Insider Trading
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 03.06.19
* Happy birthday, Your Honor! More than a thousand of Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s fans signed up to plank on the steps of the Supreme Court for her 86th birthday on March 15. Do you love the RBG enough to plank for justice? [Washingtonian]
* Allison Jones Rushing, a Williams & Connolly litigation partner, was confirmed to the Fourth Circuit in a vote of 53-43. Rushing is now one of the youngest federal appeals judges to be appointed by President Trump. [National Law Journal]
* According to a new poll, more voters believe convicted felon and disbarred lawyer Michael Cohen than President Trump, and want Congress to “do more” to investigate Cohen’s “claims about President Trump’s unethical and illegal behavior.” [CNBC]
* According to the American Bar Association, there’s not much that can be done for students at Western State University College of Law. This is not welcome news for people who have yet to receive their loan disbursements. [InsideHigherEd]
* Remember Raj Rajaratnam, the former Galleon Group head who was convicted of securities fraud and conspiracy way back in 2011? Thanks to the Second Circuit, he still has to pay a $93 million civil fine for insider trading. [Big Law Business]
* In case you missed it, Kanye West has filed suit against EMI because he’s contractually barred from retiring, and his attorneys from Quinn Emanuel say the contract “violated California public policy.” [THR, Esq. / Hollywood Reporter]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.14.19
* Paul Manafort is the Energizer Bunny of lying and he’d now botched his own plea deal. [Huffington Post]
* Apple attorney in charge of insider trading compliance charged with… insider trading. [Law360]
* John Roberts declared himself the First Amendment’s most passionate defender at the Supreme Court, which is absolutely true if you limit the First Amendment to political bribery and bigots with cake shops. [National Law Journal]
* EU adopts new copyright law! It’s… not good. [EFF]
* The Harvard admissions case — the Trojan horse action about gutting affirmative action programs — is now in the hands of Judge Allison Burroughs for the perfunctory first act on the road to a 5-4 Supreme Court opinion. [Law.com]
* Proskauer inches toward the $1B revenue mark. [American Lawyer]
* A review of Biglaw cafeterias in the UK. If any firms out there want Above the Law to duplicate this story here in America, feel free to give us a call. [Legal Cheek]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 11.06.18
* Apparently there’s some kind of election today? In any event, law firms are taking on a huge role as volunteers. [American Lawyer]
* Flush with nearly $250 million in fundraising, Northwestern Law says it’s facing a “difficult time.” Time to cut back on those platinum casebooks. [Law.com]
* Pressure mounts in the UK to make all law firms — not just those bigger than 250 employees — publish gender pay gap data. Meanwhile, US law firms are still so iffy on whether or not to allow associates to give birth that parental leave is a huge deal. [LegalCheek]
* Weinstein defense team wants all charges dropped alleging faulty indictment process. It feels like this is an argument half of Riker’s could benefit from but won’t. [CNN]
* Calm before the storm? Supreme Court refuses to disturb ruling that the Second Amendment doesn’t protect randos carrying concealed weapons. I feel a lot of these punts are designed to let the Kavanaugh fervor die down for a year before they revisit women’s suffrage. [The Hill]
* Another day, another insider trading conviction overturned. [Law360]
* They’re all good lawyers, Brent. [Corporate Counsel]
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Finance
SEC Sues Somebody For Inferring, Correctly, About Impending Doom
'I've got a bad feeling about this' can't be a crime. -
Biglaw
Former Biglaw Partner Sentenced To Over 2 Years In Jail For Insider Trading
Prosecutors were pleased with the sentence. -
Biglaw
Former Biglaw Partner Pleads Guilty To Insider Trading Conspiracy
He faces up to five years in prison. -
Biglaw
Biglaw Associate Fired When Her Husband Pleads Guilty To Insider Trading
Embroiled in scandal, the former Biglaw associate tries to rebuild her career. -
White-Collar Crime
"Lock Him Up! Lock Him Up!" Or, This Week In Ridiculous Government Sentencing Requests
This judge showed real courage. - Sponsored
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In-House Counsel
What Were You Thinking? Equifax GC Probed For Executive Stock Sales Before Public Learned Of Breach
The timeline puts Equifax Chief Legal Officer John Kelley in an uncomfortable bind. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 09.19.17
* Baker Botts files SCOTUS brief reminding them what wedding cakes look like. Someday we’ll look back on a case designed to create second class citizens and think, “oh right, that’s the one where the Supreme Court decided with the help of a picture book.” [National Law Journal]
* Pepe the Frog’s creator is going nuclear with his intellectual property challenges against the Nazi scum who’ve turned his character into a mascot. [Engadget]
* Trader seeks to withdraw guilty plea after government shows him evidence that he probably didn’t commit a crime. The more you ponder that sentence, the more troubling it is. [Law 360]
* There are more female equity partners than ever, which means still not very many. [Am Law Daily]
* BuzzFeed hires Roy Black in the defamation case over the Trump dossier. Specifically, this case is about the allegations in the dossier that Aleksej Gubarev hacked the Democrats, but that’s no fun, so let’s remember the dossier also talked about Russian pee parties. [Law.com]
* A review of the federal government’s merits and amicus arguments this Term and it’s an aggressive invitation to legislate from the bench. So much for railing against “activist judges”! [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Harvard University is hoping Trump’s NLRB changes labor law so they can crush unionization efforts on campus. Damn liberal, socialist colleges. [Labor Notes]
* Here’s one to make some of you feel very old: Toys R Us files for bankruptcy. [Huffington Post]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 07.13.17
* Art Linkletter hosted Kids Say the Darnedest Things. Well, the FBI is saying that Linklaters associates say the darnedest things. [Am Law Daily]
* How do you know you’re in Appalachia? When a law schools says intimidating professors with guns is just obnoxious teasing. Boys will be boys! [Law.com]
* Keker suing the Trump campaign over the DNC hack because when it rains it pours. [National Law Journal]
* Seventh Circuit upholds Wisconsin’s starve the unions law. [Reuters]
* Justice Breyer talks about changing his mind [Law360]
* MasterCard is helping lead the way in promoting law firm diversity. [Big Law Business]
* “He is a monkey.” [L.A. Times]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.15.17
* “When the founders wrote the Declaration of Independence, they invoked our creator four times, because in America we don’t worship government we worship God.” Guess who was awarded an honorary law degree this weekend? It was none other that President Donald Trump, who delivered the commencement address at Liberty University on Saturday morning. [The Hill; TIME]
* The Pink Ghetto (Partner Edition)? A Proskauer Rose partner has filed a $50M gender bias suit against the firm, claiming she was not only paid less than male colleagues, but that she was “overtly objectified based on her sex” when a fellow partner allegedly “made inappropriate comments regarding her appearance, body, clothing, or ‘sexiness'” on numerous occasions. [Am Law Daily]
* Tarra Simmons has quite the résumé: she’s a convicted felon and former drug addict who also happens to be the recipient of a prized Skadden fellowship. Unfortunately, she may not be able to practice law thanks to a recommendation from the Washington State Bar Association’s Character and Fitness Board that she be denied bar admission. She plans to appeal. [Northwest Public Radio]
* Walter “Chet” Little, a former Foley & Lardner partner, has been arrested on insider trading charges that stem from his time at the firm. Soon after finding out about the nature of the charges, Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, his current firm, politely showed him the door. If convicted, Little will likely face quite the lengthy prison term and a fine of up to $5 million. Ouch. [WSJ Law Blog]
* “There was never a question of whether I was going to go to law school or not. It was just when I was going to go….” Chris Carr, a former cornerback for the Baltimore Ravens, is set to graduate from GW Law School this weekend. He’ll be taking the California bar exam this summer, but he recently accepted a job offer at an immigration law firm in Virginia. Congratulations! [Washington Post]
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Securities and Exchange Commission
The Nomura VP Accused Of Insider Trading Really Made It Easy On The SEC
Let’s give securities regulators a little more credit, OK?
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Non-Sequiturs
Non-Sequiturs: 03.24.17
* For those of you too busy this week to follow Judge Neil Gorsuch’s confirmation hearing, here’s a nice collection of the highlights by Benjamin Wallace-Wells. [New Yorker via How Appealing]
* SCOTUS confirmation hearings are often compared to kabuki theater; law professor cum novelist Jay Wexler reimagines the Gorsuch hearing as, well, actual kabuki theater. [McSweeney’s]
* Insider trading: it’s not entirely about the benjamins, as therapist and executive coach Andrew Snyder explains. [LinkedIn]
* Is the Second Circuit sitting on juicy information about President Trump’s ties to Russia? [WiseLawNY]
* Law school applicants with high LSAT scores: which schools do they favor? [SSRN]
* Speaking of legal education, what are the secrets to law school success? Vanderbilt 3L Niya McCray shares her thoughts. [Amazon (affiliate link)]
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Crime
Insider-Trading Trials Are No Place For Autograph Seekers
Phil Mickelson need not fear being mobbed in the witness box. -
Crime, White-Collar Crime
Convicted Insider-Trader’s New Book Not Titled ‘Take The Damned Deal’
Michael Kimelman waxes at great length about how awful the prison term he could have avoided was. -
Biglaw, White-Collar Crime
Biglaw Partner Convicted Of Insider Trading After Jury Trial
Per the prosecution, the partner got drunk on wine before spilling the beans. -
Crime
Insider Trading While Posing As Your Mother Is Officially Illegal
The Ballad of John Afriyie has been sung, and it was batshit glorious. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.31.17
* Here’s a roundup of the legal challenges against Trump’s foray into immigration policy. [Vice News]
* Oh and while we’re at it, here’s a couple more. [New York Times]
* The SEC has brought fraud charges over an $81 million Hamilton Ponzi scheme. It was an ambitious scheme, but if convicted, the defendants will have to… take a break. *Groan* [Courthouse News Service]
* Harvard Law Review elects it’s first female black president. [WBUR]
* Insider trading defendant John Afriyie earned a guilty verdict in less than three hours of deliberation. Sources say the jury would have been in faster, but they kept sticking on the fact that Afriyie had skipped bail and tried to hide out in New Jersey. Only a truly insane man would go to New Jersey willingly. [Law360]
* Alston & Bird wins malpractice appeal. [New York Law Journal]
* Remember Pokémon Go? Well the lawsuits are still out there. [The Recorder]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.24.17
* SEC probe into whether or not Yahoo had an obligation to disclose data breaches to shareholders could set a precedent, which would mark the first time Yahoo’s been on the cutting edge of something since the mid-90s. [National Law Journal]
* Dewey know anyone looking to get out of jury duty? [Law360]
* If you’re trying to become a fugitive from justice, dream a little bigger than a Quality Inn in New Jersey. [NY Post]
* The top Biglaw firms continue to pull away from the rest of the pack. This isn’t so much news as a quarterly reminder that the rich get richer. [The Am Law Daily]
* Britain’s Supreme Court blocks Theresa May’s effort to trigger Article 50 without a parliamentary vote. Because breaking up is hard to do. [BBC]
* A bevy of laws to criminalize peaceful protests coming soon. At least the death of American democracy is still running on schedule. [The Intercept]
* Finally someone willing to stand up to the tyranny of snow globes. [Clickhole]