DLA Piper

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.30.17

* Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams pleads guilty to accepting a bribe, ending his ongoing federal corruption trial and his tenure as DA -- and sending him straight to jail, since Judge Paul Diamond denied bail. [ABA Journal] * The Trump administration moves forward on implementing the travel ban (and has reversed its earlier determination that being engaged to marry an American doesn't count as "a bona fide" connection to this country). [New York Times] * Colorado baker Jack Phillips, petitioner in the Masterpiece Cakeshop case that the Supreme Court will hear next Term, explains his refusal to bake a cake for a same-sex wedding. [How Appealing] * DLA Piper, hit by a major ransomware attack earlier this week, endures its third consecutive day without email. [Law360] * And DLA isn't the only Biglaw firm with big weaknesses in cybersecurity, as Ian Lopez reports. [Law.com] * Lawyer turned television host Greta Van Susteren has been let go by MSNBC (after just six months). [Vanity Fair] * The tragic case of Charlie Gard comes to an end: the European Court of Human Rights declines to review prior court rulings refusing to let the terminally ill 10-month-old boy travel to the U.S. for experimental treatment. [Washington Post] * Drs. John Eastman and Sohan Dasgupta break down the Trinity Lutheran case. [Claremont Institute]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.13.17

* South Texas College of Law will not change its name to "Houston." If they're still looking at new names, here are some thoughts. [Houston Chronicle] * Legal sector losing jobs in latest labor report. And this wasn't even counting Preet! [Law360] * Chipotle gets big win in shareholder food poisoning case. [Litigation Daily] * DLA Piper saw revenue fall due to currency fluctuations. Don't worry, they still turned a profit by firing people. [Am Law Daily] * What's the ideal pay gap between your most and least compensated partners? [Law.com] * Lawyer's wife took welfare while he worked at Mayer Brown. [NBC Washington] * The "pants on fire" attorney tells his side of the story. [Associated Press via WPXI]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.12.16

* Duncan Lloyd, the Philadelphia assistant city solicitor who spray-painted "F*ck Trump" on a building while wearing an ascot and holding a glass of wine, will be able to keep his job after completing 40 hours of community service. We're sure many Americans feel that he has already completed his community service through his actions. [Philadelphia Inquirer] * Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, who took a leave of absence from Greenberg Traurig to support Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump through the end of the election, has removed his name from consideration for any position in President-elect Trump's administration (but only after reportedly being offered three other positions that he didn't want). He'll now be returning to his law firm. [ABC News] * The struggling European and Middle East arm of King & Wood Mallesons has received "a number of indicative purchase offers" from other law firms. Biglaw behemoth Dentons is rumored to be a potential merger partner for firm's EUME branch, with DLA Piper and Greenberg Traurig ready to make lateral offers to partners. [Big Law Business] * Just because your law school isn't one of the best in the nation, it doesn't mean that you can't dream big. Case in point: The most recent winners of the prestigious Skadden public interest fellowships has been announced, and two of them will graduate from CUNY School of Law. We'll have more on the new Skadden Fellows later. [Skadden] * Dislike? A woman who wanted to serve her estranged husband with divorce papers via Facebook has been denied by a judge who noted that the social networking profile had been inactive for two-plus years, writing that to allow service would be "akin to the Court permitting service by nail and mail to a building that no longer exists." [WSJ Law Blog]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.29.16

* “The ballot-selfie prohibition is like 'burn[ing down] the house to roast the pig.'" Just in time for Election 2016, the First Circuit has struck down New Hampshire's ballot selfie ban as unconstitutional, citing the fact that it curtailed voters' free speech, and on top of that, the state was unable to identify any complaints of vote buying or intimidation. [POLITICO] * Suspended Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore, who instructed probate judges to adhere to the state's ban on same-sex marriage, even after the Supreme Court's Obergefell ruling, says the ethics charges he faces are "ridiculous" since he never "encourage[d] anyone to defy a federal court or state court order." [WSJ Law Blog] * Wiley Rein lost two practice group leaders to DLA Piper this week. The firm, known for its media, telecom, government contracts, and IP practices, no longer has partners in charge of its telecom group or its wireless group, but it claims these departures were anticipated, and the practice groups were merged ahead of time. [Big Law Business] * Cha-ching! The Caesars bankruptcy is ending, which means the "fee frenzy" for lawyers who were working on the case is about to dry up as well. Nine law firms have been involved in the case since the company first filed for bankruptcy in January 2015, and hundreds of millions of dollars of legal fees have already been assessed. [Am Law Daily] * Many jurisdictions adopted the Uniform Bar Exam for the July 2016 administration of the bar exam, and it seems like it may have had the opposite effect on test-takers than what was intended. Graduates of this law school saw their bar exam passage rate drop by 13 percent since last year. We'll have more on this later today. [Albequerque Journal]

By Staci Zaretsky