LSAC

  • Morning Docket: 05.10.17
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.10.17

    * Former FBI Director James Comey found out that he’d been fired in the worst way possible. He apparently saw the news of his sudden termination on television, and originally thought that it was some sort of a prank being played on him. When you get fired and everyone in the world knows about it before you do, that takes trolling to a whole new level. Ice cold. [New York Daily News]

    * In other news, with Comey out of the way, President Donald Trump really wants to drill home the alternative fact that he has no connections to Russia. According to White House press secretary Sean Spicer, Trump hired a “leading law firm in Washington, D.C.” to send a letter to that effect to Senator Lindsey Graham. Which “leading law firm in Washington, D.C.” could it be? [NBC News]

    * The Law School Admissions Council has named Dean Kellye Y. Testy of the University of Washington School of Law as its new president and CEO. Testy will step down from her current position to take the lead on several new initiatives at LSAC, including increasing the frequency of when the LSAT is administered and offering free online prep materials for the exam. Congratulations! [ABA Journal]

    * “[W]e are reviewing all Department of Justice policies to focus on keeping Americans safe and will be issuing further guidance and support to our prosecutors executing this priority.” Attorney General Jeff Sessions seems interested in reinstating harsh punishments for low-level drug crimes, up to and including severe mandatory minimum sentences. [Washington Post]

    * Andrew Luger was once the U.S. Attorney for Minnesota, but in March, AG Jeff Sessions demanded that as an Obama-era holdover, he resign from his position. A few months have passed, and now Luger will actually have an opportunity to work intimately with the Trump administration. He’s now a member of the partnership at a firm with close ties to the president: Jones Day. [Am Law Daily]

    * Travel bans, and SCOTUS appointments, and executive powers, oh my! Donald Trump’s first 100 days in office were filled with such legal lunacy that professors at the Cardozo School of Law were inspired to create a 10-week course on Trumpism and the rule of law. Were they worried that the president would stop providing for material for them to work with? No, absolutely not. [HuffPost]

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  • Morning Docket: 11.08.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.08.16

    * In the event that the election ends in a deadlock, will the Supreme Court be able to resolve the dispute even though the highest court in the land is currently split 4-4 down ideological lines? No one knows, and that’s “[one] hell of a scary thought.” Not to worry, because there’s a “low probability” that the Supreme Court would have to decide the winner of the 2016 election — “[b]ut if it does happen, it surely won’t be good.” How comforting! [POLITICO]

    * The Supreme Court refused to step into a legal battle between the Ohio Democratic Party and the Trump campaign over voter harassment with no dissents, save for a comment from Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, who noted that because she was “mindful” of existing Ohio law prohibiting voter intimidation, she was denying the request. Thanks to the Notorious RBG for the reminder not to participate in illegal activities. [Slate]

    * Martin Shkreli thinks he’s going to be able to clear his name by forcing Katten Muchin to turn over three years’ worth of documents from the time the firm represented him, with his new attorneys claiming he acted in good faith because he “sought and received his lawyers’ advice and he followed it.” The firm isn’t thrilled about the prospect of having to hand over hundreds of thousands of pages of documents. [Big Law Business]

    * The institution formerly known as the South Texas College of Law has unveiled yet another new name after being enjoined from using the name Houston College of Law. The school will now be known as the South Texas College of Law Houston. Your tuition dollars at work: It seems like the school wasted an incredible amount of money to come up with a name substantially similar to its original name. Congrats? [Houston Chronicle]

    * The Law School Admission Council recently published a report on the different methods test-takers used to prepare for the LSAT, and it seems that the biggest ground-breaking takeaway from the data is that those who actually studied scored much better on the exam than those who did not. In addition, those who used official LSAC materials and commercial preparation courses fared better than self-studiers. [U.S. News]

  • Morning Docket: 09.27.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 09.27.16

    * “Even with a new Republican appointee, [Justice Clarence] Thomas is likely to remain somewhat isolated on the extreme right.” In the case of Justice Thomas, it wouldn’t even matter if Donald Trump won the presidency — he’d still be the most conservative justice in the modern history of the Supreme Court. [New York Times]

    * The Supreme Court’s long conference was yesterday, and we’ll likely find out later today (or in the days to come) the cases for which the justices decided to grant certiorari for the 2016-17 term. One of those cases may be NCAA v. O’Bannon, where the question of sports amateurism for the purpose of athletes’ pay is up for debate. [CBS Sports]

    * Hot on the heels of the news that Dentons dragged down revenue per lawyer rankings for the entire 2016 Global 100 thanks to its mega-merger with Dacheng, the firm had a more upbeat announcement. Partners Mike McNamara, Jeff Haidet, and Peter Wolfson have ascended to national and global leadership positions. Congrats! [Big Law Business]

    * Under a new California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, actors may conceal their age and force websites like IMDb to remove their age from bio pages in order to shield themselves from age-based discrimination in casting. Critics of the law are calling this an attack on free speech — and it’s too little, too late for Junie Hoang. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Judge Leonard I. Garth, Third Circuit Court of Appeals jurist, RIP. [Washington Post]

    * Daniel O. Bernstine, president of LSAC, RIP. [ABA Journal]

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  • Morning Docket: 05.10.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.10.16

    * “None of us can stand by when a state enters the business of legislating identity and insists that a person pretend to be something or someone they are not.” The Justice Department and North Carolina have traded dueling pleadings over HB2, the so-called “bathroom bill.” AG Loretta Lynch’s press conference announcing the DOJ countersuit was nothing short of awe-inspiring. [New York Times]

    * Just one week after threatening to strip Arizona Law from access to its law school applications and admissions clearinghouse, the Law School Admission Council is backing down, saying it will “maintain the status quo” until the ABA makes a decision on the validity of the GRE over the LSAT as a law school entrance exam. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * “On behalf of the Section of Family Law, we pose the following question: WHAT PART OF ‘NO!’ DO YOU NOT UNDERSTAND?” Lawyers are still deeply opposed to non-lawyer ownership of and investment in law firms, and they’re apparently not afraid to stand up and let the ABA know how they really feel about it. [On the Case / Reuters]

    * After only two days of trial, a judge has dismissed the ultra-salacious case filed by Manuela Herzer challenging 92-year-old Sumner Redstone’s mental competence. The media mogul’s lawyers now intend to sue Herzer and another of his former flames to recover $150 million in cash and gifts he gave to them. [Los Angeles Times; Variety]

    * “Thank you, Mr. Boies, that was an unadulterated pleasure.” You might have missed the finale of The Good Wife this weekend, but this Biglaw celebrity made time to appear on the show for a cameo role as himself. David Boies of Boies Schiller appeared as an expert witness for about 30 seconds in the first half of the episode. [Big Law Business]

  • Morning Docket: 05.02.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.02.16

    * 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]