Fox Rothschild

* When the economy tanks again next year, will Biglaw be ready? [Law360]

* Lawyers are now using Janus to strike down mandatory bar fees. Let’s just watch everything burn. [National Law Journal]

* For lawyers, Boston is the new Houston. [American Lawyer]

* Jeff Sessions straying as close to the line as he can in telling immigration judges to just ignore legal defenses and deport people on sight. [Courthouse News Service]

* A thorough analysis of White House statements on immigration law. It turns out they don’t have any idea what they’re talking about. [Forbes]

* “There she is/a $100K suit over legal fees…” Miss America sued by Fox Rothschild. [Press of Atlantic City]

* John Bolton’s now attacking the International Criminal Court. If you had that on your official “Erosion of International Norms Bingo Card,” then congratulations. [NPR]

Merger mania continues!

* Papa John has hired Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer, who’s rapidly establishing herself as the gold standard of representing powerful dirtbags. You could say she’s the Domino’s of that market. [Courier-Journal]

* City officials will investigate whether the Stormy Daniels arrest — on a law that is never enforced — was a politically motivated hit job. I assume this will require investigators to spend hours undercover in strip clubs at taxpayer expense. [NBC4]

* A deep dive into Judge Collyer’s recent opinion contending for the first time that American citizens have a right to at least be heard before being executed by drone. When this case gets snuffed out on appeal, the resulting precedent is going to justify all sorts of executive mischief. [Rolling Stone]

* Breaking down Vermont Law’s decision to fire tenured faculty — a sign of things to come? [Forbes]

* With co-counsel settling, Sidley’s finding itself a little lonelier in the Aequitas suit alleging that it contributed to a Ponzi-scheme. [American Lawyer]

* Wondering how much artificial intelligence talk you can deal with? There are nine legal tech conferences over the next few months. Including ILTACON in National Harbor where we’re hosting an Above the Law happy hour/bar trivia extravaganza… so if you’re around, come on by. [Legaltech News]

* Fox Rothschild looking into a hefty merger in the Carolinas. [Legal Intelligencer]

* This isn’t really a shocker, but lawmakers don’t understand technology, free speech. [Wired]

Literally.

* Supreme Court overrules presidential election! Unfortunately we’re talking about Kenya. [Huffington Post]

* Are partners employees? Asking for a couple Am Law 100 firms embroiled in a sexual discrimination suit. [Reuters]

* Baseball continues to enjoy the most arbitrary legal exemption ever. [Law360]

* Rumors swirl that Trump will announce the end of DACA today. Well, it is a Friday and we know how important that is for ratings. [GQ]

* Fox Rothschild partner scores primo U.S. Open tickets. [Am Law Daily]

* Jury finds that Manatt paid the wrong recruiter when it brought on a pair of lateral partners. [Law.com]

* As we slide toward bonus season, this is a good time to remind your bosses that performance reviews are stupid. [The Careerist]

CEO hurls vulgarities in outrageous deposition.

* Fewer than 18 percent of federal appeals have oral arguments because federal judges think your argument is just as dumb as the rest of us. [Law.com]

* Mark Geragos files $100 million lawsuit against Ja Rule and the other organizers of Fyre Festival because rich people can’t be forced to live like poors without consequences. [Variety]

* Former Acting Solicitor General Ian Gershengorn says, “I feel like I am standing on the shoulders of giants,” which is just a tad sly considering he’s returning to the firm he worked at for 12 years. [National Law Journal]

* Speaking of the exodus to the private sector, the “Government to Debevoise Pipeline” rolls on with SEC Enforcement’s FCPA chief Kara Brockmeyer joining the firm. For those keeping track this pipeline has now officially created more jobs than the Keystone Pipeline promised. [Corporate Counsel]

* Maybe we’ll make this whole roundup about moving to private practice! Crowell & Moring adds former Homeland Security Chief of Staff Paul Rosen. [Politico]

* Fox Rothschild does what anyone else who spends time in Los Angeles does: moves to Seattle. [Legal Intelligencer]

* The Supreme Court made it harder to sue a foreign government that seizes American assets. Good thing America’s leadership is focused on sound diplomacy and doesn’t needlessly provoke countries by describing them as “a mess.” This should work out well. [Law360]

* The folks behind the Bar Exam Stats blog have opened a Law School HQ, a new site with a broader focus. [Law School HQ]

* According to Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Chuck Grassley, it’s highly likely that we’ll have another Supreme Court vacancy this summer. Word on the street is that a justice is thinking about retiring, and all eyes are on Justice Kennedy, the high court’s swing vote. Hmm, we thought we’d already put this rumor to bed. [The Hill]

* After years of accepting incoming students with questionable academic qualifications followed by unsurprisingly dismal bar exam results, another law school will be closing soon. We all knew it would happen eventually, but it was just a matter of which one it would be. We’ll have much more on this later today. [Orange County Business Journal]

* Kerrie Campbell, the Chadbourne & Parke partner who filed a $100 million gender discrimination suit against her firm, will learn later this morning whether she’s been ousted from the Chadbourne partnership. Campbell, who is out on medical leave, says her removal from the partnership would be financially ruinous. [Am Law Daily]

* Former pharma bro Martin Shkreli and his former attorney, former Kaye Scholer partner Evan Greebel, will have separate trials this summer thanks to this ruling. After all, Greebel turned on his former client months ago, and his lawyers planned to “assert a defense that [would] be an ‘echo chamber’ for the prosecution.” [WSJ Law Blog]

* When Big Weed meets Biglaw: In honor of 4/20, the mainstream media has finally caught on and realized that marijuana law is an up-and-coming practice area. This article focuses on some of the well-known law firms that have adopted marijuana practices, like Thompson Coburn, Fox Rothschild, and Much Shelist. [Chicago Tribune]

If you're going to spend time and effort on blogging, do it right.

One of Biglaw's only practicing centenarians has passed away. RIP.

* Using Whole Woman’s Health against attacks on voting rights. [Rewire]

* Is imagination more important than logic in legal reasoning? [Guile is Good]

* Tips for texting your client. [Reboot Your Law Practice]

* The latest legal loss for Gucci. [The Fashion Law]

* If you’re in New York, consider checking out Solitary, a new documentary about the problem of solitary confinement (before it airs on HBO in February). [Cinema Village]

* Fox Rothschild partner Murray Shusterman, 104, has passed away. [Fox Rothschild]

* Bill Cosby will face trial in June for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania woman, and now his lawyers claim her attorney, Gloria Allred, trampled upon his civil rights in a “campaign … buil[t] on racial bias and prejudice that can pollute the court of public opinion.” [NBC News]

* As we mentioned yesterday, Peter Kalis — the man who’s served as chair of K&L Gates for about two decades — will not seek re-election to his post, and everyone is wondering who will succeed him. According to a recently departed partner, “[t]hey don’t have enough groomed for top-level management.” Uh oh! We’ll have more on this. [Law.com]

* Yet another Biglaw firm is losing a longtime managing partner. Mark Silow of Fox Rothschild will step down from his position in April 2017, after 13 years in leadership. He’ll be replaced by Mark Morris as managing partner, but will transition to becoming the firm’s chair, retaining a seat on its executive committee. [Big Law Business]

* Sullivan & Cromwell is stepping up its digital security practice with a major hire. Earlier this week, the firm announced that Nicole Friedlander, who previously worked as co-chief of the complex frauds and online crime unit for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, would join the firm as special counsel. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Not only is New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman breathing antitrust accusations down EpiPen-maker Mylan Pharmaceutical’s neck, but now a proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against the company with allegations that its “unconscionable … price gouging” violated Ohio’s consumer protection laws. [Reuters]

There's a new most prestigious firm in town.

Update: More Biglaw compensation bad news. What firms will not be matching the Cravath compensation scale?

* Demand for corporate work may be down, but that’s not stopping senior Biglaw partners from ramping up their hourly billing rates. Partners at some firms have rates that exceed $1,400 per hour. They’re not making it rain, they’re making it monsoon! [WSJ Law Blog]

* No law license, no pretty huge problem: Pennsylvania Attorney General Kathleen Kane’s license to practice law is still suspended, so the state Senate has scheduled a historic vote for her removal. For her part, Kane, of course, thinks this is “unwarranted and unconstitutional.” [PennLive.com]

* Herbert Sudfeld Jr., an ex-partner at Fox Rothschild, was convicted of insider trading. He’d apparently eavesdropped on discussions related to a firm merger client and purchased stock based on what he’d overheard. [Legal Intelligencer via ABA Journal]

* Washington & Lee Law settled a suit filed by a former student who claimed he was dismissed as a result of a campus judicial proceeding because he was accused in a sexual assault case. The terms of the deal won’t be disclosed. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

* When your firm’s founding partners have been disciplined by the state Supreme Court a few times too many, you should probably hurry up and change the firm’s name to something kooky like LawyerASAP to distract your existing clients. [Orlando Sentinel]

* Meow! Kitty’s got claws! Lawyers for Grumpy Cat have filed an infringement lawsuit against Grenade Beverage for violating an IP licensing agreement. Grumpy Cat has requested a trial by a jury of her purrs peers. [Fox News]

* Always a bridesmaid, never a bride? Dickstein Shapiro, a Biglaw firm whose headcount was down by 23.2 percent at last count, wanted to have a merger partner by December 15. That date has come and gone, but to our knowledge, the firm still hasn’t found a match. What happens now? [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* Fox Rothschild has been in growth mode for quite some time, and it most recently decided to gobble up Oppenheimer Wolff & Donnelly, an 82-lawyer Minneapolis firm. The merger will be complete in January 2016. Happy New Year! [Philadelphia Inquirer]

* “[W]orking in this courthouse is like being in the wild west. You just never know what is going to happen.” Last week, Oklahoma County DA David Prater brought down a fleeing defendant before he could escape the courthouse. [KWTV via ABA Journal]

* If you’re one of the plaintiffs who filed suit pseudonymously against Ashley Madison after its massive data breach earlier this year and you expect your privacy to be maintained by the courts, then you may have another thing coming. [WSJ Law Blog]

Few things demonstrate the widespread digitization of our society more than the dramatic transformation of mobile telephones over the past two decades and the increasing reliance upon these revolutionary devices in our business and personal lives.

How should small to medium-sized firms approach a merger strategy, what are the "rules of the road" for a successful merger, and how can the inherent risks be managed?

* Justice Scalia spoke at CU-Boulder last night. For his sake, we certainly hope he didn’t speak about any issues that might someday appear before SCOTUS, lest he be asked to recuse. [Boulder Daily Camera via How Appealing]

* Another one bites the dust over at Main Justice: David O’Neil, the head of the criminal division, is stepping down in the wake of the BNP Paribas case, and will likely have many white-shoe law firm suitors. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Fox Rothschild picked up a 18-lawyer boutique firm in Texas, which will serve as the home of its first outpost in the Lone Star State. Energy law, surprisingly, wasn’t the driving factor. [Legal Intelligencer]

* “I have a heart and I have two kids.” That’s a pretty damn good reason for Biglaw attorneys to take a break from their corporate billable hours to represent undocumented children pro bono. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Scott Greenfield reviews Lat’s forthcoming novel, Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link). Of course, in SHG style, it contains a spoiler. Try to skip that clearly marked paragraph. [Simple Justice]

Which firm came out on top, and how much more are summer associates being paid?