Dodd-Frank Act

  • Morning Docket: 11.30.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.30.16

    * Fresh off a five-month stint in prison for defrauding clients, Todd Malacuso, a lawyer who once represented Casey Anthony, has been arrested and accused of conspiring to smuggle almost two tons of cocaine into the United States from Central America on his own plane. He’s being held without bail as he’s been deemed a flight risk. [Daily Mail]

    * “Taking a fee when you’ve got people literally still paying off their credit cards is a lot different than when it’s essentially found money for the plaintiffs.” In a wide-ranging interview, Jason Forge, a partner at Robbins Geller, explains why plaintiffs’ lawyers in the Trump University fraud case decided to forgo attorneys’ fees. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * SCOTUS justices seem poised to block Texas from executing a man due to the fact that an outdated definition of intellectual disability is being used in its capital punishment regime. Justice Stephen Breyer said that the Texas standard to determine impairment “would free some, while subjecting others to the death penalty.” [USA Today]

    * “We are refusing to comment on speculation around partners being in discussion with other firms.” Biglaw firms are circling King & Wood Mallesons like vultures, hoping to pick off partners as its EUME operations struggle. Goodwin Procter and Chadbourne & Parke are reportedly in talks to extend offers to KWM partners. [Big Law Business]

    * According to the Committee on Capital Markets Regulation, President-elect Donald Trump and a Republican-led Congress may be able to tweak some elements of Dodd-Frank without completely dismantling or rewriting the law. After all, “federal agencies have wide latitude to undo reforms” and “there is room to change things.” [Reuters]

  • Morning Docket: 11.15.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.15.16

    * A Wisconsin judge has ordered that Brendan Dassey, one of the subjects of “Making a Murderer,” be freed from prison while the state appeals a ruling overturning his conviction, as authorities have “failed to demonstrate that Dassey represents a present danger to the community.” The date of his release is not yet known, but the state plans to file another appeal. [USA Today]

    * “If you have baseball commissioner to offer me, then I can tell you what my plans are.” Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Mary Jo White is stepping down from her position even though she still has two years left before her term is up. The departure of the former Debevoise partner and federal prosecutor will make way for President-elect Donald Trump to start dismantling the Dodd-Frank Act. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * For a man who seems to be completely obsessed with all things tremendous, big league, great, and yuge, the vast majority of the judges on President-elect Trump’s Supreme Court shortlist have at least one thing in common: They didn’t go to Ivy League law schools. That being said, just like his outsider campaign as a whole, the names on Trump’s Supreme Court pick list are a “revolt against the elites.” [New York Times]

    * While he was still on the campaign trail, President-elect Trump pledged to “open up our libel laws” so celebrities and public officials can “sue [the media] and win lots of money,” but it might not be so easy to do. The Supreme Court doesn’t seem to have any designs on overturning the precedent set in New York Times v. Sullivan, and the only other way to change libel laws would be to amend the Constitution. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Chadbourne & Parke has filed a motion for summary judgment in the $100 million gender discrimination class-action suit filed by one of its current partners and one of its former partners, contending that not only are their claims “utterly baseless,” but that the plaintiff partners are not or were not employees of the firm who fall under employment discrimination laws. We’ll have more on this news later today. [Big Law Business]

  • Morning Docket: 09.09.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 09.09.16

    * “In the past, law school was often times seen as a safe haven in a bad market, and that’s just not the case given the jobs that are available.” Applications may be down, but given the state of the job market, more and more students are flocking to law schools without any desire to practice law, intending to pursue alternative career paths instead. [Wisconsin Bar]

    * Former Berkeley Law Dean Sujit Choudhry returned to campus this semester after resigning from his post thanks to a sexual harassment lawsuit, but a letter he penned on the subject that was published in the school paper didn’t have the results he expected; instead, about 100 law students protested the professor’s presence on campus. [SFGate]

    * The House of Representatives is scheduled to vote on the Investment Advisers Modernization Act of 2016 today, a bill that private equity firms hope will chip away at Dodd-Frank’s requirements on what information the industry must report to regulators. The White House has threatened a veto if it’s passed. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Can this group of general counsels from Fortune 100 companies save the legal profession from becoming a haven for old white men and turn it into a melting pot of opportunity across all demographics? That’s what they’re hoping to do by hiring and firing outside counsel based on their diversity. Best of luck! [Big Law Business]

    * Subway’s “footlong” class-action suit is now before the Seventh Circuit, with Ted Frank of the Competitive Enterprise Institute arguing that the lawyers who settled the sandwich-size discrepancy gave themselves too much credit, calling them, along with the class representatives, “the only beneficiaries of the case.” Ouch. [WSJ Law Blog]

  • Sponsored

Sponsored

  • 10th Circuit, Benchslaps, Biglaw, Confirmations, Constitutional Law, Guns / Firearms, McCarter & English, Mergers and Acquisitions, Minority Issues, Money, Morning Docket, Musical Chairs, Politics, Racism, SCOTUS, Securities and Exchange Commission, Sonia Sotomayor, Supreme Court

    Morning Docket: 02.26.13

    * Our own Elie Mystal isn’t the only one who’s capable of fanning the flames of race baiting — it seems that Supreme Court justices can do it, too! We’ll probably have more on Justice Sonia Sotomayor’s benchslap later today. [The Two-Way / NPR]

    * Patience is obviously one of this judge’s virtues, because this took a looooong time. After waiting more than a year for people to put their petty political pandering aside, the Senate confirmed Robert Bacharach to the Tenth Circuit. [Blog of Legal Times]

    * Mary Jo White, the nominee to lead the SEC, will probably face her confirmation hearing in March. Her legal wranglings at Debevoise may be of interest to some, but really, who cares? She’s so cute and tiny! [Reuters]

    * Mayer Brown and the terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year: gross revenue is up overall at most Biglaw firms, but not this one. In 2012, Mayer Brown’s revenue dipped 3.7 percent for a six-year low. [Am Law Daily]

    * Kirkland & Ellis, now the fifth-largest Biglaw firm in the nation, is leading the market in terms of top dollar merger-and-acquisition deals. Now, if only the firm could get some bananas. [Crain’s Chicago Business]

    * Orderly liquidation authority may be a legitimate exercise of power under the Bankruptcy Clause, but as far as these states are concerned, it’s just another reason to hate the Dodd-Frank Act. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Remember Peggy Ableman, the judge who ordered lawyers to attend a course on remedial civility in their “jammies”? She’s now at McCarter & English, so mind your manners. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]

    * An “astronomically stupid” legal loophole? Unpossible! Gun trusts are seeing the limelight because Chris Dorner claims he used one to purchase his paraphernalia without a background check. [New York Times]

  • Barack Obama, Biglaw, In-House Counsel, King & Spalding, Midsize Firms / Regional Firms, Money, Morning Docket, Partner Issues, Sentencing Law, Willkie Farr

    Morning Docket: 11.08.12

    * Now that Barack Obama has secured his seat as a two-term president, in-house counsel in the financial sector can kiss their dreams of Dodd-Frank being repealed goodbye. Here are some issues to think about in light of its new footing. [Corporate Counsel]

    * “We’re in the early innings of adjusting what value means.” And these days, it looks like “value” is synonymous with “making less money.” Given the results of this third quarter analysis, it’s quite clear that flat is still the new up for Biglaw. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Blow my whistle, baby? A DLA Piper partner filed a $4M suit against the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency on claims he was maliciously prosecuted as revenge for whistleblowing. [Daily Business Review]

    * After being arrested on domestic violence charges, it seems that Steven Guynn of King & Spalding has left the firm. He doesn’t need to sweat his unemployment, because his house is for sale for $3.3M. [Am Law Daily]

    * From Biglaw to Midlaw: Morrison Cohen, a midsize firm, managed to poach a partner from Willkie Farr. But how? Apparently this guy was no longer interested in billing “$900-plus” per hour. [New York Law Journal]

    * Former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords will be present at Jared Lee Loughner’s sentencing hearing today, though it is unknown if she herself will speak. His expected sentence is life without parole. [ABC News]

  • 9th Circuit, American Bar Association / ABA, Banking Law, Crime, Department of Justice, Fat People, Health Care / Medicine, Insider Trading, Military / Military Law, Money, Morning Docket, U.S. News

    Morning Docket: 09.30.11

    * Now that DADT has been repealed, the Ninth Circuit has tossed the Log Cabin Republicans case. How does that Paula Abdul song go? Two steps forward, two steps back? [Los Angeles Times] * Is this a new way of protecting taxpayers? In early 2012, Bank of America is going to start charging $5 a […]