Immigration
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Law Schools
UChicago Law Responds To Race-Baiting Student Event With 'Fine People On Both Sides' Schtick
How could a law school screw this up? Pretty easily actually. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.02.18
* In case you missed it, Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times has noticed a trend when it comes to Chief Justice Roberts and who he’s been aligning himself with at the Supreme Court. He may not yet be a moderate, but he seems to be shying away from “the reliably right-wing triumvirate” of Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch. [New York Times]
* “The document speaks for itself.” All three of former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates’s lawyers are withdrawing as counsel, and will only explain why in documents filed under seal. Only his Biglaw attorney who is known for his plea deals remains. Gates is under indictment in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. [POLITICO]
* According to the latest year-end report from the Wells Fargo Private Bank’s Legal Specialty Group, law firm revenue and profits were up in 2017, and demand had increased for legal services. As usual, the most profitable firms at the top of the market outperformed their smaller counterparts. [American Lawyer]
* Trump administration policies having to do with immigration, specifically the H-1B visa program for foreign workers, may force many Biglaw firms to move to their practices to the cloud sooner than they would have liked. In times of “political uncertainty” like these, Biglaw can’t rely on “offshore labor arbitrage” for IT outsourcing. [TechTarget]
* The GC of the American Red Cross has resigned following the publication of a report that he praised a former colleague who was the subject of an internal investigation and pushed out of the organization for alleged instances sexual misconduct. [Corporate Counsel]
* Disgusting: A Georgia lawyer who asked a witness to recant an eyewitness account of her son’s molestation has politely gave up his license to practice law after pleading guilty to felony witness tampering and attempting to suborn perjury. [Big Law Business]
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Law Schools
You Should Absolutely Read This Insane Law School Event Promo Calling Immigrants Toilet People
Elite law school holds event bashing immigrants.
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Family Law
That Awkward Moment When Your Twin Brother Is A U.S. Citizen At Birth, But You’re Not… And Your Parents Sue The U.S. Government Over It
Deporting an 18-month-old baby doesn't further America’s national security interests. -
Courts
Judge Compares ICE To Unjust Regime, ICE Is 'Concerned' About Her Tone
Activist "plucked" from his family is released so he can say goodbye. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.30.18
* Just in time for the State of the Union, the Ninth Circuit ruled that immigrant children can be railroaded out of the country without access to a lawyer. Maybe they’ll avoid Trump’s ire tonight. [The Hill]
* Have you read about the Presidents Club dinner? If not, then you can read here, but it’s basically Tailhook for rich people. Now read about the law firm partners who may or may not have shown up including a Fried Frank partner who “did not attend the dinner and left shortly after arriving” which is an Escher painting of a statement. [Legal Cheek]
* New study from ALM Intelligence and Harvard Law School suggests part of the reason women are underrepresented at the partnership level is a propensity to selecting lower risk paths earlier in their career, locking them out of greater opportunities. Of course, this fails to answer what happens in the law that tends to encourage women to step off the path, but it’s valuable for diagnosing the problem. [American Lawyer]
* Money laundering with the Russians… yeah, lawyers aren’t supposed to do that. [Daily Business Review]
* Texas judge blocks law requiring respect for unborn children, provoking a fierce outcry from politicians worried about the sanctity of life. Texas has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, but who really cares about that? I mean, once they get past negative 8-and-a-half months they stop being cute. [Dallas Morning News]
* Sad news, the former shadow attorney general of the UK, media lawyer Arthur Davidson, has passed at 91. [The Guardian]
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Labor / Employment, On The Job
7-Eleven ICE Raids Reflect Important Enforcement Strategy Shift
There are several key takeaways to think about in light of this new enforcement strategy. -
Government
NAACP Suing Trump Administration Over 'Clearly Racially Motivated' Protected Status Revocation
Please, let's get people to testify to Trump's "s**thole" comments UNDER OATH. - Sponsored
Early Adopters Of Legal AI Gaining Competitive Edge In Marketplace
How to best leverage generative AI as an early adopter with ethical use. -
Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 01.19.18
* When it comes to the retrial of sexual-assault charges against Bill Cosby, there are many women — 19, to be exact — willing to testify #MeToo. [Jezebel]
* Best friends: which organizations file the most amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court? [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Judicata just ranked the brief-writing skills of 20 top California law firms; how did your firm fare? [Dewey B Strategic]
* How will artificial intelligence transform society? Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, and Harry Shum, executive VP of Microsoft’s AI and research Group, share their insights. [Microsoft]
* Speaking of AI, how will it affect the world of legal practice? Jake Heller, CEO of AI pioneer Casetext, has answers.
[Artificial Lawyer]* Professor Noah Feldman identifies the shortcomings of Twitter as a forum for legal discussion (but has some kind words for legal blogs, including the one you’re reading right now). [Bloomberg]
* Message boards are also valuable resources — like this one, “where all the unemployed lawyers go to cry.” [The Outline]
* Marc Randazza is a commendably fierce defender of the First Amendment, but this latest case might be a bridge too far. [Huffington Post]
* Check out this fascinating profile of a Mormon lawyer who lost his faith searching for an archaeological site. [Science]
* Why do we need people from s**thole countries? Meet five lawyers who prove the merits of immigration. [Lawfuel]
* Think twice before asking your accountant buddy to do your taxes for you. [Going Concern]
* Speaking of taxes, we’ve finally uncovered the real victims of the new tax scheme — partners who want a break on sports tickets. [Accounting Today]
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Courts
BREAKING! Court Decides To Hear Case They've Repeatedly Decided To Hear
Supreme Court grants cert in Travel Ban 3.0 case. -
Department of Justice
The Justice Department Is Now Actively Producing Fake News
They've put together an entire terrorism report designed to mislead the American people. -
Government
The 7-Eleven Raids Were A Terror Tactic, But Are The Right People Afraid?
They were supposed to scare employers, but the feds arrested just some poor people working at the 7-Eleven. -
Courts
Let's Do A Close Read Of Trump Undermining Our 'Court System'
Trump lost in court (DACA, this time), but his attacks on the courts haven't gotten enough attention recently.
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.10.18
* Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris were both appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday afternoon. Booker is the first African-American man to ever serve on the SJC, and Harris is the second African-American woman to ever serve on the SJC. Congratulations! [The Hill]
* Rescind immigration protection from current DACA recipients? Dream on! That’s not going to happen under Judge William Alsup’s watch. He issued a nationwide injunction to block the Trump administration from denying program renewals for “dreamers.” [Washington Post]
* Sorry, North Carolina, but according to the Middle District, your congressional map is unconstitutionally gerrymandered. This is the first time that a federal court has blocked a congressional map because it was “motivated by invidious partisan intent.” [New York Times]
* Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen has filed defamation suits against Fusion GPS and BuzzFeed over the Steele dossier following Senator Dianne Feinstein’s publication of a transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s interview with Fusion’s co-founder. The legal action was announced over Twitter, obviously. [POLITICO]
* “Lawyers like shiny things, and so there has been a huge spike in interest in blockchain law, especially over the last year.” This is just one of the reasons why so many Biglaw firms now have blockchain practice groups and task forces. [Big Law Business]
* Norton Rose Fulbright has closed its doors in Abu Dhabi, making it the largest law firm to shutter an office in the Middle East. [American Lawyer]
* Professor Toby Heytens of UVA Law has been named the next solicitor general of Virginia. He’ll be taking his second leave of absence from the law school during his term. He took his first leave to serve in the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office. [Daily Progress]
* No, contrary to popular belief, Radiohead has not filed suit against Lana Del Rey for similarities between their hit song “Creep” and her song “Get Free” — but the band really should consider doing so, and their lawyers ought to become as “relentless” as Del Rey claimed on Twitter. Take a listen, here. [Rolling Stone]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.08.18
* Okay, let’s get this straight: Roy Moore’s Jewish lawyer isn’t Richard Jaffe, the one who voted for Doug Jones; no, Roy Moore’s Jewish lawyer is Martin Wishnatsky, the one who “has accepted Christ” as his savior. [Washington Post]
* In our last Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch, we focused a bit on the fact that rumored retiree Justice Anthony Kennedy hired a full set of clerks for OT 2018, but in case you missed it, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg already has a full set of clerks for OT 2019. The Notorious one isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. [Newsweek]
* Lawyers for the Department of Justice who are attempting to defend the Trump administration’s rescission of the DACA program have asked Judge William Alsup, who is handling the case, to ignore our “very stable genius” president’s recent tweets regarding the immigration policy. [The Recorder]
* Evan Greebel, pharma bro Martin Shkreli’s ex-lawyer, is facing hard prison time for conspiracy, but one of the juror’s who convicted him is having second thoughts. The former Biglaw partner better hope that Judge Kiyo Matsumoto decides to reopen his case. [Big Law Business]
* In what may have been some sort of a Christmas miracle, the legal sector witnessed a very slight uptick in jobs in December. Beggars can’t be choosers, so a gain of 600 jobs is better than nothing at all. Employment in the profession is still nowhere near where it once was before the recession. [American Lawyer]
* Lewis Donelson, cofounder of Baker Donelson, RIP. [Memphis Business Journal]
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 01.05.18
* Attorney General Jeff Sessions is planning to challenge immigration judges over their authority to close cases without rendering decisions — because in doing so, they’re allowing immigrants to remain in this country without legal status of any kind. [ABA Journal]
* Has a new era in textualism arrived at the Supreme Court? An examination of the use textualism by justices and attorneys at the high court since 2013. [Empirical SCOTUS]
* According to a new survey, a “sizeable” amount of sexual harassment goes down at annual academic meetings. We hope this isn’t the case at the 2018 meeting of the American Association of Law Schools, which is wrapping up tomorrow. [TaxProf Blog]
* Attorney Charles Harder may have brought Gawker to its knees, but Michael Wolff, the author of the book that the president wants banished, isn’t afraid of him. [Law and More]
* Check out the 11 craziest crime stories from the year that was. Some of these are almost too hard to believe happened in real life. [Versus Texas]
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Courts
Motel 6 Is Getting Sued For Trying To Be All MAGA
Hey Motel 6, looks like a Washington State courthouse will leave the light on for you. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.02.18
* Matthew Riehl, the gunman in the Colorado shooting this weekend who killed a deputy sheriff and wounded four police officers and two civilians, was a former lawyer in Wyoming whose alma mater, Wyoming Law, warned students about his “suspicious behavior” in early November. [Denver Post; Laramie Live]
* In his 2017 State of the Judiciary Report, Chief Justice John Roberts focused on court emergency preparedness, but included an addendum about sexual harassment within the judiciary, announcing that proper procedures must be in place to “ensure an exemplary workplace for every judge and every court employee.” No mention of the recently retired Judge Alex Kozinski was made. [Washington Post]
* Joel Sanders, the former CFO of failed firm Dewey & LeBoeuf who was convicted on securities fraud and conspiracy charges, has reached a settlement with the SEC, but the agency will move forward with proceedings against Stephen DiCarmine, the firm’s ex-executive director. [New York Law Journal]
* As usual, the new year brings with it a slew of new laws. In some states, voter ID laws will go into effect, while in others, police won’t be able to arrest people for immigration enforcement purposes. Plus, pets will be treated more like children after divorces in at least one state. [CNN]
* Speaking of new laws, marijuana is now fully legal in California, and if you’re 21 or older, you can now purchase and possess up to an ounce for recreational use. This a “monumental moment” for the Golden State, but don’t forget that the Feds still consider the drug to be an illegal Schedule I narcotic. [Los Angeles Times]
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Biglaw, Law Schools
Above The Law’s Top 10 Most Popular Posts Of 2017
All the best stories from 2017. -
Public Interest
In Face Of Spending Cuts, Some Politicians Applaud Importance Of Public Interest Lawyers
Two prominent California politicians recognize and inspire public interest legal work.