Crime

* “When the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they invoked our creator four times, because in America we don’t worship government we worship God.” Guess who was awarded an honorary law degree this weekend? It was none other that President Donald Trump, who delivered the commencement address at Liberty University on Saturday morning. [The Hill; TIME]

* The Pink Ghetto (Partner Edition)? A Proskauer Rose partner has filed a $50M gender bias suit against the firm, claiming she was not only paid less than male colleagues, but that she was “overtly objectified based on her sex” when a fellow partner allegedly “made inappropriate comments regarding her appearance, body, clothing, or ‘sexiness'” on numerous occasions. [Am Law Daily]

* Tarra Simmons has quite the résumé: she’s a convicted felon and former drug addict who also happens to be the recipient of a prized Skadden fellowship. Unfortunately, she may not be able to practice law thanks to a recommendation from the Washington State Bar Association’s Character and Fitness Board that she be denied bar admission. She plans to appeal. [Northwest Public Radio]

* Walter “Chet” Little, a former Foley & Lardner partner, has been arrested on insider trading charges that stem from his time at the firm. Soon after finding out about the nature of the charges, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, his current firm, politely showed him the door. If convicted, Little will likely face quite the lengthy prison term and a fine of up to $5 million. Ouch. [WSJ Law Blog]

* “There was never a question of whether I was going to go to law school or not. It was just when I was going to go….” Chris Carr, a former cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens, is set to graduate from GW Law School this weekend. He’ll be taking the California bar exam this summer, but he recently accepted a job offer at an immigration law firm in Virginia. Congratulations! [Washington Post]

* Checks and balances, how do they work? President Donald Trump seems to be looking for anyone and anything to blame for his first 100 days in office being bungled, and he’s finally settled on the rule system that controls the Senate, calling it a “very rough system,” an “archaic system” that’s “really a bad thing for the country.” [The Guardian]

* In other news, according to Reince Priebus, President Trump’s chief of staff, something that the White House has looked into is changing libel laws to make it easier to sue news organizations, but “[h]ow it gets executed or whether that goes anywhere is a different story.” Wow. [CNN]

* One things for sure — there’s no Supreme Court retirement watch here: Described as “exuberant,” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg recently exclaimed that she “love[s] her job,” and that Justice Elena Kagan must be absolutely thrilled about Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation, since that means she’ll no longer have to suffer through the incredibly boring tasks typically given to the high court’s junior justice. [National Law Journal]

* “The logic of the decision is hard to accept. You’re OK’ing a system that perpetuates the inequity in compensation for women.” In a disheartening opinion, the Ninth Circuit said employers may legally pay women less than their male counterparts for the same work based exclusively on differences in their prior salaries, even though those differences were recently ruled discriminatory under the Equal Pay Act by a lower court. [CBS News]

* A second suspect has been arrested in the fatal April 10 shooting of Cook County Associate Judge Raymond Myles. Earl Wilson, 45, a man who is “no stranger to the criminal justice system,” was charged with first-degree murder. Per prosecutors, this was a robbery gone wrong, and Myles was not supposed to be killed. Myles is the first Chicago-area judge to be fatally shot in more than three decades. [Chicago Tribune]

* Late last week, the Hollywood Reporter released its annual ranking of the best attorneys who serve the nation’s most glamorous celebrities — the Hollywood 100 — which is always celebrated like “lawyer Christmas in Hollywood for a day.” How many Biglaw attorneys made the list in the tenth edition of the rankings, and how well represented are each of their firms? We’ll have more on this later. [Big Law Business]

* According to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, it’s highly likely that we’ll have another Supreme Court vacancy this summer. Word on the street is that a justice is thinking about retiring, and all eyes are on Justice Kennedy, the high court’s swing vote. Hmm, we thought we’d already put this rumor to bed. [The Hill]

* After years of accepting incoming students with questionable academic qualifications followed by unsurprisingly dismal bar exam results, another law school will be closing soon. We all knew it would happen eventually, but it was just a matter of which one it would be. We’ll have much more on this later today. [Orange County Business Journal]

* Kerrie Campbell, the Chadbourne & Parke partner who filed a $100 million gender discrimination suit against her firm, will learn later this morning whether she’s been ousted from the Chadbourne partnership. Campbell, who is out on medical leave, says her removal from the partnership would be financially ruinous. [Am Law Daily]

* Former pharma bro Martin Shkreli and his former attorney, former Kaye Scholer partner Evan Greebel, will have separate trials this summer thanks to this ruling. After all, Greebel turned on his former client months ago, and his lawyers planned to “assert a defense that [would] be an ‘echo chamber’ for the prosecution.” [WSJ Law Blog]

* When Big Weed meets Biglaw: In honor of 4/20, the mainstream media has finally caught on and realized that marijuana law is an up-and-coming practice area. This article focuses on some of the well-known law firms that have adopted marijuana practices, like Thompson Coburn, Fox Rothschild, and Much Shelist. [Chicago Tribune]

* Eli Manning might be getting burned by discovery. [ESPN]

* The Covington & Burling report on sexual misconduct at Choate that is rocking the world of elite boarding schools. [New York Times]

* Aaron Hernandez found not guilty of a 2012 double murder. Don’t worry, he is still serving a life sentence for a 2013 murder. [Deadspin]

* Did Donald Trump’s lawyer, Michael Cohen, misplace $350,000? [Buzzfeed]

* If only this was what really happened behind the scenes at SCOTUS. [Huffington Post]

* DOJ gives up on HB2 litigation. [Slate]

* The civil rights of students are… probably not in good hands. [Salon]