Judge Ronnie Abrams

* Southern California Institute of Law is suing the state bar over requirements schools must maintain a 40 percent bar passage rate over 5 years. [Los Angeles Times]

* Have dreams of running away from the practice of law into the welcoming embrace of academia? Not so fast. The rate of new law professor jobs has dropped 55 percent. [National Law Journal]

* FBI agents cannot be sued for monetary damages in their personal capacity for keeping people on the “No Fly List” as a coercive measure in anti-terrorism investigations, says SDNY Judge Ronnie Abrams. [New York Law Journal]

* Find out who are the scariest federal prosecutors according to Steptoe & Johnson partner Reid Weingarten. [Litigation Daily]

* You should still say “sorry” even when you’re at work. [Corporate Counsel]

* A fun way to mix college football fandom with your attorney advertising. [ABA Journal]

* Carey Gabay, a lawyer for Empire State Development Corp., and who formerly held positions as assistant counsel to Governor Andrew Cuomo and at Jones Day and at Schulte Roth & Zabel, was shot in the head yesterday before the West Indian American Day Parade in Brooklyn. He is in critical condition. [New York Post]

* Exciting news: Justice Sonia Sotomayor will be leading the countdown on the New Year’s Eve ball drop in Times Square. She’ll be the first SCOTUS justice to perform the task. You go girl! [New York Times]

* Blank Rome and Nixon Peabody are reportedly in merger talks, but one firm’s managing partner says he “talk[s] to firms all the time,” it’s no big deal. No word on what guys from his high school do. [Reuters]

* Sorry, Quinn Emanuel, but this limited discovery thing is going to happen. Judge Ronnie Abrams recently slapped down the firm’s attempt to appeal her MTD denial in this contract attorney’s suit. [Am Law Daily]

* A state court judge from Texas stands accused of strangling his girlfriend over the balcony of his apartment and threatening to “f**king kill [her].” Romance in Texas has certainly got some of that je ne sais quoi. [Dallas Morning News]

* A legal soap opera? An ex-prosecutor whose relationship with a judge landed her lover in hot water was found dead in her home hours after a judicial misconduct ruling came down. R.I.P. [Reno Gazette-Journal]

* Take a look back at the legal profession’s year that was: from the highest of highs in gay marriages to the lowest of lows in law school enrollment, 2013 was a year for the record books. [National Law Journal]

* “This should be a red flag for everyone in legal education and the law firm world.” According to NALP, the percentage of women associates has dropped for the fourth consecutive year. That’s just lovely. [National Law Journal]

* Next summer, the co-CEOs of Hogan Lovells from legacy firms Hogan & Hartson and Lovells will make way for a single CEO structure. If approved by vote, Stephen Immelt will be in charge. Congratulations! [Am Law Daily]

* And the peasants rejoiced, for one of the FLSA overtime suits filed by a document review attorney has survived a motion to dismiss. Quinn Emanuel must have been genuinely shocked by this judge’s ruling. [Am Law Daily]

* “One thing we understand is law and economics.” Yet another law school finally, finally gets it. George Mason University School of Law has agreed to freeze its tuition — for the time being. We may have more on this development later today. [InTheCapital]

* George Huguely V, the UVA LAX bro convicted of killing his ex-girlfriend, has got one hell of a lawyer. Paul Clement is arguing his client’s right to counsel was violated at trial. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]