LSAT

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.21.16

* "The Department’s actions violate law and are contrary to basic principles of fairness and deeply damaging to the critical public service missions of these plaintiffs and the ABA." The American Bar Association has filed suit against the Department of Education, alleging that some public interest lawyers had been indiscriminately dropped from the federal government’s Public Service Loan Forgiveness program. We may have more on this later. [ABA Journal] * "The American Bar Association forces this young man to litigate all the way to the United States Supreme Court to prove that a blind person shouldn’t draw a picture." After suing the ABA for discrimination for forcing him to take the LSAT -- a test he can't pass because he can't draw the diagrams required for the logic games section -- a blind Michigan man is hoping that SCOTUS will grant his petition. [Michigan Radio] * In what's being viewed as one of President Obama's last hurrahs before leaving office, he used the Outer Continental Shelf Act to restrict new oil and gas drilling in federal waters in the Atlantic and Arctic Oceans. The Trump administration will likely be forced to go to court to reverse the Obama administration's pro-environment actions. [Reuters] * "I am proud to have played a part in the substantial progress the firm has made toward gender equality." After years of litigation, Mintz Levin settled a gender discrimination case filed by former associate Kamee Verdrager, who was allegedly demoted for taking disability leave when she developed pregnancy complications. [Am Law Daily] * Baker McKenzie's new chair has been with the firm for 30 years, and now that he's in leadership, he's sharing with the world why the firm decided to do away with the ampersand that once resided in the firm's name. Apparently the ampersand's untimely death was about "freshening up the brand" to appear "agile." [Big Law Business]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.16.16

* 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]

By Staci Zaretsky
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]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.19.16

* The LSAT may be "destroy[ing] socioeconomic diversity" in law schools. Will a low score on the Logic Games section of the LSAT keep you from becoming employed as a lawyer? Probably not, but it may keep you from attending a top law school, unless you can afford an expensive LSAT tutor, and many prospective law students are priced out from the get-go. [The Atlantic] * Darby Dickerson, dean of Texas Tech Law, is resigning to assume the deanship at John Marshall Law-Chicago, a school whose enrollment has faltered over the past several years. She was asked during a job interview why she would leave a ranked law school for an unranked one, and her response may surprise you. [Crain's Chicago Business] * The first oral argument of the new SCOTUS term marked one of the first times that complete gender equality was reached at the high court. Five men -- all justices -- and five women -- three of them justices and two of them representing their clients -- were all present for Bravo-Fernandez, which is a relative rarity. [Washington Post] * "I feel that as a result of the experiences I had, I had a lot to offer." With the assistance of Dewey & LeBoeuf's former GC, Hinshaw & Culbertson is launching a crisis management and consulting practice. The firm is now in competition with businesses like Zeughauser Group, Altman Weil, and Hildebrandt Consulting. [Big Law Business] * A class-action suit has been filed over Samsung's recall of its fiery smartphone, alleging breach of warranty, breach of good faith, and common law fraud. You can expect the size of the proposed nationwide class of plaintiffs in this suit (or at least those in California, Pennsylvania, and Nevada) to explode faster than the Galaxy Note 7. [WSJ Law Blog]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.20.16

* Alecia Schmuhl, the lawyer accused of teaming up with her husband and plotting to kill the managing partner of the law firm she was fired from, has taken a deal in her case and could serve anywhere from 10 to 45 years in prison under the terms of her plea agreement. She'll be sentenced by the middle of January 2017. [Washington Post] * Two heads are better than one, especially when it comes to taking over a Biglaw titan's position as chairman at K&L Gates. Longtime chairman Peter Kalis will step down at the end of February, and come March, James Segerdahl will serve as the firm's global managing partner, while Michael Caccese will serve as chairman of the firm's management committee. We'll have more on this later today. [Big Law Business] * A big old welcome back to Biglaw: Brackett Denniston III, who has served as general counsel at GE for more than two decades, is throwing in the in-house towel to get back to the daily grind of law firm life. He recently rejoined Goodwin Procter -- a firm where he previously worked for about 15 years -- as senior counsel, and while there, he hopes to work on "hard cases" and mentor some of the firm's younger lawyers. [WSJ Law Blog] * What do the Redskins and the Slants have in common, aside from names that some may consider offensive? As it turns out, the football team and the rock band are fighting the same fight before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They both claim the First Amendment bars the USPTO from refusing to register their "disparaging" marks, and the Supreme Court may soon grant cert on either one of their cases. [Associated Press] * If you're planning to apply to law school during this admissions cycle despite the state of the job market for entry-level attorneys, then you may want to follow this 10-week timeline for submitting your applications. Don't forget that the goal here is to get ahead of the game, take advantage of rolling admissions, and submit all of your materials before those pesky December LSAT test-takers. [U.S. News & World Report]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.10.16

* "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]

By Staci Zaretsky