Dentons

* Eighty-three judicial ethics complaints against Brett Kavanaugh have been tossed out by the Judicial Council of the Tenth Circuit due to an “intervening event”: his SCOTUS confirmation. The Council, set up to fail by Chief Justice John Roberts, “[l]ack[s] statutory authority to do anything more.” [National Law Journal]

* The Senate passed the First Step Act in an 87 to 12 bipartisan vote, and now the sweeping criminal justice reform legislation will move on to the House for approval before being sent to the White House. This is a major victory. Thanks for the assist on this, Jared Kushner! [Washington Post]

* The tax man commeth, but not for Donald Trump. Judge Karen Henderson of the D.C. Circuit has denied a Freedom of Information Act request for the President’s IRS tax records, citing the agency’s confidentiality protections for all citizens. [CNN]

* Cross-border mergers are on the rise, and one firm has been responsible for the vast majority of them. In 2018 alone, with about 9,000 lawyers and counting, Dentons has completed more global mergers than all other U.S. firms. [American Lawyer]

* Brooklyn Law will have a new dean come July 1. Michael Cahill, who’s been serving as co-dean of Rutgers Law, will return to the place where he spent 13 years as a professor, associate dean, and vice dean. Congrats! [New York Law Journal]

* People and things in the legal profession dominated Google’s most searched for queries over the course of 2018, with Justice Brett Kavanaugh, Christine Blasey Ford’s SJC testimony, Aaron Schlossberg, and taking some top spots. [ABA Journal]

* The Senate Judiciary Committee has hired an outside counsel who’s an expert in sex crimes prosecution to question Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. She’ll be doing the bidding of Republican senators, while Democratic senators will do their own questioning. [CNN]

* That same SJC will vote on Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS nomination the very next day, less than 24 hours after Dr. Ford’s testimony concerning allegations that the judge sexually assaulted her. Everyone must be looking forward to the show hearing even more now. [POLITICO]

* But if Kavanaugh’s nomination somehow gets Borked or withdrawn on or before Friday, you better believe that he could face disciplinary action when he returns to his seat on the D.C. Circuit. A complaint has already been filed, but most are “dismissed fairly promptly.” Let’s see what happens. [Big Law Business]

* Should he stay or should he go now? Sources say Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein has no plans to quit and President Donald Trump’s advisers say he’d be willing to keep the DOJ’s second in command on the job. “The president is genuinely conflicted,” but no one knows if his urge to say “You’re Fired!” will be too great. [Wall Street Journal]

* Say hello to the China 45, a ranking of Chinese law firms with the highest gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, and profits per equity partner for the prior calendar year. When it comes to the firms with the biggest financial footprints, only one “American” Biglaw shop made the cut. Take a wild guess on which one it was. [American Lawyer]

* There will be new Kavanaugh hearings on Monday… if he’s still the nominee by then. [CNBC]

* Have you heard about how Christine Blasey Ford’s parents lost a case in front of Kavanaugh’s mom and that’s why she has it in for him? Yeah… it’s not true. [Snopes]

* Kavanaugh has hired Beth Wilkinson. [Law & Crime]

* Anita Hill lawyers offer advice for the upcoming hearings. Personally, I think Ron Klain has the best advice. [National Law Journal]

* If you’re going to get sanctioned, try and get sanctioned with a client willing to pay. [Forbes]

* Gary Cohn is sick and tired of people blaming Wall Street for things that were demonstrably Wall Street’s fault. The fact that this guy is being treated as having been the “smart” Trump guy is an indictment in and of itself. [Reuters]

* While you weren’t looking, Dentons got even bigger. [Law.com]

* Lanny Davis, lawyer to Michael Cohen, was instrumental in leaking the Trump/McDougal tape to CNN last night. It’s now official: Cohen has turned on Donald Trump. Listen to it here. [CNN]

* Michael Avenatti, lawyer to porn actress Stormy Daniels, says he’s interested in discussing a settlement with Michael Cohen about his client’s “hush agreement” to keep quiet about her 2006 affair with Trump. Avenatti says a meeting was scheduled, then canceled by Cohen’s other lawyer, and now they’re calling each other liars. This is all par for the course. [CNN]

* A split three-judge panel of the Ninth Circuit has ruled that the Second Amendment allows the open carrying of guns in public. This comes two years after the court ruled that the Second Amendment did not allow the concealed carrying of guns in public. You can expect this to be appealed to the Ninth Circuit en banc. [Associated Press]

* Dentons has come out swinging with denials against a sexual harassment case that was filed by a business development specialist last month, claiming that not only is the suit without merit, but that it also “misappropriates” the #MeToo movement. We’ll have more on thisinteresting development later today. [American Lawyer]

* If you live in a two-lawyer household, should you be sharing client secrets? The Ohio Supreme Court is about to answer that question for us, since there’s apparently no case on the books about anything remotely like this. [Big Law Business]

* If you’re thinking about applying to law school ahead of a career in politics, then you may have to work a little harder to — wait, nevermind, you can go to pretty much any law school since having a J.D. seems to be the gateway to government. [U.S. News]

* Paramedics rushed to Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s apartment on Friday after the diabetic jurist experienced a low blood sugar episode. She was not hospitalized, and went to work because she’s “doing fine.” Somewhere, President Trump is cackling gleefully about one of his predictions. [POLITICO]

* After a months-long drought, the Supreme Court will finally issue some opinions today. This is the slowest the high court has been in issuing opinions since 1868. Did Justice Neil Gorsuch’s arrival on the bench set SCOTUS efficiency back by 150 years? [Big Law Business]

* Taylor Weyeneth, the 24-year-old who was recently appointed by Trump to be the nation’s deputy drug czar, is just like most Trump appointees without any experience. His résumé full of “errors,” and he forgot to mention that he lost his job at a law firm after not showing up. [Washington Post]

* “Even though David Boies has the energy of a 4-year-old, he is in the twilight of his career,” so a new generation of partners at the firm are preparing to move Boies Schiller into the future after Boies and Jonathan Schiller step back from their active leadership roles. [American Lawyer]

* A Dentons partner whose firm was gobbled up by the Biglaw behemoth last year has been suspended and placed on a leave of absence after word of his alleged inappropriate sexual behavior with female employees at his legacy firm for around to management. [American Lawyer via RollOnFriday]

* California has been going after the LSAC for years over its disability accommodations for people who want to take the LSAT, and now the state wants the council to be held in contempt. LSAC thinks California needs to study reading its comprehension. [The Recorder]

* Are you ready for some disparaging team names in football?! Many people are likely to continue calling them the “Washington team,” but in the wake of the Matal v. Tam Supreme Court case, the Fourth Circuit has officially vacated the decisions that canceled the Washington Redskins’ trademark registrations. [USA Today Sports]

* 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]

* Former Dentons associate Michael Potere pleads guilty to lesser charge in extortion case where he allegedly broke into the firm’s system and threatened to hand over embarrassing material to Above the Law. The lesson is: if you have compromising information about your employer don’t try to extort your firm — just hand it directly to Above the Law. [The Recorder]

* A lot of people are chiming in to say that Trump’s decision to interview U.S. Attorney candidates is improper because it breaks with tradition or because he currently faces a special counsel investigation. That’s all true, but what should really raise red flags is in an administration riddled with open jobs and a floundering legislative agenda, the only thing a president under investigation seems to care about is picking his prosecutors. [Litigation Daily]

* We all kind of suspect that SCOTUS advocacy is largely a self-reinforcing old boys’ club, but here’s the data. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Chadbourne’s gender bias suit may be getting bigger. [Law360]

* Yes, RBG’s famous workout is now available in book form (affiliate link). [National Law Journal]

* In-house counsel say they want more from their law firms. And yet, I’m assuming they don’t want “more bills” from those firms for all this extra work. [Corporate Counsel]

* AUSA suspended for affair with FBI agent. What’s the ethical dilemma? We all know the FBI is shacked up with the U.S. Attorney’s Office anyway. [Law.com]

* Interested in volunteering at a DACA renewal clinic? You can do it even if you’re not an immigration lawyer. Sign up here to get training and match with a site in need of your assistance. [Lawyers for Good Government]

* Adding healthy habits to your already packed schedule can seem like an impossible task, but you really can do it. [Corporette]

* Sad but true (and not at all surprising): Americans don’t know squat about the Constitution. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

* Judge Jed Rakoff issues an important opinion outlining the contours of “fair use.” [Copyright Alliance]

* Biglaw behemoth Dentons has created a network to connect PR professionals. That’s an interesting move for a firm that already counts more than 7,000 lawyers under its umbrella. [Law and More]

* David Lat chats with employment lawyer Matt Steinberg about how transparency is transforming the employer/employee relationship. [Akerman]