Legal Ethics

* 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]

* Despite facing uncertainties, per a recent Am Law survey conducted before the election, the vast majority of law firm leaders are moderately optimistic about how 2017 will pan out for their firms and more than a quarter of them expect profits per partner to grow by more than 5 percent. Unfortunately, “the reality for […]

* The political anger against big banking in general and Wells Fargo, specifically, could hurt their forced arbitration efforts. [Cowboys On The Commons]

* Warner Brothers’s settlement over paying — and not disclosing that fact — influencers to subtly promote its video game Middle Earth: Shadow of Mordor. [The Fashion Law]

* The California Bar is considering a ban on client-attorney sex. [Law and More]

* Rumor has it Steve Bannon is totally fine with suppressing black voter turnout. [Huffington Post]

* Yes, the electoral college sucks, but they are still going to elect Donald Trump. [Slate]

* A primer: everything you need to know about Jeff Sessions. [The Marshall Project]

* A Texas lawmaker wants to force schools to out LGBT students to their parents. [The New Civil Rights Movement]

* Loretta Lynch still wants you to report hate crimes. [Huffington Post]

* A threesome leads to a suspension for an attorney. [Legal Profession Blog]

* A $25 million settlement is expected for the Trump University fraud case. [New York Daily News]

* A new spin on CLEs. [ABA Journal]

* Low divorce rates are bad for lawyers. [Law and More]

* Plaintiffs in the Trump University fraud class-action lawsuit are sick and tired of waiting for their claims to be heard. They want the trial to proceed as scheduled, the defendant’s presidential duties be damned, writing, “The court has been more than generous in accommodating defendants’ multiple delay requests, but after 6 1/2 years of waiting, plaintiffs cannot afford any further delays.” [Big Law Business]

* Poor Merrick Garland: After more than 243 days of waiting for a hearing as President Barack Obama’s Supreme Court nominee, he’ll return to his seat as the chief judge of the D.C. Circuit, the second highest court in the land, in January 2017. The man is a true gentleman, an “example of how to act with dignity and class and character.” [CNN]

* “If president-elect Donald Trump follows through on his campaign promises, people’s rights will be in jeopardy.” Since Donald Trump’s victory in the election, the American Civil Liberties Union has raised a record amount — more than $8.2 million poured in from more than 100,000 donors in the span of less than a week. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Much to LSAC’s chagrin, the LSAT may not be the only admissions testing prerequisite in town for prospective law students anymore. Law schools seem particularly eager to allow would-be students to take the GRE, which is offered throughout the year, as opposed to the LSAT, which is only offered four times a year. [National Law Journal]

* Michael Fine, the Ohio lawyer who was disbarred for hypnotizing his female clients and sexually assaulting them, has been sentenced to 12 years in prison after pleading guilty to five counts of kidnapping with sexual motivation and one count of attempted kidnapping. Fine must register as a sex offender. We’ll have more on this later. [Reuters]

* Will ballot selfies ruin democracy? A debate between Rick Hasen and Elie Mystal. [New York Times]

* Tim Kaine’s law school roommate dishes on the experience. [Salon]

* How to survive your first year as an associate. [Ms. JD]

* Thinking about faking it as a lawyer? You could go to jail for that. [Patch]

* Republicans are already talking impeachment if Hillary wins, but can they pull it off? [LawNewz]

* The LGBT Bar Association of Greater New York (LeGaL) is partnering with Legal.io to improve access to pro bono and legal referral services. [Legaltech News]

* Not only has the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Rhonda Crawford, the former law clerk who was fired from her position and later indicted after she allegedly impersonated a judge while running unopposed for an elected position as a judge, can’t take office if she wins the election, but the court has also suspended her from practicing law until further notice. A date for her trial has not yet been set. [Associated Press]

* Some law schools are still falling short when it comes to being truthful about their graduates’ employment outcomes. During a recent audit of of 10 randomly selected law schools’ jobs data, half of them missed compliance benchmarks for documentation that was supposed to be kept on file. On the bright side, none of the errors seemed to be instances of “gross misreporting” or “attempts to manipulate.” [Inside Higher Ed]

* “Will Brad Smith feel he can get a fair shake in front of the Washington Supreme Court? If the answer is no, then did he create the situation is a fair question.” Not only have Microsoft’s co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen contributed to political action committees to oust Washington Supreme Court Justice Charles Wiggins, but the company’s chief legal officer has joined in the fun now, too. [Big Law Business]

* Bill Cosby’s lawyers are trying to prevent jurors from hearing incriminating deposition testimony the comedian gave in 2005 in a civil suit related to sexual assault allegations made by Andrea Constand. They claim that a former prosecutor promised never to bring their client to trial over those allegations: “This was a sitting district attorney saying, ‘I’m not going to prosecute your client, ever.'” Do you think they’ll be successful? [Reuters]

* “We feel betrayed in a lot of ways, because we were promised. We were promised that the school would be open, we were promised we would have a place to learn, and that was all yanked away from us.” Indiana Tech Law School students are speaking out in the wake of their dreams being crushed by the school’s sudden closure, and they are not happy about it — especially those of them with outstanding education loans. [WFYI]