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Courts
Brett Kavanaugh Doing A FedSoc Event Hosted By Facebook Is Kinda Why We Live In Hell
Facebook employees are being encouraged to protest the company's continued association with an alleged attempted rapist. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 10.23.19
* Attorneys general from 47 states are now conducting antitrust investigations of Facebook. The other three attorneys general must still have MySpace… [CNN]
* An ex-Manafort attorney has been retained by indicted Giuliani associate Igor Fruman — hope the lawyer has better luck this time. [Politico]
* Amber Guyger, the Dallas police officer convicted of killing her neighbor in his own home, has filed a notice of appeal. [CNN]
* Trump administration lawyers argued before a federal appeals court yesterday that unauthorized immigrants should be detained indefinitely while seeking asylum. [San Francisco Chronicle]
* The Florida Bar is seeking to suspend an attorney with 31 ethics complaints filed against him, but the lawyer is nowhere to be found. Maybe he’s with Saul Goodman… [Tampa Bay Times]
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Stupid Lawyer Tricks
Stop Posting This Facebook/Instagram Privacy Notice -- Your Pseudo-Legalese Means NOTHING!
This hoax has been meaningless for almost EIGHT years. STOP!
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Law Schools
Single Mom Breaks Down Her Law School Experience By The Relevant Numbers
The most important number comes last. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 06.25.19
* If you thought demand for legal services couldn’t get worse… [Corporate Counsel]
* We just talked about the best cities for lawyers. One area that’s not on that list is Silicon Valley and basically here’s why. [The Recorder]
* We’re in the midst of a Biglaw salary war… just not in the U.S. [Legal Cheek]
* Facebook examined its cadre of counsel and crowned this firm the tops in diversity. The prize was some sticky video showing pictures of Zuckerberg and firm attorneys over some warmed over pablum about the power of friendship. [American Lawyer]
* Speaking of Facebook, the Cambridge Analytica bankruptcy has officially let Schulte Roth off the hook. [Law360]
* Sidney Powell wants security clearance so she can rant about classified documents that have nothing to do with the case against her client. [NY Times]
* Strength in numbers we can get it right/One time/We are a part of the Biglaw nation. [Los Angeles Times]
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Courts
This Federal Judge Would Really Like Facebook To Be Consistent When It Comes To Privacy
Judges don't like a flip-flop. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 03.26.19
* Trump’s DOJ now asking courts to overturn the entire ACA including ban on discrimination against pre-existing conditions in bid to capture the eugenics constituency. [NY Times]
* Mayer Brown alum mayoral candidate proposes higher taxes on Biglaw. [Chicago Sun-Tribune]
* Artists claim Marvel ripped off their Iron Man design claiming “Stan Lee’s original Iron Man was clad in spandex and ‘minimal armor.'” Someone actually filed a suit based on that theory. [Law360]
* Coming as a shock to no legal observer, Jay Sekulow doesn’t understand basics of law. [MSNBC]
* Michael Flynn owes around $5 million in legal fees. [New York Mag]
* The Los Angeles lateral market is hopping. [The Recorder]
* Someone’s finally suing Facebook for making every dumb media company think they needed to “pivot to video.” [Delaware Business Court Insider]
* Whistleblower accomplishes what UCF could not and makes Duke pay. [Corporate Counsel]
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Stupid Lawyer Tricks
Stop Posting This Facebook Privacy Notice -- Your Pseudo-Legalese Means NOTHING!
This Facebook hoax has been meaningless for SEVEN years. STOP! - Sponsored
Generative AI In Legal Work — What’s Fact And What’s Fiction?
Zach Warren from the Thomson Reuters Institute discusses the potential and the pitfalls. -
Small Law Firms
Lawyer Sends Around Racist Pictures Of Beer, NAACP Gets Involved
After facing consequences for posting an offensive image online, a lawyer complains that it's everyone's fault but his. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.10.19
* It’s probably sociopathic to make “I just killed a deer” part of your online dating banter, but it’s downright stupid when you make it part of your online dating banter while trying to woo a game warden. [CNN]
* Ahoy maties! Maritime firms Jones Walker and Fowler Rodriguez merge. [Daily Business Review]
* Coming legal developments that could revolutionize the law. [Law.com]
* Florida’s “Stand Your Ground” law now covers police officers shooting innocent people in the back. [Slate]
* Federal judge calls for “bone-crushing” discovery. Hopefully the sets a new precedent and judges start asking for “disemboweling” briefing and “waterboarding” voir dire. [Law360]
* Another online J.D. program — and this one’s bringing in students with higher LSAT scores than the residential program. [New York Law Journal]
* The good and bad news for employers when it comes to workplace class actions. Isn’t the good news for employers always, “the Supreme Court is about to make these illegal”? [Corporate Counsel]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non Sequiturs: 11.18.18
* Walter Dellinger and Marty Lederman offer their analysis of the Office of Legal Counsel memo, written by Assistant Attorney General Steve Engel, on the appointment of Matthew Whitaker as Acting Attorney General. [Just Security]
* WWRMD: What Would Robert Mueller Do, in the event that he’s fired by Matt Whitaker? His options would be limited, according to Joel Cohen and Jennifer Rodgers. [The Hill]
* As for who will become the next Senate-confirmed Attorney General, here are some possibilities — including Glenn Reynolds’s picks. [Instapundit]
* Victoria Baranetsky, general counsel at the Center for Investigative Reporting, argues that the Jim Acosta case is about protecting press rights as well as due process. [Take Care]
* Facebook friends aren’t “real” friends — at least according to this interesting new opinion from the Florida Supreme Court, highlighted by Eugene Volokh. [Reason / Volokh Conspiracy]
* Managing partners don’t get no respect at law firms — and Bruce MacEwen thinks that’s a problem. [Adam Smith Esq.]
* Even though it has been out for just a few months, Westlaw Edge already has 1,500 subscribers — and if you’re thinking about getting it, tune in to this (sponsored) webinar to learn more. [Dewey B Strategic]
* Yesterday I spoke at the Federalist Society National Lawyers Convention on a panel about technology, social media, and legal ethics, featuring Judge Don Willett (5th Cir.), Chief Judge Stephen Dillard (Ga. Ct. App.), Josh Blackman, and John Browning. Check it out!
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Technology
Facebook Allowing French Censors To Embed With The Company, And Maybe That's A Good Thing?
France is trying to learn how to better censor the platform. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 09.19.18
* Credit card companies ponying up more money to settle claims that they rogered retailers on swipe fees. They’ll probably make that money back in 3 days so don’t shed too many tears. [Law360]
* Mark Judge brings on Cozen in the off chance Grassley develops a spine and demands Judge’s testimony. Which he won’t. [National Law Journal]
* Former Cadwalader chair sues wife to block condo sale to bail out adult son. [NY Post]
* The SEC is looking to futz with the Dodd-Frank whistleblower provisions, which should help us get back to that cozy world where financial interests can easily plunge the economy into turmoil again. [National Law Journal]
* Facebook accused of gender bias in keeping job listings away from female users. [Corporate Counsel]
* Right-wing attorney Jason Lee Van Dyke arrested on filing a false police report charge. [Daily Beast]
* Supreme Court overrules John Roberts and pushes back against dark money shenanigans. Consider this a brief respite until Kavanaugh shows up. [Courthouse News Service]
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Generative AI In Legal Work — What’s Fact And What’s Fiction?
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
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Intellectual Property
Facebook Has No Likes For BlackBerry
Today’s iteration of BlackBerry is not making many friends on the patent licensing front. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 07.30.18
* Vice President Mike Pence says he’s “confident” that Judge Brett Kavanaugh will be confirmed to the Supreme Court “before the fall is out” — and he’s probably correct about that. [FOX Business]
* In other news related to the high court, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she’s got “at least five more years” on the Supreme Court before she’ll think about stepping down. As always, RBG continues to remain NO-NO-NO-NOTORIOUS! [CNN]
* According to one of President Trump’s former lawyers, Rudy Giuliani has weakened the case against Michael Cohen by flip-flopping on the man’s credibility, referring to him as an “an honest, honorable lawyer” and later as a “pathological liar.” [CNN]
* Just in case you forgot, not only did Michael Cohen go to the “worst law school in the country,” but “[h]e’s bitter Trump didn’t give him a job.” [Page Six / New York Post]
* Former Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has filed a “political conspiracy” lawsuit over his failed bid for the U.S. Senate seat that was left vacant by AG Jeff Sessions, claiming that false advertisements were behind his loss. [Newsweek]
* Last week, Facebook lost more than $100 billion in value, the biggest single-day loss in stock market history. Shareholders have responded in the most obvious way possible, with a proposed class-action lawsuit. [New York Law Journal]
* After its unexpected closure, Savannah Law School will soon find new life — as an art school. The Savannah College of Art and Design purchased the law school building from Atlanta’s John Marshall Law for a cool $27.5 million. [Savannah Morning News]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 07.26.18
* ARTICLES OF IMPEACHMENT FILED! Against Rod Rosenstein. Alternative headline: In stunning turn, Rep. Jim Jordan demands accountability as long as it’s not for years of systematic sexual abuse. [Huffington Post]
* That Shook Hardy attorney who argued that a woman got pregnant in a diabolical nine-month scheme to delay trial? Yeah, he’s been suspended. [Daily Business Review]
* The Fifth Circuit’s James Ho isn’t so much a judge as a political hack in a robe. That Orin Kerr Tweet from April was just the canary in the mine. [NPR]
* Facebook GC Colin Stretch will pursue his lifelong passion of becoming the moderator of the Facebook Alumni Facebook Group. [Corporate Counsel]
* Trump’s ethics expert will also be leaving the job that he’s ostensibly been performing. [The Hill]
* Shareholder class actions are on the upswing this year. Gather ye rosebuds while ye don’t have Judge Kavanaugh declaring Rule 23 a First Amendment violation. [National Law Journal]
* Roy Moore sues PAC over negative campaign ads. Discovery should be fun. [Courthouse News Service]
* Larry Nassar wants a new sentencing hearing. See, this is what happens when judges grandstand and rip up letters to advance their political career — they just give these guys an in to try and futz with the sentence. [ESPN]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.17.18
* A whistleblower reports that SARS reports regarding Michael Cohen’s transactions are missing from FINCEN. SARS don’t just disappear without a trace… well, the disease did, but the reports shouldn’t. [New Yorker]
* After passing an abortion law accomplishing little more than exposing the state’s taxpayers to litigation expense, Iowa is going to have to find someone else to defend it because Attorney General Tom Miller wants no part of it. [ABC]
* The FTC’s new consumer protection chief represented payday lenders, and really what’s so bad about a 110 percent interest rate anyway? [The Hill]
* Wolf of Wall Street needs to up his payments to victims. [Law360]
* Facebook is getting into the blockchain game meaning soon your vacation photos will overtake Bitcoin as the most inherently worthless thing backed by blockchain. [Legaltech News]
* An interview with a federal magistrate judge finally answers the question: what’s the penalty for Yogi Bear stealing a picnic basket? [Coverage Opinions]
* The Senate, against all odds, voted to save net neutrality yesterday. [Courthouse News Service]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.10.18
* McDermott Will & Emery has a new plan to protect Michael Cohen: get Michael Avenatti’s pro hac motion denied. That seems… weak. [National Law Journal]
* Another list of possible successors to Eric Schneiderman. Still no one talking about Eliot Spitzer… that guy has experience! [Law360]
* David Lat argues that the end of blue slips is a good thing for the judiciary over the long-term. He’s totally right, and regardless of the naked cynicism involved, it’s refreshing that Senate Republicans have decided to ditch their states’ rights principles over this. [New York Times]
* Interesting election-related legal issue: can Facebook ban international advertisers from buying ad space related to the upcoming midterms? The answer seems to be yes. [Corporate Counsel]
* Have lawyers finally embraced the cloud? [Legaltech News]
* Managing clerk isn’t known as a particularly lucrative position. But a former Simpson Thacher clerk figured out how to make ends meet. Unfortunately, he’s going to have to go to jail for it. [American Lawyer]
* Lawyers for white guy accused of murdering a black student argue that his Facebook posts are too offensive to be shown to the jury. They say stuff about him hating black people and, really, what’s the probative value of that in a case where the defendant had no apparent motive other than racial animus? [Daily Beast]
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Technology
Facebook Being Sued In Britain More Intelligently Than Anything The U.S. Senate Has Contemplated
Facebook can run circles around our stupid Senate, but a private citizen in the U.K. understands what rots at Facebook. -
Intellectual Property
Facebook Is Patenting Everything -- Including A System To Determine Your Socioeconomic Status
It may be time for Facebook to look at ethics and human decency before trying to monetize every piece of user data.