7th Circuit
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Federal Judges, Politics
Circuit Court Nominees In The Trump Administration: A Nationwide Round-Up
Names, names, and more names, for federal judgeships around the country. -
Federal Judges, Gay, Music
Judge Richard Posner Confesses Error
This brilliant jurist is hipper than you might expect. - Sponsored
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
ChatGPT ushers in the age of generative AI – even for law firms. -
Federal Judges, Gay, Labor / Employment
A Judicial Battle Royal At The Seventh Circuit -- And Judge Posner's Favorite Gays Of All Time
SCOTUS shortlisters and other luminaries of the federal judiciary duke it out in a landmark case.
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.05.17
* Talk about an alleged fashion faux pas! LuLaRoe, the maker of the “buttery-soft” leggings that have taken the internet by storm, is facing a class-action lawsuit over the quality of the company’s leggings. Plaintiffs claim that the leggings as “tear[] as easily as wet toilet paper.” LuLaRoe, of course, has stated that the allegations are “completely without merit.” [BuzzFeed]
* “There’s a reason they call it the nuclear option, and that is because there’s fallout. And this fallout will be dangerously and perhaps disastrously radioactive for the Senate for years to come.” Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has set a vote to change Senate rules in order to confirm Supreme Court nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch. [Reuters]
* In a landmark en banc decision, the Seventh Circuit reversed itself and ruled that the Civil Rights Act of 1964 protects LGBT employees from workplace discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. This is not only the first time in history that a federal appellate court has come to this conclusion, but it also creates a split from a recent Eleventh Circuit opinion. This will likely be heard by the Supreme Court. [TIME]
* Squire Patton Boggs has formed an alliance with Donald Trump’s longtime personal attorney, Michael Cohen, who credits himself as the one who convinced the president to run for office. At this time, it’s unclear what exactly Cohen will be doing for the firm, but he’ll be working from the firm’s offices in New York, London, and D.C. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Dislike: Facebook must turn over digital information from almost 400 user accounts following its failed bid at the New York Court of Appeals to appeal a bulk warrant on privacy grounds. A lone judge dissented, bemoaning the fact that the high court punted on a case that could have disastrous effects on civil liberties. [New York Daily News]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 03.16.17
* What does the future hold for the U.S. Supreme Court? Analysts (including yours truly) opine. [Bloomberg BNA via Storify]
* Another prediction of ours has come to pass: congrats to Sullivan & Cromwell partner Brent McIntosh on his nomination as general counsel for the Treasury Department. [Corporate Counsel]
* Is it time to break up the Ninth Circuit (as President Trump recently called for)? Professors John Eastman and Brian Fitzpatrick say yay; Judges Sidney Thomas, Carlos Bea, and Alex Kozinski say nay. [House Judiciary Committee]
* Anthony Kronman: from dean of Yale Law School to “born-again pagan” (affiliate link). [New Yorker via How Appealing]
* Looking for smart, timely takes on the Trump Administration, from an all-star cast of law professors and legal experts? There’s a site for that. [Take Care]
* Guess who: “Cat-loving judge makes case that has nothing to do with cats all about cats.” [Chicago Tribune]
* Professor Orin Kerr chats with Professor Barry Friedman about Friedman’s latest book, Unwarranted: Policing Without Permission (affiliate link). [Volokh Conspiracy]
* The current SCOTUS Term isn’t super-sexy — but there are a few interesting cases on the docket, as Adam Feldman points out. [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Attention 2Ls & 3Ls, here’s a cool contest — with $100K in scholarships as prizes! [PR Newswire (press release)]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.19.17
* The Seventh Circuit — in an opinion by Judge Diane Sykes, a top-tier SCOTUS possibility under President Trump — just struck down Chicago ordinances regulating shooting ranges as violative of Second Amendment rights. [ABC News]
* Speaking of firearms, law professor Fredrick Vars has an excellent proposal for preventing gun suicides. [Washington Post]
* Possible good news for legalizing sports betting in New Jersey: the U.S. Supreme Court wants to hear from the solicitor general on this issue (although we don’t yet know who the solicitor general will be). [How Appealing]
* But we think we know who the principal deputy solicitor general will be — Noel Francisco, whose imminent departure from Jones Day is now public. [National Law Journal]
* In other Justice Department news, what can we expect from Jeff Sessions’s DOJ in terms of civil rights enforcement? [New York Times]
* Are we seeing a “fragile recovery” in the number of people interested in law school? [ABA Journal]
* If you share my curiosity about the future of Chief Judge Merrick Garland in the wake of his unsuccessful SCOTUS nomination, it seems that the distinguished jurist is back on the bench — at least for now. [National Law Journal]
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Federal Judges, Gay, Weirdness
A Federal Judge's Rather Rude Joke About Lesbians
The Seventh Circuit, sitting en banc, delves into... lesbianism. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 12.01.16
* GCs just keep getting raises. Some reports suggest compensation is up almost 7 percent this year. But don’t worry — they’ll still bitch and moan about Biglaw associates getting a small cost of living bump. [Corporate Counsel]
* If you haven’t been paying attention, William & Mary Law School has been on FIRE lately. No, literally, the school is on fire. Call 911. [WAVY 10]
* Seventh Circuit may soon rule en banc to ban sexual orientation bias. You know, until Congress and the President impeach the entire Seventh Circuit to bring it back. Wow that was an absurd sentence and yet it’s entirely plausible right now. [Law360]
* Kelley Drye enters the Texas market. [The Am Law Daily]
* Heroic big banks are demolishing patent trolls while everyone else continues to suffer, which sounds about right. [Law.com]
* China’s got a new cybersecurity law and it’s not good news for foreign businesses. [Fortune]
* But don’t worry, the U.S. is now just as intrusive with new rules taking effect today that allow judges to order broader government hacking for investigative fishing expeditions. So… yay! [Ars Technica]
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Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
7th Circuit, Federal Judges
Judge Frank Easterbrook Has Had It With These Damn Rats
Setting a trap for the rats infesting his docket. -
U.S. Attorneys Offices, White-Collar Crime
Negotiating Is Not a Crime
The government's epic fail: trying to jail someone for basic negotiation... -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 03.29.16
* Legal showdown averted (for now): the feds were able to access the data on the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone without any help from Apple. [Washington Post]
* A Harvard Law School grad stands accused of a $95 million fraud scheme — yikes. We’ll have more on this later. [ABA Journal]
* Does a sentencing delay violate the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial? Some on SCOTUS seem skeptical. [How Appealing]
* Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announces his intention to veto the Free Exercise Protection Act, which critics claimed would have protected discrimination as a form of religious liberty. [New York Times]
* Hillary Clinton takes Republicans to task for their handling of the current Supreme Court vacancy. [Wisconsin State Journal via How Appealing]
* Some thoughts from Professor Noah Feldman on the recent Seventh Circuit ruling about the use of form contracts on the internet (which nobody reads). [Bloomberg View]
* Save money (on taxes), live better: a federal judge strikes down a tax levied by Puerto Rico on mega-retailer Wal-Mart. [Reuters]
* The Bracewell law firm, now sans Giuliani, elects Gregory Bopp as its new managing partner. [Texas Lawyer]
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Bankruptcy, Law Schools, Student Loans
The Tetzlaff Aftermath: Discharging Student Loans In Bankruptcy Might Be Easier Than We Thought
Columnist Shannon Achimalbe wonders: are potentially eligible people being dissuaded from even trying to discharge their student loans in bankruptcy? -
Bankruptcy, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Are You There, SCOTUS? It’s Me, Tetzlaff. The Harsh Bankruptcy Discharge Rules Are Not Protecting The Integrity Of The Federal Student Loan Program
It's time for the courts or for Congress to act, according to columnist Shannon Achimalbe.
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The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
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Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
Legal AI: 3 Steps Law Firms Should Take Now
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Bankruptcy, SCOTUS, Supreme Court
Are You There, SCOTUS? It's Me, Tetzlaff. Why The U.S. Supreme Court Should Resolve The Student Loan Bankruptcy Conflict
It's high time for the Supreme Court to clarify how student loans get treated in bankruptcy, according to columnist Shannon Achimalbe. -
Gay, Gay Marriage, Richard Posner
Judge Richard Posner On Homosexuality: 'Incredibly Weird'
Judge Posner's views on gays and gay marriage have evolved greatly since he was 13 years old -- and so have the American people's. -
7th Circuit, Benchslaps
Judge Posner Drops Truth Bombs Like It Ain't No Thang
Judge Richard Posner is the Republican-appointed judge we need on the Supreme Court. He may not be the one we deserve, and will almost certainly not be the one we get, but it is fun to imagine. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 09.25.15
* Why are so many law grads failing the bar exam? Law profs, a law dean, and a Biglaw recruiting specialist all have answers to this question… and only some of them come close to being satisfactory. [Room for Debate / New York Times]
* Jurors in the Dewey & LeBoeuf trial have deliberated for five days thus far, and seem to be no closer to coming to a verdict than when they first started. They’re quibbling over thesaurus entries for the word “fake” (i.e., “fake income”). [Am Law Daily]
* Thanks to the OnRamp Fellowship, more women lawyers are making a reentry into the legal profession through Biglaw firms than ever before. Participating firms now include Skadden Arps and MoFo, amongst others. Congrats! [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]
* Law school enrollment may be stagnant across the country, but at Colorado Law, it’s booming. The size of the school’s incoming class is 22 percent larger than last year’s was. What can we say other than students were sTOKEd to get in. [Boulder Daily Camera]
* If you’re ever fired from your job, charged with insider trading, and the SEC wants access to your work phone, take heart in the fact that your personal passcode is just that — personal. The SEC can’t treat it as a business record thanks to this ruling. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Richard Cudahy Sr., longtime Seventh Circuit judge, RIP. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]
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Benchslaps
Judge Posner Rips Poor Winston & Strawn Lawyer
Judge Posner and Judge Hamilton tag team a litigator given an impossible task. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.26.15
* Melvin Feliz, husband of Keila Ravelo, the partner who allegedly bilked Hunton & Williams and Willkie Farr out of millions to lead a life of luxury, pleaded guilty in the fraud case brought against him. Is she a prospective Real Housewife of Cellblock D? [Bergen Record]
* Sorry, Southwest passengers, but the Seventh Circuit says you’re stuck with your free drink vouchers, and the lawyers who represented you in this class-action suit are stuck with their $1.65 million. No one is happy up in the unfriendly skies. [Associated Press]
* China’s economy may be on the brink, but that doesn’t matter to Dentons. The firm is as happy as ever about its proposed merger with Dacheng because it really wants a horde of lawyers, so it’s gonna get one. It’s “almost absurd” to think otherwise. [Am Law Daily]
* As we mentioned yesterday, lawyers work too damn much — so much, in fact, that they’re quitting their Biglaw jobs, starting competitor practices, and poaching talent from top firms by offering them a sense of work-life balance. [Harvard Business Review]
* Kevin Fagan, perhaps better known as Juror 83 in the Dzhokhar Tsarnaev trial, is speaking to the media about his experience, and says he might’ve changed his death penalty vote if he had known the youngest victim’s parents opposed it. [WSJ Law Blog]
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7th Circuit, Benchslaps, Federal Judges
Benchslaps Fly Over Judges Doing Factual Research On The Internet
The benchslaps are fun, but the debate is real and important.