Harvard Law School

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 07.05.17

* While it's taken most justices about three to five years to get adjusted to life on the Supreme Court, it seems as if Justice Neil Gorsuch has already hit his stride over the course of just a few months. This gunner wrote one majority opinion, three dissents, three concurrences, and one statement during his first two months on the bench. [New York Times] * DLA Piper -- the first Biglaw firm to fall to a cyberattack -- has finally restored its email service after five days of going without it thanks to being the victim of the worldwide Petya ransomware attack. The firm still claims no client data was compromised by the hackers who gained access to their systems. [ABC News] * Ty Cobb of Hogan Lovells will reportedly be brought on to attend to Russia-related issues within the Office of White House Counsel. Cobb met with Trump last week, but wouldn't offer any comment on his prospective role except to say that he was on vacation. Enjoy your time off while it lasts -- working on Russia-related matters at the White House will certainly be no vacation. [Reuters] * Harvard Law School has established an endowed professorship to honor the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who graduated from the school in 1960. According to outgoing Dean Martha Minow, the professorship is "especially meaningful" because the justice "had a great love of learning." [Harvard Law Today] * Overworked and underpaid never paid? Public defenders working as independent contractors in Massachusetts aren't being paid in a remotely timely fashion. They sometimes go up to two months without receiving paychecks, and say that this has been going on for at least five years. [WWLP 22News]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 05.30.17

* Harvard law students go all out in everything they do -- and lying is no exception. [New Yorker] * If you're looking to purchase ancillary legal services (e.g., business or litigation support), check out the Buying Legal Guide, just launched today by the Buying Legal Council and Legal.io. [Buying Legal Guide] * Joshua Matz explains how and when the Supreme Court might review the Trump travel ban (aka "Muslim ban"). [Take Care via How Appealing] * Speaking of the courts, here's Professor Carl Tobias's advice to President Donald Trump on how to fill those 100+ vacancies in the federal judiciary. [Washington and Lee Law Review Online] * Why is flying such a miserable experience? Blame not just the lawyers but also the index funds, as Matt Levine explains. [Bloomberg View] * A prominent professor sues Columbia Law School, alleging age discrimination. [TaxProf Blog] * Professor Eugene Volokh explains the First Amendment to government officials: "no, the government may not deny permits for speech because it views the speech as promoting 'bigotry or hatred.'" [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * Additional thoughts on what TC Heartland means for venue in patent cases, from IP columnist Gaston Kroub. [On the Docket / George Washington Law Review]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.04.17

* Harvard Law wants students to defer admission. Tuition deferral program still a no go apparently. [New York Times / Dealbook] * Trump signing executive order to let the IRS choose when to enforce the Johnson amendment. I'm old enough to remember when conservatives had a meltdown over exaggerated allegations of IRS selective enforcement. Now it's actually going to be legal and I doubt I'll hear anything about it. [CBS News] * Want to know how much a Sullivan & Cromwell partner takes home? Thankfully Donald Trump can tell us. [National Law Journal] * Alabama enacts law allowing adoption agencies to reject gay couples. Alabama has one of the worst economies in America, but this was the issue that they really needed to address. Roll Tide. [Alabama] * ABA President Linda Klein testifies on behalf of Legal Services Corporation. funding. Question: Is the ABA President job more or less difficult today? One could say "more" because she has to devote considerable energy to fighting a hostile government. Or you could say "less" because the most difficult argument she has to make is, "please don't be monsters." [ABA Journal] * FAMU fired its dean. [Orlando Sentinel] * New trend in litigation finance: buying portfolios of cases instead of investing in individual matters. We've reached the fund stage people! [Law.com] * Former Guinea mining minister convicted of taking bribes. How did they know? Perhaps they thought he was a Dickensian throwback when he kept saying "Guinea" all the time. [Law360]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.27.17

* Guess who gets to take advantage of President Donald Trump's new tax plan? Lawyers and their law firms -- which are largely organized as pass-through entities -- will likely benefit greatly, as they'll be able to reduce their tax rate from 39.6 percent to 15 percent. [ABA Journal] * The Charlotte School of Law may be on the brink of collapse, but the school is heading to court to try to shake off three of the four federal class-action lawsuits that were filed by current students and recent graduates with motions to dismiss. We'll have more on this later today. [Law.com] * The Trump administration didn't seem to fare very well during oral arguments in an immigration case yesterday. Chief Justice John Roberts certainly wasn't impressed, and Justice Anthony Kennedy seemed even less so, dropping this benchslap: "It seems to me that your argument is demeaning the priceless value of citizenship." [Reuters] * Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai will propose a rollback of the Obama-era net-neutrality rule that regulated broadband internet providers as common carriers. Critics aren't pleased: "It makes no sense. We cannot keep the promise of net neutrality openness and freedom without the rules that ensure it." [Big Law Business] * Four third-year students at Harvard Law have demanded that the administration provide clarification as to how it assesses applicants who have been accused or convicted of sexual assault. "We put forth a call for transparency and affirmative efforts demonstrating the school takes sexual assault seriously." [Harvard Crimson]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.17.17

* Settlements have been reached between Berkeley Law, the school's former dean, and the dean's former assistant. If you recall, then dean Sujit Chaudry was accused of sexually harassing his assistant, and as part of the settlement, he'll have to pay $100K in fees and charitable donations, but will be considered to be on "sabbatical" until May 2018, keeping all of his benefits. Hmm, do we think this is fair? [Mercury News] * "We have not livestreamed before, but that's not to say that won't happen in this case." The Fourth Circuit is considering livestreaming oral arguments for travel ban 2.0, much like what the Ninth Circuit did with oral arguments for Trump's first travel ban. Maybe you'll be able to do some "professional development" billing... [National Law Journal] * "Arkansas does not intend to torture plaintiffs to death." Judge Kristine G. Baker (E.D. Ark.) has halted a whirlwind series of eight executions -- the state's first executions scheduled since 2005 -- citing a "threat of irreparable harm" if the drug midazolam is used as part of the lethal injection drug protocol and somehow fails. [New York Times] * More and more out-of-state Biglaw firms are flocking to Houston, Texas, to open their own offices, which has inspired many lawyers to leave their current firms for greener pastures -- in terms of both money and opportunities. But is there enough legal work to go around with all of the new competition? Only time will tell. [Houston Chronicle] * Ten Harvard Law student affinity groups are gunning for Professor David B. Wilkins to become the next dean of the school after Martha Minow steps down at the end of the year. They've written a letter to the university president, imploring him to take their advice and select their dean candidate for the position. Check it out. [Harvard Crimson]

By Staci Zaretsky