Brigham Young University Law School

  • Morning Docket: 09.21.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 09.21.18

    * Lawyers for Dr. Christine Blasey Ford say that she’s “prepared to testify next week” before the Senate Judiciary Committee on her allegations of sexual assault against Judge Brett Kavanaugh, but not on Monday (an “arbitrary” date), and only under “terms that are fair and which ensure her safety.” [CNN]

    * Everyone and their mother and their dog who’s been caught up in the Kavanaugh controversy has lawyered up. Patrick Smyth, one of SCOTUS nominee Brett Kavanaugh’s former high school classmates who was reportedly at the party where Dr. Christine Blasey Ford was allegedly assaulted, has hired Kobre & Kim to represent him. [American Lawyer]

    * “Cohen’s disavowal of Trump has triggered a series of events that turned once very good friends into permanent enemies.” Michael Cohen has been chatting with Robert Mueller, and his conversations have focused on Trump’s dealings with Russia, possible collusion, and whether he’s ever discussed a pardon with Trump. [ABC News]

    * When it comes to Wachtell, “[i]t may be the last true partnership,” but that’s not how 87-year-old “Poison Pill” creater Martin Lipton sees things. “If I wasn’t here tomorrow, the firm wouldn’t be any different,” he says, because he wants to pass everything on to the next generation of lawyers in the future. [Big Law Business]

    * $26.5 million can buy you lots of fancy things, including a law school. The University of Alabama School of Law will now be known as the Hugh F. Culverhouse Jr. School of Law at the University of Alabama after Culverhouse donated the largest gift in the school’s history. Congratulations and ROLL TIDE! [Sarasota Herald-Tribune]

    * For the first time in history, there are more women than men at Brigham Young University’s J. Reuben Clark Law School. Fifty-two percent of BYU Law’s first-year students are women. According to the dean of admissions, applications increased by 6.7 percent this year, with a nearly 21 percent rise among women. [Daily Herald]

    * The trial for Katherine Magbanua and Sigfredo Garcia, who are accused in the 2014 murder of FSU Law professor Dan Markel, was scheduled for October 8, but it’s been delayed due to a defense attorney’s medical treatment. [Tallahassee Democrat]

  • Morning Docket: 08.22.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.22.16

    * “You’re going to make a federal case out of this – a dispute between two sorority sisters?” A fight between two sorority sisters recently landed in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, but it turns out the suit was dropped quicker than a misbehaving pledge. We’ll have more on this later today. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

    * “Generally, it is God who decides whether presidents get Supreme Court appointments.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg may be the oldest member of SCOTUS, but that doesn’t mean she’s preparing to step down, even if Hillary Clinton wins the presidency. She’s already hired clerks for the October 2017 term. [Washington Post]

    * The Eastern District of Michigan has ruled that in cases of employment discrimination, religious rights trump transgender rights. The ACLU says this case has set a “dangerous precedent,” in that it has “exempted [a business that was “not a particularly religious operation”] from civil rights law with regard to transgender people.” [WSJ Law Blog]

    * The ABA has closed a probe regarding allegations of religious discrimination (i.e., expulsion of students who left the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and bans of sexual activity between students of the same sex) that were said to have occurred at BYU Law School. The school is said to have changed its honor code. [ABA Journal]

    * Infamous Kentucky clerk Kim Davis has lucked out thanks to some actions taken by the Sixth Circuit. A new state law removed the names of clerks from marriage licenses, thus enabling the appeals court to refuse her claims, allowing a judge to toss a suit she was facing over her unwillingness to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. [WSAZ]

  • Morning Docket: 04.20.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.20.16

    * Puff, puff, pass the vote! In honor of today’s nationwide holiday for cannabis aficionados, these are all of the states that have legalized marijuana, be it for either recreational or medical use. This year, at least 10 more states may legalize weed by ballot referendum for recreational use, and pot could be rescheduled by the Drug Enforcement Agency depending on the outcome of the upcoming election. [Refinery 29]

    * Members of student activist group Reclaim Harvard Law have demanded that the prestigious law school eliminate tuition completely. They propose that the school dip into its endowment to cover tuition, or cut costs like faculty salaries to make debt-free legal education a reality. This won’t happen, but it’s a nice thought. [Harvard Crimson]

    * The ABA is investigating Brigham Young Law’s policy of expelling ex-Mormon students. Per ABA guidelines, law schools can’t discriminate on the basis of religion, and yet the BYU honor code requires students to get annual endorsements from LDS Church members — endorsements for which former Mormons aren’t eligible. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Pharma bro Martin Shkreli was dropped from a lawsuit related to his purchase of the only copy of the Wu-Tang Clan’s latest album, “Once Upon a Time in Shaolin.” It’s likely plaintiff Jason Koza, who claims his art was used for the album without his approval, dumped Shkreli due to a purchase-agreement indemnity clause. [New York Post]

    * Because a judge reduced his manslaughter conviction to criminally negligent homicide at the last minute, former NYPD Officer Peter Liang will not serve jail time for the 2014 shooting death of Akai Gurley. Liang once faced up to 15 years in prison, but instead he was sentenced to five years of probation and 800 hours of community service. [CNN]


    Staci Zaretsky is an editor at Above the Law. Feel free to email her with any tips, questions, or comments. Follow her on Twitter or connect with her on LinkedIn.

  • The Decision: Big Love Law
    Law Schools, Reader Polls

    The Decision: Big Love Law

    Elie here. For today’s installment of The Decision, in which we advise prospective law students about where to enroll, we head out west. We talk about the military. We talk about the LDS community. Put another way, I’m about to talk completely out of my ass about things I don’t know a whole lot about. […]
  • Sponsored

  • Election Law, Guns / Firearms, Non-Sequiturs, Technology

    Non-Sequiturs: 11.05.13

    * Lawyers are too lonely. Well, it’s not easy to find friends when you’re the most despised profession in the world. [Law and More] * A prosecutor managed to shoot out the window of the D.A.’s office while playing with another prosecutor’s gun. The boss is mad, but really, what’s the point of having guns if you can’t treat them like toys? [Waco Tribune] * Typical traffic stop turns into anal cavity search because clenching your buttocks during a pat down is probable cause for a prostate exam. [KOB 4] * Lawyer informed by judges that “not everything on the internet is reliable.” [IT-Lex] * It’s release day for Keith Lee’s new book The Marble and the Sculptor: From Law School to Law Practice (affiliate link). [Associate's Mind] * Texas has hired Texas Law grad Steve Patterson as its new athletic director, poaching him from the same position at Arizona State. I wonder if Todd Graham will slimily bail on another school and join his old boss at Texas when Mack Brown is unceremoniously fired. [CBS Sports] * Michelle Mumford, the former Milbank associate who went public with her negative experience of being pregnant working in the firm’s litigation department, is now the admissions dean at BYU Law. If any institution is sympathetic to pregnancy, it would be the Mormon Church. [The Careerist] * Professor Pamela Karlan explains how political gridlock is the result of the Framers’ failure. I refuse to believe a gathering of slaveholding farmers didn’t construct a perfect system. [Boston Review] * Judge tells lawyers they can’t withhold their fee structure as confidential when he can look it up in other cases. Was their theory that the judge was stupid? [South Florida Lawyers]

Sponsored