John White

* According to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, Judge Neil Gorsuch will be confirmed to the Supreme Court at about 11:30 a.m. on the first day of the Senate’s nuclear winter. Now that we’re in the nuclear age, when it’s time for the next SCOTUS nominee’s confirmation hearings, Senator Orrin Hatch “expect[s] Armageddon.” [CNN]

* It’s been about a month since Preet Bharara was ousted from his position as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, and he isn’t mincing his words when it comes to his firing, calling it “a direct example of the kind of uncertain helter-skelter incompetence” people associate with the Trump administration. [New York Times]

* Speaking of the Trump administration’s “helter-skelter incompetence,” Twitter has filed suit against the Department of Homeland Security in an attempt to block an agency summons to reveal the identity of @ALT_uscis, an anonymous user who has used the social media platform to criticize the president’s immigration policies. [Reuters]

* According to the latest data from Bloomberg, Cleary Gottlieb handled the largest volume of M&A deals in 2017’s first quarter, with the firm involved in 22 deals worth more than $98 billion. Skadden Arps, Cravath, Kirkland & Ellis, and Slaughter and May fell in line behind Cleary, each surpassing $54 billion in deal volume. [Big Law Business]

* Welcome back, John White! Now that Mary Jo White has departed from her position at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission and is back at Debevoise & Plimpton, her husband — who was the firm’s lone nonequity partner for four years — will return to the firm’s equity partnership, where he can enjoy all of the rain he makes. [Am Law Daily]

Opponents of Mary Jo White's tenure at the SEC have taken to the streets -- in a sense -- to protest the Commission's perceived protection of Wall Street institutions.

* Mary Jo White’s sizable net worth is causing sizable headaches over at the SEC. [DealBook / New York Times]

* If you work at a law firm and take way too long to perform simple tasks in Microsoft Word or Excel, shape up: a new test, developed by former in-house lawyer Casey Flaherty, could expose your weaknesses — and lead to your work being discounted. [Capital Business / Washington Post]

* More from Howard Bashman about the misadventures of Howard Shipley, the Foley & Lardner partner who might get spanked by SCOTUS for a bizarre filing. [How Appealing]

* An S.D.N.Y. jury held the Palestinian Authority and the Palestine Liberation Organization liable for supporting six terrorist attacks and issued a verdict of $218.5 million — an award that will under the law get tripled (collected remains to be seen). [WSJ Law Blog]

* Wall Street banks and their law firms are getting serious about cybersecurity. [New York Times]

* Thanks to Emily Kelchen for her review of Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link), which she calls “a true legal thriller.” [Wisconsin Lawyer]

She's a longtime Debevoise partner, and she's married to a longtime Cravath partner. Let's take a look at their financial disclosures.

* This guy could teach a master class in how to stand by your (wo)man. Mary Jo White’s husband, John White, will relinquish his equity partner status at Cravath upon her confirmation as the head of the Securities and Exchange Commission. [Am Law Daily]

* Macho, macho man: it looks like we’ll never know if Dechert actually has a “macho culture,” because the FMLA and paternity leave case that questioned the very existence of this Biglaw subculture was settled out of court. [National Law Journal]

* Why you gotta go and ruin Valentine’s Day for everyone at O’Melveny and Akin Gump? Apple’s request to speed up the Greenlight Capital case was approved, with arguments now scheduled for February 19. [CNET]

* Despite her nomination being crapped on by the Senate, Jenny Rivera, the CUNY School of Law professor, was recently confirmed as an associate judge of the New York Court of Appeals. [New York Law Journal]

* Remember the lawyer who sued Westlaw and Lexis for copyright infringement? Judge Jef Rakoff dismissed it for reasons yet to be disclosed, but probably for legal dumbassery. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]

* “Behold, the instrument of your liberation!” Survivors of the Aurora movie massacre are being harassed by conspiracy theorists, and the DA asked the judge to scrub their names from the record. [Courthouse News]

Obama's pick to head up the SEC could be a game changer.