Class Actions
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.22.18
* Only 23 percent of law school grads think their education was worth the cost. That number seems high. [CNBC]
* Apparently, judges can’t use their office to trade leniency for nude photos. You learn something new every day. [Courthouse News Service]
* Professor Epps patiently explains how bad Clarence Thomas is at basic constitutional law. [The Atlantic]
* Ogletree slapped with a sexual harassment suit on the heels of a big gender discrimination suit. Somebody over there really needs to learn labor law. [The Recorder]
* Just as a recap: Protecting minority voting rights — not a priority for the DOJ. Challenging a settlement to give people $2 wine coupons — absolutely a priority for the DOJ. [National Law Journal]
* Summer programs are shrinking again, so go ahead and start panicking. [American Lawyer]
* Boies is leading a coalition challenging the “winner-take-all” electoral system — but not the Electoral College itself — as an affront to “one person, one vote.” Because when I think about improving fairness, it’s turning over the task of choosing Electors to gerrymandered maps. [Bloomberg]
* School superintendent about to get a crash course on basic constitutional law. [Washington Post]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.05.18
* President Trump ordered White House Counsel Don McGahn to stop Attorney General Jeff Sessions from recusing in the Russia probe — and Sessions, after not recusing and incurring Trump’s wrath, later submitted his signed resignation letter (which the mercurial Trump, who had told Sessions to resign, then declined to accept). [New York Times]
* Brazilian oil company Petrobras just announced a $2.95 billion class action settlement, which will be the largest settlement of a class action U.S. securities fraud suit this decade if approved (by Judge Jed Rakoff, so it’s not a foregone conclusion). [Corporate Counsel]
* Congratulations to litigation finance firm Lake Whillans, which just concluded a $125 million round of funding. [American Lawyer]
* Leigh Corfman, one of several Alabama women who accused unsuccessful U.S. Senate candidate Roy Moore of sexual misconduct, is now suing Moore for defamation. [Washington Post]
* Speaking of defamation claims, the Trump tax bill contains some very bad news for plaintiffs in such cases (and tort cases more generally, it seems). [Slate]
* Tallahassee prosecutor Georgia Cappleman has thrown her hat into the ring for a judicial vacancy; what does this mean for the Dan Markel case, which she’s currently handling? [Tallahassee Democrat]
* The Motel 6/ICE mess has triggered a lawsuit against the company by Washington State’s attorney general. [ABA Journal]
* Journalist Roy Strom surveys the year ahead for Biglaw — and highlights Bruce MacEwen and Janet Stanton’s noteworthy prediction of a prominent U.S. law firm forming a joint venture with a “New Law” entity. [Law.com]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 12.29.17
* Luke Skywalker’s legal duty to save the galaxy. (Spoilers for The Last Jedi.) [The Legal Geeks]
* Will the class-action lawsuits against Apple for throttling older phones lead to a resurgence in class-actions? [Law and More]
* The latest episode of the Amicus podcast explores how to combat a history of harassment in the judiciary in the wake of the Alex Kozinski scandal. [Slate]
* Tracking the use of the phrase “help me” by Supreme Court justices in oral arguments… which is to track the passive-aggressive stylings of the Court. [Empirical SCOTUS]
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWP6Qki8mWc
* Yup, this is how the President of the United States used his Twitter account in 2017. [The Hill]
* Speaking of the President, he teases a Constitutional crisis in an impromptu interview. [Huffington Post]
* Could a feminist perspective change the tax code? [TaxProf Blog]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 12.19.17
* The Kozinski retirement raises the important question — where does a clerk go to report misconduct (a question raised in this Lithwick column)? There’s now pressure on Chief Justice Roberts to work out a solution. [The Recorder]
* Speaking of sexual harassment, the wave of misconduct revelations has lawyers seriously questioning NDAs (something we’ve written about before here at ATL). [Reuters]
* Wondering who the next potential Trump SCOTUS nominee would be? Breaking down the numbers it would seem to be… [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Crain’s has a list of the 100 Leading Women Lawyers in New York City. [Crain’s]
* Law enforcement requests for Facebook data are up big time. This is why we can’t have nice things. [CNET]
* What do general counsel want for the holidays? The same thing they want every year: more service for less money. [American Lawyer]
* New suit goes after Blue Apron for its stock price drop. As if they’re responsible for Jeff Bezos gutting their market share in Brooklyn. [Law360]
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See Also
See Also: Lawyers Do The Dumbest Things
Ed. note: “See Also” is a new column we’ll be running in place of Non-Sequiturs. It’s going to be an evening ATL Digest for people who missed some of our content earlier in the day.
We Can Spend All Day Reading Disciplinary Findings Do these ever cease to amaze? No, no they do not. Whether it’s a klepto judge or an attorney calling in bomb threats, a quick perusal of the latest disciplinary actions will make you feel better about your professional judgment. That said, you still should delete that Instagram post you captioned, “Buy Globochem tomorrow before 11. But shhh…. it’s our little secret. ;-)” Read all about it…
Maybe We Don’t Let This Guy Do Interviews Next Year? When I was in law school, a partner at a certain Biglaw firm asked a friend of mine who’d gone to Yale undergrad why he was attending NYU for law school. “I went to Yale undergrad and Yale Law School!” this jerk proclaimed. My friend looked at him and said, slowly, “I don’t know… why don’t you work at Cravath?” That concluded the interview. The firm shouldn’t have sent that guy out on interviews. The firm in this story also needs to reconsider their interview roster. Real all about it…
You’d Have To Have Permanent Brain Damage To Negotiate This Deal Speaking of dumb things lawyers do, let’s have a round of applause for the NFLPA, making yet another effort to challenge the draconian league disciplinary system that they willingly agreed to in the last CBA. Read all about it…
Protecting The Profession Over The Client The client is supposed to come first, and yet states are so hell-bent on protecting their parochial guild they make rules that can put clients in a bad spot. As Harvey leaves a desperate need for competent representation in its wake, this is your gentle reminder that the state bar makes out-of-state attorneys jump through hoops to lend a hand. Read all about it…
One Brave Soul Breaks From The Pack While there may be a lot of dumb lawyers, one smart legal move comes courtesy of Professor Brian Fitzpatrick, who shuns the conventional wisdom of his fellow conservatives and makes a compelling case for class actions. Sadly, he’ll probably be purged at the next FedSoc inquisition. Read all about it…
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Federal Government
Heresy! Conservative Law Professor Thinks Class Actions Are A Pretty Good Idea
Get a load of this guy who still thinks harming consumers is bad.... -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 08.23.17
* Statues of Chief Justice Roger Taney may have been removed in his native Maryland, but don’t expect his bust to be removed from the Supreme Court’s Great Hall or his portrait to be taken down from the high court’s East conference room in the near future. The visage of the Dred Scott opinion’s author will remain. [National Law Journal]
* The Charlotte School of Law may be dead, but that doesn’t mean that former students’ proposed class-action lawsuits against the school have been put out to pasture. Though the bulk of the claims were dismissed, two such cases with allegations of unfair and deceptive trade practices have survived motions for summary judgment. Best of luck against Infilaw’s first fallen school. [Law.com]
* Much to his defense attorney Benjamin Bratman’s chagrin, the names of the jurors who convicted Martin Shkreli of securities fraud have been released. They’ve been talking to the press about the disgraced pharma bro, and one of them referred to him as “his own worst enemy.” [DealBook / New York Times]
* Meanwhile, Martin Shkreli’s ex-lawyer, former Kaye Scholer partner Evan Greebel, remains charged with wire fraud conspiracy, a charge on which Shkreli was acquitted by a jury. Greebel’s defense attorneys at Gibson Dunn have called this “a Kafkaesque scenario,” that is “frightening for every corporate lawyer in America simply doing their jobs representing clients.” [New York Law Journal]
* Berkeley Law is planning to launch a hybrid online/on-campus LL.M. program for foreign-educated attorneys. Students will be able to complete their fall and spring semesters online, but must attend classes on campus at the law school during the summer months. Tuition is a whopping $57,471. [The Recorder]
* Earlier this week, a California jury handed down the largest verdict thus far in a talcum powder cancer case against Johnson & Johnson. The plaintiff, Eva Echeverria, who had used J&J baby powder since the 1950s and was diagnosed with ovarian cancer in 2007, was awarded $417 million. [Consumer Affairs]
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Biglaw
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Advertising, Plaintiffs Firms, Rank Stupidity
Lawsuit: Home Depot Selling 4x4s That Aren't 4 Inches By 4 Inches! Everyone Else: They Aren't Supposed To Be, Moron.
Home Depot and Menard's face the dumbest class action claim ever. -
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Litigation Finance, Litigators, Money
German Class-Action Model Offers Opportunities for Litigation Finance
The German market is probably the single best opportunity in the space today. -
Biglaw, Partner Issues
Chadbourne Kicks Out Partner Suing Them Over Gender Discrimination
No matter what the firm says, they aren't finished dealing with Kerrie Campbell just yet. -
Biglaw
Court Docs Allege Biglaw Firm Made 'Undisguised Threat' To Potential Class Members
The latest update in the Days Of Our Biglaw Lives saga...
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Biglaw
Biglaw Firm Will Vote To Oust Partner Suing Them For Gender Discrimination
This is the juiciest Biglaw lawsuit in a while. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 03.10.17
* Arizona Summit Law School announces its plan to affiliate with an established university… Bethune-Cookman?!? Because when you think of a for-profit law school in Phoenix, you obviously think of an HCBU in Florida. [AZ Central]
* 150 law firm leaders wrote a letter asking the government to continue funding legal services, which is nice, but Jim Harbaugh’s already on the case. [Am Law Daily]
* House passes tough new regulations for class action certification… just what rural, Rust Belt voters were hankering for. [National Law Journal]
* K-Y sued over trade secret theft allegations. I don’t know about this case, but I always thought those guys were slippery. [P&T Community]
* A blow-by-blow of the day Kellyanne started shilling for cheap jewelry on national television. [NBC News]
* Restaurant sues to force Trump to divest from his hotel, citing unfair competition when a sitting president can entice people to eat at his well-done steak and ketchup establishments. [Law.com]
* Add Turkey to the list of countries with ethically dubious ties to the Trump campaign. [Huffington Post]
* The EU is figuring out that the “right to be forgotten” provides a gaping loophole for CEOs to cover up their mistakes and abuses. [Courthouse News Service]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.16.17
* Are federal authorities investigating Fox News? [Law360]
* Has Trump made law school “cool again”? No. Law school was never cool. [Quartz]
* What do you know? Looks like some firms are finally waking up to the fact that they didn’t have good years and really couldn’t afford to jack up associate salaries. [ABA Journal]
* That said, Davis Polk just had its self-described “best year ever.” Did nobody tell these people Bowie died? [Am Law Daily]
* Judges say they understand technology, but contradictory rulings about discovery and “the cloud” may say otherwise. [Law.com]
* The litigation finance industry is leery of class actions. Should they be? [The Recorder]
* Then again, maybe it won’t matter because this Congress is trying to gut class actions by making it next to impossible to find lawyers willing to take on these cases. [Forbes]
* Hofstra Law is opening a clinic to serve immigrants dealing with deportation. [Newsday]
* Nobody actually likes the Rams or Chargers. That’s why Biglaw is in deep with a gaggle of antitrust suits brought by the people of Los Angeles over having to buy NFL Sunday Ticket. [Law.com]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 11.28.16
* “In addition to winning the Electoral College in a landslide, I won the popular vote if you deduct the millions of people who voted illegally.” President-elect Donald Trump can’t keep himself away from his Twitter account thanks to the recount that’s going on, and now he seems to have accidentally called into question the legitimacy of the election in its entirety. Oopsie! [New York Times]
* Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign has jumped on Green Party presidential candidate Jill Stein’s election recount bandwagon, but according to campaign general counsel Marc Elias, it’s only “to ensure the process proceeds in a manner that is fair to all sides.” Thus far, Wisconsin has already agreed to perform a recount. [CBS News]
* Just like the president-elect who’s included him on his Supreme Court shortlist, Judge Raymond M. Kethledge of the Sixth Circuit seems to be incredibly blunt. The judge expects civility between parties in briefs, but is well known for his “caustic rebuke[s]” and “eviscerat[ing] [litigants] like first-day law student[s].” [Big Law Business]
* Per recent TV ads, “Wells Fargo is making changes to make things right,” but only if those changes don’t involve public court records: Wells Fargo customers who had unauthorized accounts opened in their names have filed a class-action suit, but the bank is trying to quash their claims by forcing plaintiffs into arbitration. [CNN Money]
* “If you look at other parts of the state — Houston, Dallas, San Antonio — everybody has a law school.” But that doesn’t mean that everybody needs to have a law school. A dearth of potential applicants be damned, because lawmakers in the Texas Rio Grande Valley are going ahead with plans to establish a public law school in the area. [Valley Star]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.19.16
* The LSAT may be “destroy[ing] socioeconomic diversity” in law schools. Will a low score on the Logic Games section of the LSAT keep you from becoming employed as a lawyer? Probably not, but it may keep you from attending a top law school, unless you can afford an expensive LSAT tutor, and many prospective law students are priced out from the get-go. [The Atlantic]
* Darby Dickerson, dean of Texas Tech Law, is resigning to assume the deanship at John Marshall Law-Chicago, a school whose enrollment has faltered over the past several years. She was asked during a job interview why she would leave a ranked law school for an unranked one, and her response may surprise you. [Crain’s Chicago Business]
* The first oral argument of the new SCOTUS term marked one of the first times that complete gender equality was reached at the high court. Five men — all justices — and five women — three of them justices and two of them representing their clients — were all present for Bravo-Fernandez, which is a relative rarity. [Washington Post]
* “I feel that as a result of the experiences I had, I had a lot to offer.” With the assistance of Dewey & LeBoeuf’s former GC, Hinshaw & Culbertson is launching a crisis management and consulting practice. The firm is now in competition with businesses like Zeughauser Group, Altman Weil, and Hildebrandt Consulting. [Big Law Business]
* A class-action suit has been filed over Samsung’s recall of its fiery smartphone, alleging breach of warranty, breach of good faith, and common law fraud. You can expect the size of the proposed nationwide class of plaintiffs in this suit (or at least those in California, Pennsylvania, and Nevada) to explode faster than the Galaxy Note 7. [WSJ Law Blog]
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Biglaw, Partner Issues, Women's Issues
Biglaw Firm Hit With $100 Million Class Action Gender Discrimination Lawsuit
This Biglaw firm is allegedly "operating in the dark ages when it comes to gender equality."