Kirkland & Ellis

* 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]

* Uh-oh! What’s going on at Kirkland & Ellis? Sources say that the firm recently changed its framework for allocating equity partner profits, making deep cuts to some partners’ shares. Litigation partners were reportedly hit so hard by these changes that multiple sources called the situation a “bloodbath.” We’ll have more on this later. [Am Law Daily]

* Talk about a money shot: Attorneys Paul Hansmeier and John Steele, formerly of Prenda Law, have been charged in a “massive extortion scheme” after allegedly uploading porn videos they produced themselves to file-sharing websites so they could then sue those who downloaded the films for copyright violations. [NBC News]

* Kerrie Campbell, the Chadbourne & Parke partner who sued her firm for $100 million over allegations of gender discrimination, has asked a court to dismiss C & P’s counterclaim, referring to the claims therein as “in terrorem tactic” to silence other women at the firm and elsewhere who have similar bias claims. [Big Law Business]

* Here’s a question that far too many law school deans were faced with this fall: “What’s the best way to share a school’s bad bar exam results?” Some chose to be blunt and others chose to be empathetic, but at the end of the day, the news is devastating to recent graduates, so there’s only so much one can really do to soften the blow. [ABA Journal]

* Charleston church gunman Dylann Roof was convicted on federal hate crime charges and is now awaiting the punishment phase of his trial. In case you didn’t know, he’s also waiting to stand trial on state murder charges, which means he’s the first person in the modern era to face the possibility of federal and state death penalty sentences. [Reuters]

* According to a new survey published by legal search firm Major Lindsey & Africa, on average, female Biglaw partners make 44 percent less than male Biglaw partners, and the pay disparity is largely due to who receives origination credit for business. We’ll have more on this study later today. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Uh-oh! This Australian law firm may be going even further down under… Following a restructuring and several rounds of layoffs, Slater & Gordon, the world’s first publicly traded law firm, has found itself on the receiving end of a class-action securities case on behalf of its shareholders over its continually tumbling share prices. [WSJ Law Blog]

* “Today’s ruling marks an end to Mr. Paxton’s almost year-long attempt to avoid being judged by a jury of his peers.” Even though a federal judge tossed out similar charges last week, Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton will face trial on state securities fraud charges. Paxton’s lawyers plan to appeal the ruling to a state appellate court. [Big Law Business]

* The last time your jeans were cool was when they were a lyric in “My Humps”: After falling out of fashion, True Religion has hired Kirkland & Ellis to explore some debt restructuring options. With about $500 million in debt to deal with, the company may have to file for bankruptcy or hope for kind negotiations with its lenders. [Reuters]

* “What is he thinking? Already his conduct is going to make him a pariah in many law school contexts — and this just fuels the flames.” Former Berkeley Law Dean Sujit Choudhry’s next court hearing for his racial discrimination case is on November 3. What is the law school’s latest argument against his claims? [San Francisco Chronicle]

* Jack Greenberg, former leader of NAACP Legal Defense Fund, RIP. [New York Times]

* Who recently made partner at Kirkland & Ellis, Covington & Burling, Goodwin Procter, and Curtis Mallet-Prevost? Here’s a nice round-up that highlights the names of the 112 associates who were promoted at these four firms. Don’t be too shocked by that high number; the vast majority of partner promotions were made at Kirkland, where 81 attorneys were welcomed into the ranks of the firm’s non-equity partnership. [Big Law Business]

* In what’s hailed as a victory for gay rights, Massachusetts expanded the legal definition of the word “parent” to be read “in a gender-neutral manner, to apply where a child is ‘born to [two people], is received into their joint home, and is held out by both as their own child.'” The state’s high court also allowed parentage laws to be construed to apply to members of same-sex couples without biological ties to the children. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Today, SCOTUS will hear arguments in a case challenging “judge-made law,” that is, what is and isn’t considered insider trading. If you trade on information received from a third party who received it from an insider, is that insider trading? Even Mark Cuban wants to know, writing in an amicus brief that “no one should be prosecuted for conduct that Congress is either unwilling or unable to define.” [DealBook / New York Times]

* The Oklahoma Supreme Court struck down a law that forced abortion providers to save fetal tissue samples from patients younger than 14 years old, on top of other broad restrictions. The court unanimously ruled that the law violated the state constitution’s “one subject” rule. In a separate concurrence, four judges would’ve struck down the law as an unconstitutional burden on a woman’s right to have an abortion. [Reuters]

* Much like America, the Supreme Court seems to have a problem with race this Term. The high court will be hearing three divisive cases having to do with racial slurs, racial rhetoric, and racial epithets, and the Court may very well be divided along ideological lines, resulting in 4-4 deadlocks thanks to the seat left vacant by the late Justice Antonin Scalia and the Senate’s refusal to give Judge Merrick Garland a hearing. [CNN]