Attorney Misconduct

* Our thoughts and prayers go out to the families, friends, and colleagues of the victims of the deadliest church shooting in modern U.S. history, which took place yesterday in Sutherland Springs, Texas. This is the second mass shooting in a little more than one month. [ABC News]

* The Russian election collusion investigation is just getting started, but lawmakers have introduced a nonbinding resolution demanding that special counsel Robert Mueller resign due to his “obvious conflicts of interest.” [POLITICO]

* “Jeff, you need to tell us everything you know about Russia.” Senator Lindsey Graham wants AG Jeff Sessions to testify again before the Senate Judiciary Committee about whether there were any arranged meetings between President Trump’s campaign and Russia. [UPI]

* According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal profession lost 1,100 jobs in October, which is depressing news for jobless law school graduates who just found out positive bar exam news. [American Lawyer]

* LSAT or GRE? Thanks to a vote by the ABA’s Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar, it might not matter. If this proposal passes, soon law schools won’t even have to test potential applicants seeking admission. [Law.com]

* Advice for the internet hero who shut down President Trump’s Twitter account on his last day of work: “Don’t say anything and get a lawyer.” Why? He likely violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. [The Hill]

* Todd Macaluso, one of Casey Anthony’s former attorneys, has been found guilty in an international cocaine distribution conspiracy involving a plane load of drugs worth about $13 million. He plans to appeal his conviction. [New York Daily News]

* Judge Posner wasn’t kidding when he said he wanted to help pro ses. Now that he’s retired, he’s decided to “dedicate [his] post-judicial career” to the cause. He recently filed an affidavit to serve as advisory counsel to a pro se litigant before the Fourth Circuit. [Big Law Business]

* This administration is full of Biglaw attorneys: Trump’s nominee to lead the FTC is Joseph Simons, co-chairman of the antitrust group at Paul, Weiss. Prior to joining the firm, he served as the Director of the Bureau of Competition at the FTC. Congrats! [National Law Journal]

* Harvard Law’s Student Government is planning to conduct a mental health survey in an effort to assist students with mental health issues. They’re also teaming up with Parody, the school’s law revue squad, to film videos addressing mental health issues. Hmm, nothing at all could possibly go wrong here. [Harvard Crimson]

* GW Law School has implemented a bunch of diversity initiatives this year, but apparently the members of the faculty have absolutely no idea what they are or what they entail. This… doesn’t seem very helpful. [GW Hatchet]

* Johnny Depp has filed a malpractice suit against Hergott Diemer Rosenthal LaViolette Feldman Schenkman & Goodman (that’s a mouthful), claiming the firm and its lawyers had a hand in putting him in a bad place financially. [Am Law Daily]

* The Supreme Court, without any dissents, has allowed the Trump administration’s refugee ban to stand while the case proceeds, temporarily staying a Ninth Circuit ruling to the contrary. As my colleague Elie Mystal wondered yesterday, “Why is Kennedy stepping on the Ninth Circuit here? Why do any of them want this?” [New York Times]

* Not that recommending prosecutions is part of her job, but White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders thinks that the Justice Department might want to prosecute former FBI director James Comey because his leaks “were improper and likely could have been illegal.” [Washington Post]

* “It’s going to be death by a thousand cuts if people keep leaving at this rate.” Ropes & Gray seems to be leaking partners like a sieve. In fact, 19 partners have parted ways with the firm since this past January. Not to worry, because according to management this is fine. [Legal Week]

* Lynne Hermle, a partner in the labor and employment practice group at Orrick, thinks that in-house counsel need to adopt their own versions of the Mansfield Rule when hiring and staffing their trial teams. Why not have a woman lead your trial team? Juries tend to listen to them. [Business Insider]

* Rob Ranco, a Texas personal injury attorney who landed himself on the front page of Breitbart last week after tweeting that he’d “be ok if #BetsyDevos was sexually assaulted,” resigned from his firm, agreeing with his managing partner that he’d crossed “a line that simply cannot be uncrossed.” [Law.com]

* “It’s a terrible signal for this group to be holding their meeting at the Trump International Hotel and for a Supreme Court justice to legitimate it by attending. It just violates basic ethical principles about conflicts of interest.” Justice Neil Gorsuch is under fire for speaking at an upcoming event at the Trump International Hotel just two weeks before SCOTUS will hear arguments in the travel ban case. [New York Times]

* After 23 years, National Conference of Bar Examiners president Erica Moeser will be retiring from her job on August 21 and handing over the reins to Judith Gundersen, the NCBE’s director of test operations. If you recall, Moeser once infamously — and most likely, correctly — said that plummeting bar pass rates were due to “less able” test takers. Enjoy your retirement! [Law.com]

* With funding of almost $6 million from Bloomberg Philanthropies, NYU Law is launching the State Energy and Environmental Impact Center, in an effort to assist state attorneys general who “don’t begin to have the resources to meet these challenges” fight any of the Trump administration’s attempts to dismantle environmental protections and climate policies. [Washington Post]

* Jacqueline B. Jones, the lawyer who called in a bomb threat to the federal courthouse on the day she was supposed to defend herself against being sanctioned, is set to plead guilty today to third-degree falsely reporting an incident. She faces jail time and up to $15,000 in fines. [Syracuse.com]

* “The story’s true. I’m not doing anything. I barely show up to work and I’ve been caught.” The spokesman for New York’s Office of Court Administration accidentally left a message for a reporter who was working on a story about his truancy on the job, laughing about how he “barely” showed up to work, just after lying and saying the reports were false. Oopsie! [New York Law Journal]

* “In an era of alternative news and fake facts, the ABA should be the definitive source of real facts when it comes to the law.” Check out the ABA’s new online resource, the legal fact checker, a website where members of the public can learn about what the law says regarding current events in the news. [ABA Journal]

* Could this be the case that puts the nail in the death penalty’s coffin? Justice Breyer probably hopes so. Neal Katyal of Hogan Lovells has asked the Supreme Court to hear an Arizona death row inmate’s case, arguing that the state’s death penalty law is unconstitutional and that it must be struck down. [BuzzFeed]

* “[T]he Tiffany trademark is not something to be trifled with.” Judge Laura Taylor Swain of the Southern District of New York has ruled that Costco must pay more than $19 million after selling rings and attempting to pass them off as a luxury brand by using and infringing upon the Tiffany trademark. Treble damages are a bitch, and Costco plans to appeal. [New York Law Journal]

* After a special Senate primary, former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who was once removed from his post and later suspended from it, and Senator Luther Strange, who was appointed to fill the seat formerly occupied by AG Jeff Sessions, will face each other in a runoff for the state’s GOP nomination. Voters seem thrilled with their options. [New York Times]

* A former law firm partner who is accused of creating a fake Match.com account using the name of a real female attorney and allegedly signing her up for emails from a weight loss surgery company, the Obesity Action Coalition, and Pig International — all from his law firm computer — is facing discipline before the Illinois Attorney Registration and Disciplinary Commission [Law.com]

* Joseph Amico, who was arrested back in April after threatening to blow up a Manhattan attorney who he allegedly referred to as a “n****r lover” has been rearrested, this time for allegedly harassing the judge in his divorce case. Amico, who was free on $50,000 bail, has an optimistic attorney who’s confident his client will receive a “favorable bail disposition.” [New York Daily News]

* If you’re searching for a job to take after law school that doesn’t necessarily involve practicing law, then you may want to consider a career in policy work. After all, having a law degree when working in the policy world likely amounts to some sort of a JD Advantage-type job. [U.S. News & World Report]