Joel Sanders

* Accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein, who’d reportedly been taken off suicide watch, died by suicide this weekend as he awaited trial. AG Bill Barr is “appalled,” and has called for an investigation into the circumstances of Epstein’s death. [New York Times]

* In light of Epstein’s death, his victims want prosecutors to turn their sights upon Ghislaine Maxwell, who has been described as the financier’s “protector and procurer, his girlfriend and his madam.” [Washington Post]

* Will the Supreme Court be able to delay hearing cases about expanding Second Amendment rights considering the fact that this country has quite the problem with mass shootings? Not too hopeful here. [USA Today]

* Joel Sanders, defunct firm Dewey’s former CFO, wants his criminal conviction to be tossed out and his $1 million fine to be vacated with it. [New York Law Journal]

* So much for those Biglaw raises… According to a report recently published by the ABA, lawyers’ wages have been pretty stagnant, growing slower than inflation from 2017 to 2018. [Big Law Business]

* “You were very busy. Wow. Wow. I always knew I liked him.” President Trump posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom to the Justice Antonin Scalia on Friday and managed to crack a joke about the late justice’s sex life when referring to his wife and their nine children. Wow. [USA Today]

* Speaking about birth control… President Trump has proposed a new way for employers to get around the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate by creating a Title X loophole that would “hijack” programs that already have limited funding and send women to low-income family planning clinics to get their contraceptives. [New York Times]

* Will Biglaw be the next thing that millennials kill? Not only has Weil Gotshal shortened its partner track in order to keep its youthful talent from walking out the door, but the firm that once made a big joke out of work/life balance is now allowing associates to work from home once a week. [American Lawyer]

* The California bar exam results are out, and they’re not anything to write home about — except if you enjoy schadenfreude, that is. Nearly six in 10 failed the test, and the overall pass rate is historically horrible. More on this later. [The Recorder]

* After having already been rejected by the ABA’s House of Delegates, the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has sent its proposed 75 percent bar-passage rate within two years of graduation accreditation standard right back for another vote. Will it be approved this time around? We shall see. [ABA Journal]

* Joel Sanders, the ex-CFO of failed firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, was jailed on Thursday for failing to pay a $1 million fine associated with his fraud conviction, but he was out by the wee hours of the morning on Friday thanks to his new firm, Greenspoon Marder, which paid the entire sum on his behalf. [American Lawyer]

* Insiders say that President Donald Trump is expected to turn over his written responses to special counsel Robert Mueller’s questions about Russia’s interference with the 2016 election as soon as sometime this week. Ooooh boy, this should be fun. [Reuters]

* According to retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, the world’s culture is “becoming vulgar,” and it’s up to the United States to “show a culture, a discourse, a civil dialogue that’s enviable and admirable.” Yeah… good luck with that. [Washington Times]

* White House regulatory czar Neomi Rao has been nominated to fill Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s seat on the D.C. Circuit. In case you somehow missed it, Rao had a hand in the renaning of George Mason Law to ASS Law. Congrats! [National Law Journal]

* Remember Joel Sanders, the ex-CFO of Dewey & LeBoeuf? He says his “dire financial circumstances” prevent him from paying a $1M fine, but the Manhattan DA says he’s trying to commit “a fraud on [the] court.” [New York Law Journal]

* It’s not just Berkeley Law that’s trying to erase its association with a racist namesake. It’s just now being reported that Mercer Law School quietly removed segregationist and Southern Manifesto signatory Walter F. George’s name this summer. [13WMAZ]

* Stephen Scharf, film finance pioneer and co-chair of the Entertainment, Sports & Media Practice at O’Melveny & Myers, lost his battle with cancer. RIP. [THR, Esq.]

* Michael Cohen resigns his RNC position in an email sharply criticizing the administration’s child separation policy. So now we’ve reached the point where Michael Cohen is a sympathetic figure. [CNBC]

* Supreme Court justice arrested on 22 criminal counts and faces 395 years in prison. Obviously it’s a state supreme court, but try to guess which state! [Courthouse News Service]

* Former Dewey & LeBoeuf CFO Joel Sanders was disbarred yesterday. Dewey know who needs a new career? [Law360]

* Forcibly administering drugs to children is bad and the only downside of the royal whupping these jackboot thugs will eventually receive in the courts is that we’ll here another decade of false comparisons from the anti-Vaxxer crowd. [HuffPost]

* Allen & Overy partners fly to America for their annual meeting where they are definitely not talking about merging with O’Melveny because they’ve all denied that and law firms wouldn’t lie to us. [International]

* Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer closing in on a settlement in the long-running $214 million malpractice suit against them.

* Europe pondering a law that would screw up the Internet. Obviously. [WIRED]

* 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]

* Biglaw’s about to get hit hard by an economic downturn. [Law.com]

* Looks like Ralph Baxter is announcing a run for congress this afternoon. [Am Law Daily]

* Dewey think a 4 year sentence sounds fair? [Law360]

* Judge calls fee request “attempted bank robbery.” This is why you never request fees while wearing a rubber Nixon mask and carrying a shotgun. [Law.com]

* Fascinating overview of the complex fight over Cravath’s efforts to block victims from getting previously produced discovery materials. [Litigation Daily]

* An interview with Ben Brafman, including a delightful explanation of why he has the hardest job in the world. [Coverage Opinions]

* California moving to limit access of federal immigration officials to those in the state court system. [The Recorder]

* What schools do the best job of placing AGs, SGs, United States Attorneys, and federal judges? The answer will absolutely not shock you at all. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Many law school deans are opposed to the ABA’s proposal to require 75 percent of graduates sitting for a bar exam to pass it within two years, but this is perhaps one of the more absurd arguments offered against the rule: “Nobody looks at what percentage of Ph.D.s end up as college professors, or […]

* Justice Thomas chats it up with a TMZ reporter about Lance Ito, NYU, and his lunch at Capital Grille. For as engaged as he is, it’s weird that he won’t divulge what he ordered, right? I assume it was a steak and probably some kind of cola. [TMZ]

* “Hey, buddy… we’re going to take back your money because your old firm sucked. Sorry it took us four years to notice!” [National Law Journal]

* Dewey know anyone breathing a little easier today? Former executive director Stephen DiCarmine and chief financial officer Joel Sanders saw 30 counts of grand larceny (15 each) dismissed today. [Law360]

* Were you wondering when the next Supreme Court justice is going to die? Because there’s an app for that… apparently. [Slate]

* Remember Judge Richard Cebull’s racist emails? Well, there are more, but we won’t get to see them. [National Law Journal]

* T-Swift is now in the litigation finance game. Imma let her finish but I think some of these other litigation finance firms are the greatest of all time. [Mighty]

* Lawyer suspended for Facebook misconduct. That’s a thing now. [Legal Profession Blog]

* Keeping up the pressure: Fix the Court writes Chief Justice Roberts requesting faster access to Supreme Court audio in the name of transparency. He will probably go ahead and ignore this. [Fix the Court]

* How do Biglaw bigwigs really live? Vivia Chen visits the home of our 2013 Lawyer of the Year, Roberta Kaplan of Paul Weiss. [The Careerist]

* Attorney Renee Rabinowitz has had enough of this religiously cloaked sexism stuff. She’s suing El Al for making her switch seats because an ultra-Orthodox man refused to sit next to a woman. [New York Times]

* My, but how quickly things change! Manhattan prosecutors might not be retrying the D&L criminal case after all. Instead, they’ve offered all of the remaining defendants plea deals. Dewey know if any of the former execs of this failed firm will take a deal? [WSJ Law Blog]

* In case you’re wondering what’s going to happen to Zachary Warren after all of this, it looks like Cyrus Vance found it in the goodness of his heart to offer the would-be Biglaw associate a plea deal: he’ll have to plead guilty to a misdemeanor to get 200 hours of community service. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Law students, get ready to lobby even harder for this, because a proposal to do away with the American Bar Association’s ban on law students receiving academic credit for paid externships is moving forward to a notice and comment period. [ABA Journal]

* If you’re preparing for a law school interview, you should stop freaking out about it and focus on the things that matter — like showing off your social skills to prove you’ll be employable in some way after graduation. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

* After having a culpable homicide conviction for which he already served time overturned and turned into a murder conviction instead, Paralympic athlete Oscar Pistorius was granted $688 bail since he’s not considered a “flight risk.” [NBC News]