Basketball

* Amal Clooney, the acclaimed lawyer who is working a side hustle as a visiting professor at Columbia Law, left her apartment while wearing clothes. This is apparently a very big deal. Oh, did we mention she’s married to George Clooney? Because she is. [Daily Mail]

* Both Microsoft and the Department of Justice have asked the Supreme Court to dismiss a high-profile data privacy case even though oral arguments have already been heard due to the fact that a new law, the CLOUD Act, has made it moot. [Reuters]

* Villanova Law students got the day off yesterday to continue celebrating the Wildcats’ 79-62 win in the NCAA men’s basketball tournament. The team’s chaplain who delivers a prayer before every game is a lawyer. [Legal Intelligencer]

* “She’s created the impression that I’ve done something wrong and I haven’t even had final adjudication.” Dean Jennifer Rosato Perea of DePaul Law has canceled Professor Donald Hermann’s class in the middle of the semester after he used the N-word during a lecture. We may have more on this later. [Chicago Sun-Times]

* In the lead up to the release of the 2018 Am Law 100, the American Lawyer has been publishing articles about firms’ impressive financial feats. One of the latest articles is about Strasburger & Price’s 9 percent jump in net income — which likely means that Strasburger may have made it (at least into the Am Law 200). [American Lawyer]

* The possibility of Donald Trump turning the Russia case over to Alan Dershowitz is too delicious of a train wreck to imagine. Stop teasing me! [The Hill]

* Andrew McCabe’s GoFundMe has raised over half a million dollars. All you need is a righteous claim and a sophisticated lobbying firm behind you. [Slate]

* LeBron has decided he holds intellectual property rights over barbershops or something. [National Law Journal]

* While DLA Piper is out there swiping lawyers, they’re also earning plaudits for a tech solution designed to retain clients. [American Lawyer]

* Joon Kim returns to Cleary Gottlieb. [Wall Street Journal]

* Jury selection underway in extortion case over Waffle House CEO’s syrup. [Daily Report Online]

* The Supreme Court declared it’s ready, willing, and able to engage in linguistic gymnastics to get out of labor protections. So… we’ve got that going for us. [Law360]

* Federal law enforcement’s crackdown on NCAA coaches has likely brought an end to Rick Pitino’s career. That said, we thought his career was over when we all learned that Louisville hired hookers for recruits so maybe he still has a shot. [ESPN]

* Law firm mergers continue at a record place. Yep, there’s no fundamental market weakness here at all. [Am Law Daily]

* DOJ lawyers face an unpleasant grilling at the Second Circuit. Maybe someday Sessions can disinvite judges he doesn’t want criticizing his unsupported legal theories. [Slate]

* Women losing pregnancies while detained by the administration. I’d say we’re going to look back on this era of immigration policy in horror, but we can probably go ahead and be horrified now. [Huffington Post]

* The USD Alumni Board has weighed in on the Wax/Alexander op-ed. They take a “let’s all come together” approach, which isn’t wrong as much as it seems asymmetric. When one-side throws bombs about cultural superiority, decrying divisiveness puts the onus on the wrong side side to move. [Motions Online]

* The most likely grants from the long conference. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Here’s how you get $4 billion in punitive damages (hint: be in Texas). [Law.com]

* IBM says Watson’s about to take away your job, which is an announcement IBM makes roughly every three months because they’re taunting us. [Corporate Counsel]

* Betty Shelby acquitted in the killing of a black motorist because apparently it’s always reasonable to believe a random black guy is going to pull a gun. [NBC News]

* Former client seeks $1.4 million back that it spent trying to disqualify BakerHostetler. [Law360]

* Latham’s Alice Fisher has pulled out of the FBI Director sweepstakes. All eyes are on Joe Lieberman right now, but folks G. Gordon Liddy is just sitting there raring to go. [National Law Journal]

* And apparently Sheriff Clarke (who I’m sure was Trump’s personal pick) is taking a Homeland Security job so he can focus on harassing the poor and disadvantaged without having to bother all those nice bankers. [New York Times]

* Judge Charles Breyer took a break from writing the best benchslaps of all time to issue a groundbreaking video game ruling citing Star Wars and Love Actually — two movies that should never, ever be mentioned in the same sentence. [Hollywood Reporter]

* Stupid fan lawsuit against Warriors center ZaZa Pachulia moves on. [KENS5]

* More horrific allegations from Ken Starr’s world-class leadership at Baylor. [Huffington Post]

* Remember how Villanova won the NCAA men’s basketball championship on a crazy buzzer beater? It didn’t hurt to have support from the man upstairs or at least from the priest on their bench. Father Rob Hagan is a criminal lawyer turned chaplain for the Villanova men’s basketball team. [Coverage Opinions]

* The Department of Justice has come to the completely obvious conclusion that North Carolina’s potty police bill violates the Civil Right Act, and now millions in federal school funding are in jeopardy. Just what the world needs, a decline in the education of the people that passed HB2. [Charlotte Observer]

* An interesting proposal says law schools and engineering programs should share curriculum. But I was assured there’d be no math… [Chronicle of Higher Education]

* The West Point debate team may have lost to a team from the Bard Prison Initiative, but they gained a lot in the process. [Washington Post]

* Yeah, bar exam results from everywhere have been bad, but these Kansas results are really bad. [Bar Exam Stats]

* An illuminating interview with author Anthony Papa, who was granted clemency after serving 12 years for a non-violent drug offense. [Keri Blakinger]

* How well do states do when they are in front of the Supreme Court, and which are the most successful? [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Students at Villanova Law School got the day off to recover after Kris Jenkins’s epic buzzer beater and the school’s first NCAA men’s basketball championship in 30 years. [NBC Philadelphia]

* University of Utah S.J. Quinney College of Law has a great plan to help students deal with stress: puppies! [Daily Utah Chronicle]

* Tracing Mahatma Gandhi’s peace disobedience protests, which began 86 years ago this week, back to his roots as a lawyer. [Guile is Good]

* If you send a text, and the person you send it to reads it while driving, could you be found liable for an injuries they cause while driving distracted? This scenario, seemingly taken from a law school fact pattern, just might be true. [Personal Injury Attorney Blog]

* An in-depth look at how Zubik v. Burwell relates to other First Amendment free exercise cases. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Are there actually practice pointers you can pick up from watching Better Call Saul? [Reboot Your Law Practice]

* Donald Trump has opinions on Supreme Court justices. He thinks that Roberts is “disgraceful,” that Scalia was “very tough” on black students, and that he loves Thomas. Perhaps he should take a cue from his favorite justice and shut up. [CNN; Associated Press]

* An easy peasy solution? Rather than amend the Constitution, Republican presidential candidate Marco Rubio says that he’ll just appoint Supreme Court justices who will overturn the decision in the Obergefell case because he thinks that gay marriage is “bad law.” [ThinkProgress]

* Gibson Dunn has billed about $8 million to defend New Jersey Governor Chris Christie in the Bridgegate scandal thus far, so here’s a thought: perhaps you should show your hard-working associates some appreciation and announce bonuses already. [Fox News]

* Taylor Swift filed trademark applications for five signature phrases (Swiftmas, Blank Space, And I’ll Write Your Name, A Girl Named Girl, and 1989). If you infringe upon any of them, you can expect that she’ll be writing your name — on a lawsuit. [USA Today]

* Braeden Anderson, the Seton Hall law student and ball player who divides his time between the courtroom and the basketball court, has had one hell of a 1L year. When he graduates, this extremely lucky guy may have a job — with the NBA. [New York Times]

* Bonus season has officially arrived in Biglaw-land. But what does it all mean? [ATL Redline]

* Sure, it may be cuffing season, but if you don’t get divorced before January 23rd it could cost you. [New York Post]

* Will Generation Z destroys law schools? [Law and More]

* What is beneath the crusty exterior of hardened partners? [Daily Lawyer Tips]

* Can the Republicans’ Southern Strategy be classified as a success? [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

* Michigan State is tops in football, basketball, and, oh yeah, debate. [SB Nation]

* Good news, everyone! Legally Blonde 3 is supposedly in the works, and Reese Witherspoon says that the movie may involve Elle Woods becoming a Supreme Court justice or some kind of an elected official. It’s really too bad that SCOTUS robes aren’t pink. [Washington Post]

* Biglaw firms aren’t the only ones that are downsizing when it comes to their headcount. Case in point, Lear Corporation’s in-house legal department has dropped from 20 attorneys to 11, but its GC Terry Larking says it’s working for the company. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* Cornell Law School will be teaming up with Cornell Tech to launch a new LL.M. degree in law, technology, and entrepreneurship. Like most LL.M. degrees, we imagine that it will cost a pretty penny, but that its overall value on the market will be low. [Cornell Chronicle]

* “Do we really need to protect people from trying to achieve their dreams?” Professor Noah Feldman of Harvard Law thinks we shouldn’t coddle law school applicants who are unlikely to pass a bar or try to “save” them from a lifetime of debt. [Bloomberg View]

* She shoots, she scores? An ex-cheerleader filed suit against the Milwaukee Bucks under the Fair Labor Standards Act because she alleges she was paid less than minimum wage to cheer for the team. The suit is the first of its kind filed against an NBA team. [ABC News]