Above the Law

Morning Docket: 06.09.26

* Todd Blanche officially nominated as Attorney General and all it will cost him is, eventually, his license to practice law. [Reuters]

* Lockstep is on its way out. [American Lawyer]

* OpenAI follows Anthropic in filing IPO docs. [Law360]

* Gibson Dunn won charity raffle with million dollar bid, earning courtside seats to watch an exhibition of the worst basketball officiating in the world. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Federal judge strikes down Trump’s $100K H-1B fee as an illegal tax on businesses without congressional approval. [AP News]

* Lawyer quits practice to help open restaurant. [ABA Journal]

* Ken Paxton’s own lawyer endorses his opponent. [NOTUS]

Giving The Kennedy Center A Bad Name — See Also

Trump’s Kennedy Center Benchslapped Over Loser Of A Lawsuit: You think they’d point to an actual contract in a breach of contract suit!

Groom Law Adopts The Milbank Scale: Setting their associates up for success!

Zealous Advocacy Has Its Limits: Ken Paxton’s own lawyer didn’t vote for him.

Todd Blanche Is A Joke: John Oliver didn’t have to work too hard for these punchlines.

Ninth Circuit Judge Charged With Battery Over Parking Attempt Turned Violent: You’d think a judge would be better at staying in the lines.

Law School Gifted $5M To Study The Rule Of Law: Huge win for Temple!

Biglaw’s Lockstep Partner Compensation Is Dying

It's a victim of the hopping lateral partner market.

Trump And The Day After

The day after the elections, restraint evaporates.

Legal Ethics Roundup: Supervising Clerks Scrutinized In Wake Of Sex Scandal, High-Profile Discipline, Gifts For Judges, Lack Of Candor From DOJ, Lawyer Reprimanded For Faking Dementia & More

Your tour of all things related to lawyer and judicial ethics, with University of Houston law professor Renee Knake Jefferson.

AI Governance Isn’t Failing. It’s Just In The Wrong Place.

Contracts are not simply documenting AI relationships. They are structuring them.

Judge Eleanor Ross Impeachment Arrives Right On Schedule, Managing To Yet Again Botch The Standard

Trying to recast Judge Ross's bad behavior as a high crime is as exhausting as it is unnecessary.

Biglaw’s Talent Wars Are Getting More Expensive

Elite firms are battling over the same rainmakers -- and the price tag keeps climbing.

Temple Law Gifted $5M To Study The Rule Of Law

Woop woop!

Ninth Circuit Judge Ryan Nelson Charged With Battery Over Parking Lot Rumble

Misdemeanor battery charges are bad, but the real reason he's unfit for his office is this parking job.

Ken Paxton Can’t Even Get His Own Lawyer’s Vote

The Houston defense attorney who shepherded Paxton through impeachment and securities fraud is endorsing Democrat James Talarico.

Legal Geek 2026: We Caught The Car, Now What Do We Do With It?

Legal Geek is one of the few conferences that actually stops and tries to holistically figure out what the impact of AI will be.

‘Trump’ Kennedy Center Gets SLAPP-ed

Bravo!

The Legal Profession’s Yankee Stadium Moment

Baseball is as timeless as the law, and it looks different than it did just a few years ago too.

John Oliver Turned Todd Blanche’s Groveling Into A Dr. Seuss Book

'Brown Nose Goes H.A.M.' is not a real book, but it really should be.