Covington & Burling

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.05.17

* Both Lady Gaga and Katy Perry have now been dragged into the legal battle between Kesha and producer Dr. Luke that's been ongoing since October 2014. During a recent discovery hearing, a judge ruled that Dr. Luke may show Perry a text message sent from Kesha to Gaga that had previously been sealed by the court. The contents of the mysterious message are currently unknown to the public. [Daily Mail] * Oopsie! U.S. Chief Justice John Roberts is recusing himself from the Life Technologies v. Promega patent case that was heard on December 6. As it turns out, Roberts owns $175,000 of stock in Thermo Fisher Scientific -- which owns Life Technologies -- but his chambers "inadvertently failed to find this potential conflict." Thanks to the error, only seven of the high court's eight justices will render a decision in the case. [Reuters] * Democratic leaders of the California Legislature have hired former AG Eric Holder, now a partner at Covington & Burling, to represent them in any legal fights against Donald Trump's Republican White House administration. Having Holder on their side will cost a pretty penny, but "[t]he cost will be very minimal compared to the billions of dollars at stake if California doesn’t adequately make its case." [New York Times] * Uh-oh... The European and Middle Eastern arm of King & Wood Mallesons has stopped paying its staff members ahead of its forthcoming administration. The number of staff who have been placed on unpaid leave pending expected layoffs is around 100 at the moment. They were notified earlier this week that while they're still technically employed by the firm, they won't receive pay checks. Happy New Year! [Legal Week] * "Their malfeasance has made it to where we can't get federal loans anymore, but they still want us to pay full price and give them that same amount and pretend like they didn't do anything wrong - like it was our fault." Charlotte Law students aren't too keen about taking out private loans to complete their degrees at Florida Coastal Law, and in fact, they'd like to see the school president and dean loss their jobs. [WBTV]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.05.16

* Who recently made partner at Kirkland & Ellis, Covington & Burling, Goodwin Procter, and Curtis Mallet-Prevost? Here's a nice round-up that highlights the names of the 112 associates who were promoted at these four firms. Don't be too shocked by that high number; the vast majority of partner promotions were made at Kirkland, where 81 attorneys were welcomed into the ranks of the firm's non-equity partnership. [Big Law Business] * In what's hailed as a victory for gay rights, Massachusetts expanded the legal definition of the word "parent" to be read "in a gender-neutral manner, to apply where a child is ‘born to [two people], is received into their joint home, and is held out by both as their own child.'" The state's high court also allowed parentage laws to be construed to apply to members of same-sex couples without biological ties to the children. [WSJ Law Blog] * Today, SCOTUS will hear arguments in a case challenging "judge-made law," that is, what is and isn't considered insider trading. If you trade on information received from a third party who received it from an insider, is that insider trading? Even Mark Cuban wants to know, writing in an amicus brief that "no one should be prosecuted for conduct that Congress is either unwilling or unable to define." [DealBook / New York Times] * The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down a law that forced abortion providers to save fetal tissue samples from patients younger than 14 years old, on top of other broad restrictions. The court unanimously ruled that the law violated the state constitution's "one subject" rule. In a separate concurrence, four judges would've struck down the law as an unconstitutional burden on a woman's right to have an abortion. [Reuters] * Much like America, the Supreme Court seems to have a problem with race this Term. The high court will be hearing three divisive cases having to do with racial slurs, racial rhetoric, and racial epithets, and the Court may very well be divided along ideological lines, resulting in 4-4 deadlocks thanks to the seat left vacant by the late Justice Antonin Scalia and the Senate's refusal to give Judge Merrick Garland a hearing. [CNN]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 07.21.16

* The Fifth Circuit, sitting en banc, rules that Texas's voter ID law violates the Voting Rights Act by having discriminatory effects on minority voters (but remands on the issue of discriminatory purpose). [How Appealing] * It appears that yes, Roger Ailes is on his way out at Fox News -- thanks in part to the work of lawyers from Paul, Weiss. [New York Times] * Matt and Melissa Graves, the parents whose two-year-old son was killed by an alligator at Disney's Grand Floridian resort, will not be suing Disney. [Washington Post] * Congratulations to exoneree Jarrett Adams, who served nearly eight years in prison for a crime he did not commit, on his admission to the New York bar. [ABA Journal] * Republican VP nominee Mike Pence is a lawyer, and his Democratic counterpart probably will be as well: shortlisters Tim Kaine, Thomas Perez, and Tom Vilsack are all lawyers, and James Stavridis is a law dean. [New York Times] * A California man gets convicted in a plot to kill two prosecutors, two FBI agents, and federal judge Andrew Guilford -- with a wood chipper. [Los Angeles Times via ABA Journal] * A New York appeals court affirms a ruling in favor of Boies Schiller in a malpractice suit brought by fashion model Mary Anne Fletcher. [Big Law Business] * A bit more about former Attorney General Eric Holder's work for Airbnb (a development we noted yesterday). [American Lawyer]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.08.16

* Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump promises that he won't speak ill of Judge Gonzalo Curiel anymore, but it took a lot of heavy criticism from GOP leaders for him to come around to the idea of being civil. He now says his comments about Judge Curiel's ability to remain impartial due to his Mexican heritage were "misconstrued." [Washington Post] * You know you've screwed up when a judge accuses you of "egregious misconduct," but you know you may have made the biggest mistake of your career when your "bad faith conduct" results in the voiding of a $200M patent infringement verdict. This in-house Merck patent prosecutor must be in a very bad place right now. [Big Law Business] * Chief Justice Roy Moore of the Alabama Supreme Court has two weeks to respond to a complaint lodged by the state's Judicial Inquiry Commission over his order that probate judges not issue same-sex marriage licenses. If found in violation of ethical rules, Moore could be removed from his position -- for the second time. [Montgomery Advertiser] * Arlo Devlin-Brown, the head of the public corruption unit for the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of New York since 2014, will be leaving office to head to private practice. After working to put Sheldon Silver and Dean Skelos behind bars, he's off to Covington & Burling, where he'll be on the white-collar defense team. [New York Post] * "The concept of fair market value under Delaware law is not equivalent to the economic concept of fair market value." Vice Chancellor Laster (Del. Ch.) made lawyers' jaws drop when he overruled the market in the Dell case. Martin Lipton of Wachtell says more buyers may be tempted to walk away from deals now. [DealBook / New York Times]

By Staci Zaretsky