Canada

Can this judge ever be fair to minorities from her high seat on the bench?

The school called this an 'important learning moment' for law students.

* After about two weeks of silence, President Trump has finally spoken out about the sexual misconduct allegations that Alabama Republican Senate candidate Roy Moore is facing. Seeming to indicate support for the accused child molester, the president said, “Roy Moore denies it. That’s all I can say,” before he ripped into Moore’s opponent. [AL.com]

* “Practically every law school in the country is offering more tuition discounts or scholarships than they did pre-2010.” Now is apparently a great time to apply to law school, if only because it’ll wind up being cheaper than it’s been in years. [U.S. News]

* Biglaw is getting in on the green rush in Canada ahead of its nationwide legalization of recreational marijuana. Dentons, Cassels Brock, and Stikeman Elliott each have roles as counsel in a huge cannabis deal in the Great White North. [Am Law]

* Another federal judge has blocked the Trump administration from banning transgender people from serving in the military, ruling that the ban “cannot possibly constitute a legitimate governmental interest.” We can’t wait to see the president’s angry tweets about this. [Reuters]

* When it comes to parental leave at Biglaw firms, staff members are really getting the short end of the stick. In fact, at some firms, hourly staff members aren’t even considered for parental leave benefits. [Big Law Business]

* Judge William M. Hoeveler, legendary jurist (S.D. Fla.), RIP. [Miami Herald]

Some inspiration to achieve the impossible -- and some practical advice on how to do it.

* Skadden is getting sucked into the Paul Manafort investigation. Will the firm’s stellar reputation suffer as a result? [Law and More]

* As a woman, “business casual” is fraught with peril. Here is some handy advice for surviving — without a faux pas. [Corporette]

* Four ways Neil Gorsuch could ruin your life. Only four? [Rewire]

* This HIV-positive, former D.C. Biglaw attorney is putting his life back together — and writing about it. [Optimistic Despite It All]

* So you hired a white supremacist! A thoughtful consideration of the legal and practical ramifications of employing a white supremacist. [Harvard Business Review]

* Are you the proud owner of a fancy new iPhone X? Here’s how to keep the police out of it. [Versus Texas]

* Congratulations to Precedent Magazine on ten great years of covering the Canadian legal scene! [Precedent]

How are you going to be impartial while doing deplorable cosplay?

And this is a big problem, according to many observers.

* Happy Sessions Testimony Day. [New York Times]

* Trump reportedly mulling over firing Robert Mueller because he must think approval ratings are like golf scores. [Huffington Post]

* Police raid Herbert Smith Freehills office as part of a drug investigation. Hey, demand is down and firms have to find new ways to supplement their income, am I right? [Law.com]

* Canada is bringing back dueling, placing them comfortably in the lead in the “Make [Country] Great Again” race. [Smithsonian]

* The initial installment of an interview series with Justice Ginsburg. [Law360]

* When most law firms are cutting back, this one just doubled its Manhattan floor plan. [New York Post]

Maybe our cold neighbor to the north is warming up to the idea of paid surrogacy.

Are we entering a golden age of legal research innovation?

Welcome to an unfamiliar world involving ice, and brooms, and shoe condoms.

The U.S. drug industry has strongly opposed efforts to open the borders to drug imports, but pharma lobbying group PhRMA is not mentioned in the Partnership for Safer Medicines’ advertising blitz.

Even if Canada does embrace a "government weed" model, it’s unlikely this will influence the U.S.

* Grammy-winning musician John Legend will be joining the advisory board of the University of Pennsylvania Law School’s Quattrone Center for the Fair Administration of Justice. Not to worry, because the Center’s director says the decision to add the singer to the board was actually “a substantive thing,” not “just a celebrity thing.” [Law.com]

* In response to its abysmal performance on Florida’s February 2017 administration of the bar exam (only 25 percent of those who took the exam passed), Florida Coastal School of Law will not only be changing its curriculum and teaching methods, but it’ll also be raising its admissions standards… starting this fall. What in the world took so long? [Jackson Daily Record]

* According to court records, Judge Patricia Minaldi of the Western District of Louisiana was ordered by the chief judge of the Fifth Circuit to undergo at least 90 days of substance abuse treatment because her alcoholism was so severe that one of her judicial colleagues believed she could no longer take care of herself. [Associated Press]

* Canada is taking steps to legalize recreational marijuana across the country. If this new legislation passes, possession of small amounts of pot will be legal throughout the Great White North as of July 18, 2018. This could understandably create some confusion at the border, so we may need to build another wall. Notify the president ASAP. [USA Today]

* Kevin Jones, head of the China labor and employment practice at Faegre Baker Daniels, always wanted to run a marathon and always wanted to visit North Korea, so he decided to kill two birds with one stone by running the Pyongyang Marathon. He finished the 26-mile race in 4 hours and 21 minutes. Congratulations! [WSJ Law Blog]

How many states have adopted a duty of technology competence for lawyers?

Goodbye Obamacare, hello maple-leaf onesies?

Sometimes no legislation is better than some legislation.

Why is a hockey team going after Snoop?

* Why would liberal states “remain [] member[s] of this union when the president is a raving narcissist that some describe as a sociopath?” Some law professors are having a difficult time imagining Donald Trump as president, and have said that things like secessions or coups could become real possibilities under Trump’s leadership if he should win the election. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Biglaw firms in the U.S. have made great strides when it comes to parental leave, but across the pond in the U.K., they don’t seem to be doing as well; in fact, these firms seem to be “hemorrhaging female talent,” and it’s “crippling” law firm diversity and career progression for lawyers with children and families. [The Lawyer (sub. req.)]

* Speaking of the U.K., its High Court has ruled that Prime Minister Theresa May must seek parliamentary approval before attempting to leave the European Union, writing “the Crown — i.e. the government of the day — cannot by exercise of prerogative powers override legislation enacted by Parliament.” Sorry, Brexit bros. [New York Times]

* “[A] well-intentioned majority acting in the name of tolerance and liberalism, can, if unchecked, impose its views on the minority in a manner that is in fact intolerant and illiberal.” Trinity Western University has won the right to operate a Christian law school, despite the fact that it intends to discriminate against LGBTQ students. [Globe and Mail]

* “They changed the legislative nature of the judicial system, they changed the American constitution, they paved the way for a lot of people’s lives.” Loving, the film that tells the tale of Richard and Mildred Loving’s landmark Supreme Court victory that struck down legislation prohibiting interracial marriage, is out in theaters this Friday. [Reuters]

* Glamour has named Emily Doe, the college student who survived Stanford swimmer Brock Turner’s sexual assault and helped to change a California law that once allowed for lighter sentences in sexual assault cases where victims were unconscious or intoxicated, as one of the magazine’s Women of the Year for 2016. Congratulations. [Glamour]

* “We believe the magistrate judge’s decision that Brendan Dassey’s confession was coerced by investigators, and that no reasonable court could have concluded otherwise, is wrong on the facts and wrong on the law.” Prosecutors in Wisconsin have appealed the overturned conviction of “Making a Murderer” subject Brendan Dassey. He’ll remain in prison pending the outcome of the appeal. [New York Times]

* A Canadian judge is facing possible removal from the bench after asking this question to the accuser in a rape trial: “Why couldn’t you just keep your knees together?” The judge also made other inappropriate remarks during the trial, and blames it on his failure to understand changes to the country’s sexual-assault laws. [ABC News]

* Desperate times sometimes call for really desperate measures? California-based Prism Patents is cutting its executives’ compensation by two-thirds in an attempt to come up with some cash. Its general counsel’s salary fell from $240,000 to $90,000, and the company’s CEO now makes $12 (not a typo), down from $300,000. [Big Law Business]

* The battle between Houston Law School and the Houston College of Law (formerly South Texas Law) rages on, and now the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office is involved. Thanks to a complaint lodged by U. Houston, the USPTO has suspended Houston College’s trademark application for its new name. [Houston Chronicle via TaxProf Blog]

* It doesn’t matter if Romy and Michelle invented Post-It Notes or if serial inventor Alan Amron did, because your lawsuit against 3M is likely to be dismissed — especially if you’ve already settled a prior $400 million suit over the product’s inventorship for $12,000 and released the company from all of your future claims. [CBS Minnesota]