Dan Markel

  • Non Sequiturs: 03.31.19
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non Sequiturs: 03.31.19

    * Even Jonathan Adler, no fan of Obamacare, can’t support the Justice Department’s shift of position in the ongoing Affordable Care Act litigation out of Texas. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

    * John Lauro continues to protect the reputation of his client Wendi Adelson, ex-wife of murdered law professor Dan Markel. [2paragraphs]

    * Meanwhile, another player in the Dan Markel case — David Oscar Markus, counsel to Charlie Adelson — argues that Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the right call on obstruction of justice. [The Hill]

    * Speaking of the Mueller investigation, Brianne Gorod points out that Congress has the power to ask the district court to release grand jury transcripts and related information from the case. [Take Care]

    * Whether or not you agree with Senator Marco Rubio’s proposed constitutional amendment to fix the size of the U.S. Supreme Court at nine justices, it’s not a bad idea to think about possible ways to restructure SCOTUS — as Gordon Renneisen does here. [Law360]

    * Meanwhile, as the Court grapples with the cross-shaped war memorial case this Term, Rick Garnett wonders: can a liberal state favor one religion over others? [First Things via PrawfsBlawg]

    * Legal tech M&A activity continues apace, with vLex’s acquisition of Justis. [Artificial Lawyer]

  • Morning Docket: 03.07.19
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 03.07.19

    * Paul Manafort sweating today as he only has a few more hours to commit more crimes. [NY Times]

    * Wilbur Ross broke the law and violated the Constitution over census question. [Washington Post]

    * As a change of pace from the daily updates on the criminal activity of those in Trump’s orbit, Canada’s government is embroiled in a corruption scandal too. But it’s a polite scandal. [CBC]

    * Driverless vehicles are going to revolutionize everything — including the law. [Legaltech News]

    * A wide-ranging chat with the last crier of the Supreme Court about long-ago justices and the lost art of crying. [National Law Journal]

    * Pryor Cashman sues Brother Jimmy’s over walking out on a tab. [NY Post]

    * Fox podcast tackles the murder of FSU Law’s Dan Markel. [Fox News]

  • Non Sequiturs: 03.03.19
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non Sequiturs: 03.03.19

    * Several weeks after its release, Over My Dead Body, Wondery’s new podcast exploring the Dan Markel case, continues to top the podcast charts — and creators Matthew Shaer and Eric Benson have some thoughts on why the case has seized the public imagination. [Inside Edition]

    * The Keith Tharpe case, far from representing an isolated injustice, reflects and embodies the racist roots of the death penalty in America, according to Stephen Cooper. [CounterPunch]

    * The fight against racism in the justice system has been going on (and will continue) for many years — and as Texas lawyer John Browning has discovered, trailblazing African American attorneys were fighting to integrate the bar of the Lone Star State as early as the 1800s. [Texas Lawyer]

    * I’ve previously argued against treating blue slips as senatorial vetoes of judicial nominees, based on their consequences for the federal judiciary — and as Thomas Jipping points out, history supports treating blue slips as a senatorial courtesy, nothing more. [Bench Memos / National Review]

    * Don’t be fooled by the high level of unanimity in the Supreme Court’s first few decisions of the Term; greater disagreement lurks in the “shadow docket,” as Adam Feldman explains. [Empirical SCOTUS]

    * The compromise appropriations bill that saved us from another government shutdown could also advance the Trump Administration’s “remain in Mexico” policy for asylum seekers from Central America — which Stewart Baker believes “may offer a better solution to the immigration crisis than the construction of a few miles of new wall.” [Lawfare via Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

    * Actor James Woods is out of the woods in a defamation lawsuit arising out of an erroneous tweet of his, thanks to this interesting ruling by the Sixth Circuit. [How Appealing]

    * Jean O’Grady is excited about Panoramic, the latest offering from Thomson Reuters, which transforms “the ambitious idea of merging workflow and billing into an actual product.” [Dewey B Strategic]

  • Non Sequiturs: 02.24.19
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non Sequiturs: 02.24.19

    * You wouldn’t want to be in the shoes of Jussie Smollett right now — nor the shoes of his lawyers, according to Joel Cohen and Dale Degenshein. [Law and Crime]

    * And in other celebrity legal news, the new documentary about Drake has triggered a slew of copyright claims and takedown notices. [All Rights Reserved]

    * If you’ve been listening to the compelling new podcast from Wondery about the Dan Markel case, check out this interesting interview with host Matt Shaer. [Uproxx]

    * Speaking of podcasts, I recently appeared on Miranda Warnings, the popular podcast by former New York State Bar Association president David Miranda, to talk about Biglaw, legal education, and more. [Miranda Warnings]

    * And if you’ll be in Nashville tomorrow or Tuesday, please feel free to stop by either or both of the talks I’ll be giving at Vanderbilt — one on judicial celebrity, and one on the state of legal education. [Vanderbilt Federalist Society / Vanderbilt Law School Library]

    * If you’re a libertarian or otherwise concerned about excessive exercises of government power, you should be concerned about President Donald Trump’s invocation of emergency powers, as Ilya Somin explains. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

    * Will the Supreme Court ride to Trump’s rescue if and when his national emergency declaration winds up before SCOTUS? Brianne Gorod has her doubts. [Take Care]

    * More excellent advice from expert courtroom lawyer David Berg — think of this as “The Trial Lawyer: What It Takes To Lose.” [YouTube]

  • Non Sequiturs: 12.02.18
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non Sequiturs: 12.02.18

    * What are expert advocates’ secrets to cert success? Adam Feldman’s very interesting analysis suggests that using certain buzzwords in a petition might help. [Empirical SCOTUS]

    * Ilya Somin points out this fun depressing fact: one of the plants that General Motors will be closing sits on land seized in a controversial taking that forcibly displaced more than 4,000 people. [Reason / Volokh Conspiracy]

    * The Third Circuit is poised to become the first (but probably not the last) circuit court to “flip” flip from a majority of Democratic appointees at the outset of the Trump administration to a majority of Republican appointees, as Ed Whelan notes. [National Review / Bench Memos]

    * A June 3 trial date has been set for Sigfredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua in the Dan Markel case — almost five long years after Professor Markel’s murder. [Tallahassee Democrat]

    * In the wake of a recent tragedy, Neha Sampat offers some reflections on impostor syndrome in the legal profession. [ABA Journal]

    * If you’re a conservative or libertarian law student, you should consider attending the Federalist Society’s 2019 National Student Symposium, with “The Resurgence of Economic Liberty” as its theme. [Federalist Society]

    * Can the Supreme Court save our democracy? David Pozen opines (and he’s not optimistic).

  • 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]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 02.11.18
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 02.11.18

    * Uber and Waymo settled, so now we can have flying cars. Or something. [Corporate Counsel]

    * New charges in the Dan Markel murder case. [U.S. News]

    * Trump can pretty much get away with anything, so why not talk to prosecutors and just take the Fifth? [The Hill]

    * A look at the difficult work of navigating a romance at work. [Law and More]

    * A week in the life of a mom working as a solo practitioner. [CorporetteMoms]

    * An excellent new podcast for aspiring trial lawyers, from McKool Smith and Benchmark Litigation, kicks off by interviewing legendary litigator Evan Chesler of Cravath. [McKool Smith]

  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 02.09.18

    * Will Chief Justice John Roberts be asked to testify before Congress for his role as the appointer of judges for the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Court? According to House Intelligence Committee chairman Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), it could happen, even though they “don’t know the correct way to proceed because of the separation of powers issue.” [National Law Journal]

    * Quinn Emanuel’s Bill Burck is representing two Trump administration rejects (Steve Bannon and Reince Priebus) and a current major player in the Trump administration (Don McGahn), all at the same time. The discussion about whether there’s any conflict of interest here between Burck’s triple-play is pretty interesting. [American Lawyer]

    * Sigfredo Garcia and Katherine Magbanua, who are both currently waiting to stand trial for the murder of Florida State Law Professor Dan Markel, are now facing some additional charges. The pair now face counts of conspiracy and solicitation to commit murder. We wonder when either of them will take a plea. [Tallahassee Democrat]

    * In case you missed it, in a world first, Bermuda will be abolishing same-sex marriage, after legalizing same-sex marriage just one year ago. Same-sex marriages will now be referred to as domestic partnerships, conferring all the same rights that married couples have, but without the legal title. [Washington Post]

    * Do you know this man? For years and years, this man’s portrait has been hanging outside the chief justice’s chambers at the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, but no one has any idea who he is. Help name this mystery justice and win a prize! [AP]

  • Morning Docket: 01.05.18
    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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