Harvard Law School

  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.04.15

    * Fans of this man’s dopey mugshot grin will be sad if they’re deprived of another jailhouse picture, but lawyers for Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton want their client’s securities fraud indictment to be tossed over what they claim was a faulty grand jury investigation. [Reuters]

    * Friday is apparently “Love Your Lawyer Day,” and the ABA recently passed a resolution to commemorate this special day every year. Biglaw firms can show their love for lawyers by announcing bigger, better bonuses! [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

    * Alabama thinks the legal fees and costs that are being requested by attorneys in the state’s landmark same-sex marriage decision are “entirely excessive” and should be “cut dramatically.” It’s not like these lawyers had to “reinvent the wheel” or anything. [AL.com]

    * “I may be known in tiny corners of the tubes of the Internet, but I am not well-known to the American public generally.” One-issue Democratic candidate Professor Lawrence Lessig of Harvard Law School is dropping out of the presidential race. [Boston Globe]

    * It’s high time you joined the green rush, lawyers: although Ohioans voted against legalizing marijuana yesterday, more and more states are adding ballot measures for the legalization of marijuana or medical marijuana to be voted on in 2016. [Washington Post]

    * “I’m glad Houston led tonight to end this constant political-correctness attack.” In other election news, voters in Texas repealed an LGBT anti-discrimination ordinance that would’ve prevented bias related to several important areas in life. [New York Times]

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  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.03.15

    * For the horde! If you thought Dentons was done gobbling up law firms to create its international legion of lawyers, then you were dead wrong. The firm will likely merge with 500-lawyer Australian firm Gadens and 200-lawyer Singaporean firm Rodyk & Davidson in 2016. [Reuters]

    * Thanks to this ruling, lawyers for model Janice Dickinson may depose Bill Cosby in the defamation case she filed against him after he denied raping her. Cosby’s former lawyer, Martin Singer, who the comedian recently dumped for Quinn Emanuel, may be deposed as well. [Los Angeles Times]

    * If daylight saving time has been messing with your head, you’ll feel better to know that even the Supreme Court was having trouble with the time. Both clocks in the SCOTUS courtroom were hours behind thanks to an electrical malfunction. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Law school graduates have been having a rough time when it comes to bar passage in recent years, but Biglaw firms likely have nothing to worry about — in fact, many partners didn’t even know a problem like this was happening. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

    * “[T]he Harvard crest . . . should be a source of shame for the whole school.” According to a student movement at Harvard Law that’s been dubbed “Royall Must Fall,” the school was endowed by a “brutal” slaveowner and yet still bears his family’s seal. [Harvard Crimson]

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  • Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 10.29.15

    * “Coming to SCOTUS: Battle of the dueling interpretive canons.” [LAWnLinguisitcs]

    * Fun fact: the highest scorer on the July 2015 Florida bar exam didn’t even go to law school in Florida. [Daily Business Review]

    * What is “Lean Law,” and how can it help you in your legal practice? [Law Reboot]

    * Additional information from Bob Ambrogi about the big announcement by Harvard Law and Ravel Law today. [LawSites]

    *” I felt kind of stupid.” A Georgia man fled the courtroom just minutes before being acquitted. [New York Daily News]

    * Dahlia Lithwick on Dale Cox, the Louisiana prosecutor who wants to “cold cock” defense counsel. [Slate]

    * Are you “a Yuppie, professional or other generic dweeb between the ages of 22 and 82”? Here’s an idea worth considering. [What About Paris?]

    * Former Wachtell Lipton lawyer Stephanie Lee and her Skybuds colleagues are 90 percent of the way to their Kickstarter goal — and they still have 20 days left in the campaign. [Kickstarter]

    * I’ll be speaking next week at the Los Angeles LMA chapter’s Continuing Marketing Education Conference next week; I hope to see some of you there! [Legal Marketing Association]

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  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 10.28.15

    * Good news, everyone! Legally Blonde 3 is supposedly in the works, and Reese Witherspoon says that the movie may involve Elle Woods becoming a Supreme Court justice or some kind of an elected official. It’s really too bad that SCOTUS robes aren’t pink. [Washington Post]

    * Biglaw firms aren’t the only ones that are downsizing when it comes to their headcount. Case in point, Lear Corporation’s in-house legal department has dropped from 20 attorneys to 11, but its GC Terry Larking says it’s working for the company. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

    * Cornell Law School will be teaming up with Cornell Tech to launch a new LL.M. degree in law, technology, and entrepreneurship. Like most LL.M. degrees, we imagine that it will cost a pretty penny, but that its overall value on the market will be low. [Cornell Chronicle]

    * “Do we really need to protect people from trying to achieve their dreams?” Professor Noah Feldman of Harvard Law thinks we shouldn’t coddle law school applicants who are unlikely to pass a bar or try to “save” them from a lifetime of debt. [Bloomberg View]

    * She shoots, she scores? An ex-cheerleader filed suit against the Milwaukee Bucks under the Fair Labor Standards Act because she alleges she was paid less than minimum wage to cheer for the team. The suit is the first of its kind filed against an NBA team. [ABC News]

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  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 09.18.15

    * The outcomes of misconduct complaints against members of the federal judiciary will now be posted online for your viewing pleasure to “provide for greater transparency” — and schadenfreude. This could wind up being entertaining, so keep your eyes peeled. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Apparently there are people out there who don’t know that law schools are in trouble and have been for a while, which is certainly news to us. See how the dean of UNLV School of Law explains the “new normal” to a human interest writer. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

    * The White House just launched a nationwide movement to encourage legal immigrants in America to become U.S. citizens. What a happy coincidence that this campaign will likely add millions of voters to the rolls just in time for Election 2016. [New York Times]

    * Per a report from The Real Deal, real estate practices are heating up in Biglaw firms across New York City. Firms like Fried Frank, Skadden, and Proskauer are expanding their real estate groups, so be on the lookout, laterals. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

    * Harvard Law is supposed to be overseeing the rollout of a new Title IX program for the reporting of sexual harassment, but so many of the administrators who were in charge of its implementation have left that its come to a standstill. Oopsie! [Harvard Crimson]

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