it does not extend to Judge Chutkan so he’s been on a rant about her “Trump Derangement Syndrome” since late last night. [Reuters]

* Joe Biden issues broad AI regulation order through executive order since every other avenue of government is broken. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Allen & Overy sells legal tech subsidiary aosphere to private equity. [Financial Times]

* We’re sad to report the passing of legal journalist and former Above the Law columnist Monica Bay who covered everything from the rock scene to legal technology over the course of her lengthy career. [LawNext]

* Remember Morgan Lewis partner Sheri Dillon? She’s the one who stood in front of a pile of — for all we know empty — folders and told everyone that they didn’t need to see Donald Trump’s taxes because they were fine. Well, the AG had some questions about that at trial yesterday. [Law360]

* Pillsbury ends merger talks with Stroock as two of the most star-crossed potential merger partners in Biglaw fail to get together. [American Lawyer]

* Today’s the day for Sam Bankman-Fried testimony. [Reuters]

* Bonus season is about a month away and likely to be a 2022 redux. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Attorney for Clarence Thomas denies that the justice’s RV loan was forgiven. Naturally, he refuses to provide any corroboration for this. [The Hill]

* Maryland posthumously admits Black lawyer it denied 166 years ago. [Washington Post]

* Legal tech prices are heading up. [Law.com]

* Are firms going to start outsourcing associate training? An interesting concept! What if we had “schools” where prospective lawyers could learn the “law” before getting to the firm. We could call them “law schools.” Meh… it’ll never work. [American Lawyer]

* Comprehensive breakdown of the average workday start and finish times at each UK firm. [LegalCheek]

* In light of SBF’s decision to take the stand, here are some past instances of high-profile white-collar defendants testifying on their own behalf. Much like crypto, you never know how it’ll turn out but probably not great. [Reuters]

* Judge Pauline Newman files brief taking her Federal Circuit colleagues to task for their extra-constitutional efforts to remove her from the bench. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Eleventh Circuit nixes Home Depot’s effort to derail the Blue Cross settlement. [Law360]

* Apple has joined the right-to-repair effort. [Quartz]

* Mark Meadows has immunity? Well, well, well. [ABC]

* Meta targeted for hooking kids through algorithms say state attorneys general seeking to increase their reelection profiles with a lawsuit designed to game the Google algorithm . [Law360]

* New bipartisan push for Supreme Court term limits. Because Harlan Crow should have to buy vacations for other people too. [Reuters]

* Florida asks Supreme Court to reinstate its anti-drag show law and somehow Clarence Thomas will decide that the ban comports with the original understanding of a bunch of guys who wore stockings and wigs. [CNN]

* Forget government and academia, former Supreme Court clerks are making bank in litigation finance. [Law.com]

* NLRB set to consider whether college athletes are properly university employees roughly 50 years after the fact. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Former Connecticut senate attorney heads to prison. [CT Insider]

* There are “thousands of trained therapy dogs found in courthouses across the country” to help jurors and attorneys deal with stress. On the one hand, awwwwww. On the other hand, we’re officially too soft as a nation. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Quinn Emanuel and Latham both earn benchslappings unsealed. [Law360]

* Tim Scott warns that Democrats want to legalize abortion up to the 52nd week. Ah, the classic “fourth trimester abortion.” [Huffington Post]

* Speaking of abortion, Ohio’s GOP Attorney General put out his “non-partisan” assessment of the upcoming reproductive rights ballot measure and wouldn’t you know it, returning to the status quo of the prior half century results in fire and brimstone. [Ohio Capital Journal]

* Folks want digital payments for mass torts, which is so logical I’m sure it will be fought tooth and nail by the courts. [Law.com]

* The diploma mill model hasn’t worked out. [Reuters]

* Speaking Portuguese is good for your legal career. [LegalCheek]