Law Firm Mergers

* “If the LSAC is willing to include GRE scores in the [credential assembly services], then this may be an easy way for the LSAC to continue to certify the accuracy of standardized test scores reported to law schools.” In response to the tantrum LSAC threw over the future certification of LSAT scores, Educational Testing Service, the organization that administers the GRE, has offered to share its exam results with LSAC. [ABA Journal]

* “It is time for the ABA to catch up.” The hotly contested rule proposed by the American Bar Association that would make behavior “[a] lawyer knows or reasonably should know is harassment or discrimination” a form of professional misconduct was “resoundingly adopted” by the House of Delegates earlier this week. Well done, ABA. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Sorry, investment advisers, you make think it’s “unfair,” but according to a recent decision from a three-judge panel of the D.C. Circuit, the Securities and Exchange Commission’s controversial in-house courts are constitutionally sound because the agency’s ALJs don’t make “final” decisions on behalf of the SEC. [Big Law Business]

* Husch Blackwell, which completed a combination with Whyte Hirschboeck in the middle of last month, now not only has bragging rights on finalizing the largest law firm merger of 2016, but it can also claim to have one of the largest real estate practices in the entire country. Congratulations on all of your success! [Midwest Real Estate News]

* Who are eight of the most impressive graduates of Columbia Law School? Would you be surprised to learn that the list includes two former presidents, two Supreme Court justices (one of whom has a law school named after him), a U.S. Attorney General, and various political figures? If you’re interested, check out the list here. [Business Insider]

* It’s been exactly two years since FSU Law Professor Dan Markel was killed in an alleged murder-for-hire plot. He was locked in child-custody litigation with his ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, until the time of his death, and it is that litigation that is the suspected motive for his violent slaying. The Adelsons’ attorney suggests instead that perhaps some FSU students “had it in for [their] law professor.” [Sun Sentinel]

* In an effort to ensure criminal defendants receive competent representation, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ) has introduced the Clarence Gideon Full Access to Justice Act, which would create the Defender Office for Supreme Court Advocacy. Per Justice Elena Kagan, a program like this would be an “enormous help to the system.” [Big Law Business]

* Husch Blackwell and Whyte Hirschboeck Dudek have officially completed their merger, and the combined firm, which will continue to be known as Husch Blackwell, has more than 700 lawyers. Now that the books are closed on the merger, maybe the firm will have time bring its associate salaries to market — or not. [Journal Sentinel]

* The recent outcome of the Microsoft data privacy case is a great example of what can happen when the law can no longer keep up with technology. Perhaps Congress will be inspired to update these old laws related to digital information that were first created when email was still considered a nascent technology. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Is getting a law degree still lucrative? Probably not, but despite the lawyer glut and fewer job opportunities for law school grads, there still exists a need for legal representation among the poor and working class. You may not be able to make a lot of money this way, but you may be able to help close the justice gap. [Clarion Ledger]

* Paralympic gold medalist Oscar Pistorius may recently have been sentenced to six years in prison for the killing of his girlfriend, but according to South African legal analysts, he’ll be eligible for parole in just three years, and will most likely be freed from behind bars at that time, despite his murder conviction. [ABC News]

* DLA Piper partner Brian Pendleton has been fined $10K for violating a court order related to interfering with witnesses and then lying about it. DLA Piper has also been ordered to pay all of opposing counsel’s attorney fees and costs thanks to its errant partner’s behavior. The firm, of course, “respectfully disagree[s]” with the judge. [New York Law Journal via ABA Journal]

* FBI Director James Comey is being “praised” and “slammed” at the same time for his recommendation that no criminal charges be brought against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton over her emails. In the meantime, Attorney General Loretta Lynch announced that the case had been closed. [WSJ Law Blog; CNN]

* Law firm mergers are coming fast and furious, with a total of 48 combinations announced since the beginning of 2016. “Small firms are increasingly vulnerable in the current market,” and last year’s number of mergers (91) could be exceeded by year’s end as many smaller firms struggle to stay in business. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Not only is Adnan Syed, the subject of the first season of the popular Serial podcast, getting a new trial, but he’s also got some brand new Biglaw attorneys representing him. Lawyers from Hogan Lovells, including the head of the firm’s pro bono practice and the managing partner of its Baltimore office, will now be involved. [Big Law Business]

* Sorry to ruin your childhood, but a Pennsylvania judge found that there is enough evidence for Bill Cosby to stand trial for his felony assault charge in the Andrea Constand case. Cosby has waived his right to a formal arraignment, and could face up to 10 years in prison if he’s convicted. Cosby has been free on $1 million bail since December. [Associated Press]

* “You need to have order in a courtroom. And there needs to be proper decorum with attorneys.” A Las Vegas Justice of the Peace ordered that a deputy public defender be handcuffed for interrupting him as she tried to represent a client. A tipster has referred to this judge as “demented.” We may have more on this. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

* According to inside sources, Hunton & Williams is in advanced merger talks with Addelshaw Goddard, a London-based firm. These talks have reportedly been going on for months, and Addelshaw partners supposedly met last night to discuss the tie-up. If successful, the combined firm would have more than 1,300 lawyers. [Big Law Business]

* Silicon Valley staple Fenwick & West is opening up an office outpost in New York City. The firm’s clients in Manhattan include BuzzFeed, FanDuel, Blackrock, Citi, and JPMorgan. Associates will be working around the clock in the city that never sleeps — with a roster like that, they won’t be getting shuteye anytime soon. [WSJ Law Blog]

* AG Loretta Lynch announced yesterday afternoon that the Justice Department would be seeking the death penalty against Dylann Roof, the suspect alleged to have gone on a shooting spree in a Charleston church last summer, killing nine and wounding numerous others. It’s said Roof hoped to incite a race war as a result of the massacre. [USA Today]

* Carl Buchholz, managing partner of DLA Piper’s Philadelphia office, RIP. [Philadelphia Business Journal]

* Tiger-blooded warlock Charlie Sheen sued by American Express over $287,879 in debt. #Winning. [Courthouse News Service]

* It’s really happening, folks! Get ready for ASSLaw. [Washington Post]

* Morgan Lewis knows how to play both sides — the firm is handling Donald Trump’s tax returns and accompanying controversy while simultaneously vetting Hillary Clinton’s possible running mates. [Law.com]

* Law school announces a technological innovation concentration… because programming the next LawyerBot is probably the only hope these students have for jobs in 10 years. [Northwestern Pritzker School of Law]

* Cuneo Gilbert attorneys said that they felt threatened when former colleague Preetpal Grewal emailed another former colleague stating she wanted “to kill” them in connection with her national origin discrimination suit. Someone’s overreacting here. [Law360]

* The SEC targets a patent troll and a former Fulbright & Jaworski and Bracewell associate in an unrelated securities fraud case. [The Am Law Daily]

* Neil Sedaka may have thought “Breakin’ Up Is Hard To Do” but for law firms, mergers are the tough part. [National Law Journal]

* The justice gap for poor civil litigants keeps on growing. [The Nation]

* Because he’d like to stop “freeriding on the services of Bryan Cave,” Stephen DiCarmine, Dewey & LeBoeuf’s former executive director, told a judge that he’d like to dump Austin Campriello as his lawyer and represent himself in the retrial of his criminal case. DiCarmine, a current textile design student, was warned that this likely wasn’t a very wise choice on his part. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Kaye Scholer’s managing partner “wouldn’t comment on any speculation or rumor,” but word on the street is that his firm and Arnold & Porter may potentially be discussing a possible merger. Information related to this merger is really just a game of Biglaw telephone at this point. Let us know if you have any credible details. [Big Law Business]

* This seems like the plotline of a reality TV series: A trial date has been set for one of the three Trump University lawsuits, and if all goes according to plan for likely Republican nominee Donald Trump, it looks like we may have a president-elect taking the witness stand to testify about allegations related to fraud before his inauguration. [CBS News]

* Just in time for law school commencement ceremonies, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has some depressing news about employment statistics. In April, the legal services sector lost 1,500 jobs. Thus far, the only month in 2016 when jobs were added in the legal services sector was March. Well… this really isn’t very encouraging. [Am Law Daily]

* “It’s been one step forward, two steps back since [2009].” The job market for law school grads is still challenging, but due to the fact that class sizes are smaller now, job prospects may seem a bit brighter for some. Are things really looking up? This John Marshall Law grad — with a job! — thinks things are going to be fine. [Chicago Tribune]

* Arizona Law’s plans to scrap the LSAT in favor of the GRE has angered the Law School Admission Council terribly. In fact, LSAC’s general counsel says the school’s new policy may violate the organization’s bylaws, so it may boot Arizona Law from its membership, thereby cutting the school out of its applications and admissions clearinghouse. We’ll have more on this news later today. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]

* Tom Brady of the New England Patriots hasn’t filed an appeal of the Second Circuit’s reinstatement of his four-game suspension yet, but you can bet your ass that it’s coming soon, because the quarterback just made the ultimate Hail Mary legal hire by adding Ted Olson to his team of lawyers. Sports fans can look forward to a bid for an en banc Second Circuit hearing, or even a possible flea flicker to the Supreme Court. [NBC Sports]

* “Republicans haven’t been satisfied to simply hobble the court’s ability to function. In recent weeks, they have gone to remarkable lengths to impugn the integrity of the justices and thus the legitimacy of the court.” The New York Times Editorial Board has a piece that essentially begs Republicans to stop their shenanigans, give Judge Merrick Garland a hearing, and “rescue the Supreme Court from limbo.” [New York Times]

* Law firm merger mania is already in full bloom this spring, but which Biglaw firm was one of the first to bite the bullet? It looks like it’s Husch Blackwell, which is merging with Milwaukee-based Whyte Hirschboek Dudek, effective July 1. The combined firm will have more than 700 attorneys, 19 offices, and it will likely be among the country’s 100 top-grossing law firms. We hope redundancy layoffs won’t follow. [Journal-Sentinel]

* “We respect other professors’ point of view, but it’s less than (8 percent) of the academic faculty.” Some professors are outraged over Mason Law being renamed after the late Justice Antonin Scalia, but the university isn’t budging, and plans to stick with its new name since administrators “believe that the Antonin Scalia Law School, once it’s approved, will be one of the top law schools in the country.” [Big Law Business]

* Law students, you make think you know what a gunner is, but you haven’t met this prodigy yet. Eighteen-year-old Ahmed Mohamed will be the first student to attend the University of Southern Florida College of Medicine and the Stetson University College of Law at the same time. If you hurry, you may be able to convince this genius to join your study group. You’ll surely be the envy of all of your new friends. [ABC Action News]

* An odd order? Perhaps in an attempt to avoid yet another 4-4 split in a controversial case, SCOTUS justices have ordered parties on both sides of the contraceptive coverage battle in Zubik to file briefs describing how such coverage could be provided without religious groups having to put forth much effort to formally object. [Associated Press]

* “It’s mind bogglingly obvious, but often gets lost in the mix. Apart from checking there aren’t any conflicts, clients are rarely put at the heart of these mergers.” Go figure, but according to a new report by professional services consultancy Gulland Padfield, law firm mergers usually don’t benefit clients in any way, shape, or form. [Am Law Daily]

* It seems that Russian cybercriminal “Oleras” has hired hackers to break into the computer systems of 48 Biglaw firms so he can collect confidential client data and then trade on the stolen insider information. Thus far, he’s been unsuccessful. Has your law firm been targeted? If you’d like to know, check the list here. [Crain’s Chicago Business]

* The NFL is so pissed that the New York Times recently published a story linking the league to the tobacco industry that it not only wrote a two-part rebuttal that was more than 3000 words long, but it also sicced Paul Weiss attorneys on the paper of record in search of a retraction, claiming that the story was defamatory in nature. [Yahoo! Sports]

* “I will not go down. I want Bill Cosby in court.” A Los Angeles judge has ruled that model Janice Dickinson’s defamation case against Bill Cosby can move forward so that a jury can decide whether her allegations of rape are truthful, and further, whether a “liar” comment made by the comedian’s ex-lawyer, Marty Singer, was defamatory. [Telegram]

* “In 2 to 4 years, a University administration will shut down a top law school and we may never see it coming.” Uh-oh! Is a top law school really going to close? This law professor seems to think so, and she’s pointing the finger at Minnesota Law, which has been experiencing a slew of financial troubles due to its enrollment issues. [Forbes]

* “The employment numbers were very high in a huge economic downturn and it just felt suspicious. I decided to stand up for myself and others.” Anna Alaburda, who sued Thomas Jefferson School of Law over its allegedly deceptive job statistics, took the stand this week, where she spoke about her failed legal career. [Courthouse News Service]

* “The record number of deals in 2015 is a reflection of the intense competition among law firms for new work, and we expect the market to remain hot in 2016.” Oh boy! If you think 2015 set a merger record, you ain’t seen nothing yet. We should apparently be expecting even more law firm merger mania this year. [Chicago Daily Law Bulletin]

* Why on earth would a partner leave a firm like Munger Tolles, with profits per partner of $1.9 million, to go to a firm like Dentons, with profits per partner of $680,000, a considerably lesser amount? What’s in that Biglaw behemoth’s special sauce that’s so amazing? It’s the “irresistible” opportunities. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* As many of our readers have had the displeasure of experiencing firsthand, law school tuition can be absurdly expensive. If you’re wondering which school took home the prize of being the most expensive for the 2015-2016 school year, it’s Columbia Law, with a shocking sticker price of $62,700. Ouch, that’s painful. [U.S. News & World Report]

* Been there, done that: The political standoff having to do with Chief Judge Merrick Garland’s nomination to the Supreme Court is nothing new. When he was nominated to the D.C. Circuit by President Bill Clinton in September 1995, Senate Republicans refused to hold a confirmation vote for him until March 1997. If patience is a virtue, then Garland has got to be the most virtuous judge of them all. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Is he the “most anti-gun Supreme Court nomination in decades”? Conservative group Judicial Crisis Network plans to spend $2 million on an ad campaign in opposition to Chief Judge Merrick Garland’s SCOTUS nod, calling attention to his “history of general hostility to the Second Amendment,” as well as his vote in the Heller case. [POLITICO]

* Greenberg Traurig has called off its merger talks with London-based Berwin Leighton Paisner, citing the firm’s “conservative approach to financial risk.” Executive chair Richard Rosenbaum penned a 540-word break-up letter announcing the bad news. The combined firm would’ve had more than 2,500 lawyers. [Big Law Businness / Bloomberg]

* Finally! The California Supreme Court approved of changing the state’s grueling three-day bar exam to a two-day exam, effective 2017. The first test day will consist of five essays and a performance test, and the second day will be the MBE. Both days will be weighted equally, and test takers will surely be less stressed. [State Bar of California]

* If you’ve started receiving law school admission offers, now is a great time to consider weighing your options for merit-based financial aid — carefully. If you wind up with a conditional scholarship offer, you better make sure to read all of the fine print, because if you don’t, you could wind up screwing yourself. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

* It’s official: Justice Clarence Thomas hasn’t asked a question during oral arguments at the Supreme Court in a decade. No other justice in history has ever done something like this, but Justice Thomas is “confident enough in his own skin not to care.” [MSNBC]

* Who would make a better SCOTUS justice, Judge Sri Srinivasan of the D.C. Circuit or U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York Preet Bharara? President Obama may be wondering when deciding whether to appoint the high court’s first Asian-American justice. [New York Daily News]

* Judge H. Russel Holland was presiding over the DOJ’s action against two allegedly discriminatory polygamous cities on the Utah-Arizona border when he was rushed away in an ambulance. He had a terrible case of bronchitis. Feel better, Your Honor! [AP]

* Gowlings, Canada’s second-largest firm, merged with UK-based Wragge Lawrence Graham to form an international firm with 1,400+ lawyers in 10 countries. Accept our cautionary congratulations, since layoffs usually follow mergers of this size. [Reuters]

* Aww, how cute! After working as a fully integrated firm for almost two years, Squire Patton Boggs has announced its first-ever merger with another firm. Welcome San Francisco-based firm Carroll Burdick & McDonough to the party. [Plain Dealer]

* Mayer Brown is relying on a lateral associate to help its Cuba practice shore up client relations on the island through all of her connections there, which have been described as “hot property.” She even got her own press release. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

* Although he’s only seen commercials for the show, O.J. Simpson is none too pleased with the way The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story portrayed his lawyer, Johnnie Cochran. The Juice thinks Cochran is being “unfairly depicted as ruthless and overly ambitious.” [Washington Post]

* A Pennsylvania judge has ruled that the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby can move forward and include the comedian’s 2005 deposition testimony, despite the fact that he only sat for that deposition because he was promised by a district attorney that he wouldn’t be prosecuted. [CNN]

* While Dentons may have been written off dismissively about two years ago, since then, the Biglaw firm has “grown faster than any law firm ever,” and now people are starting to wonder whether the megafirm will be able to live up to all of the hype. [Legal Business]

* Perhaps we need to start a Blue Ghetto series for our male readers? A former editorial director at Yahoo! has filed a wrongful termination suit against the company, with claims that he was discriminated against by his superiors because he was a man. [Fox News]

* Under the guidance of his new lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, Martin Shkreli has adopted an intelligent new legal strategy: shutting his incredibly punchable mouth before it gets him into even more trouble. Let’s see how long this lasts. [DealBook / New York Times]