Massachusetts

Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 07.24.17

* Michael Phelps did not "race" a shark. I did not really expect Michael Phelps to race a shark, because I know that any shark "winning" such a contest would stop racing and start... eating. And yet, I tuned in kind of hoping that they found some way to put Michael Phelps and a shark in the water at the same time. What I'm saying is: I want the Discovery Channel sued for false advertising. I want to see Discovery outrun some class-action sharks, for my amusement. [Rolling Stone] * Disrupt the Supreme Court, go to jail. Do not pass Go, do not collect $200. [Washington Post] * A court rules that a 20-day registration cutoff before the election violates the Massachusetts constitution. Given the Puritan roots of the Massachusetts constitution, I wouldn't be surprised if it only allowed for same-day registration "by ordeal," though. If you can grab that super-heated stone and walk 20 paces, you can vote as many times as you want. [Election Law Blog] * The AALS is moving its 2018 conference from Austin to Chicago to protest Texas's immigration and bathroom bills. Seems like a good move, but a little unfair to Austin. When the Northeast secedes and joins Canada, we should still let people from Austin come visit. [TaxProf Blog] * Charges against a police officer who could not be convicted of killing a black person have been dropped. Because it is not illegal for cops to indiscriminately kill black people. [The Root] * Technically, it's illegal in New York City to park your ice cream truck and still play the ice cream jingle. Of course, someone who complains about the ice cream man in any situation where he is (a) selling ice cream and (b) not molesting children is the scientific definition of a terrible person. The fact that the person complaining is a white lady living in Harlem is just the cherry on top of the soft serving of poop. [Gothamist]

By Elie Mystal
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 07.10.17

* Judge Janice Rogers Brown of the D.C. Circuit is soon expected to publicly announce her retirement, and once she takes senior status, President Trump will have the ability to appoint another conservative judge to one of the nation's most powerful courts -- one that often serves as a training ground for future Supreme Court justices. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)] * Shortly after his father became the Republican nominee for president, Donald Trump Jr. reportedly met with Natalia Veselnitskaya, a Russian lawyer who had Kremlin ties, after he was allegedly promised damaging information about then Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. For his part, Trump's eldest son has denied any Russian collusion having to do with the 2016 presidential election. [New York Times] * When it comes to the AT&T / Time Warner merger, "[t]he business community is watching intensely to see what an antitrust D.O.J. will look like in the Trump administration and how much of the rhetoric from the campaign trickles down into policy." Meanwhile, Makan Delrahim, President Trump’s nominee for antitrust chief, hasn't had his Senate hearing yet. [DealBook / New York Times] * Marc Kasowitz has moved to dismiss a sexual harassment suit filed against the president by former "Apprentice" contestant Summer Zervos, claiming that thanks to the SCOTUS ruling in Bill Clinton's sexual harassment case, presidents cannot be sued in state court for personal conduct while in office. If this flies, will it give rise to more federal filings against the president? [The Hill] * "These are dedicated people doing very difficult work and not paying them is like not paying teachers, cops, social workers, or firefighters. The public should be outraged." Court-appointed lawyers in Massachusetts who represent the indigent are struggling financially thanks to the state's budget woes. Some of these attorneys are owed thousands of dollars. [Boston Globe]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 07.05.17

* While it's taken most justices about three to five years to get adjusted to life on the Supreme Court, it seems as if Justice Neil Gorsuch has already hit his stride over the course of just a few months. This gunner wrote one majority opinion, three dissents, three concurrences, and one statement during his first two months on the bench. [New York Times] * DLA Piper -- the first Biglaw firm to fall to a cyberattack -- has finally restored its email service after five days of going without it thanks to being the victim of the worldwide Petya ransomware attack. The firm still claims no client data was compromised by the hackers who gained access to their systems. [ABC News] * Ty Cobb of Hogan Lovells will reportedly be brought on to attend to Russia-related issues within the Office of White House Counsel. Cobb met with Trump last week, but wouldn't offer any comment on his prospective role except to say that he was on vacation. Enjoy your time off while it lasts -- working on Russia-related matters at the White House will certainly be no vacation. [Reuters] * Harvard Law School has established an endowed professorship to honor the late Justice Antonin Scalia, who graduated from the school in 1960. According to outgoing Dean Martha Minow, the professorship is "especially meaningful" because the justice "had a great love of learning." [Harvard Law Today] * Overworked and underpaid never paid? Public defenders working as independent contractors in Massachusetts aren't being paid in a remotely timely fashion. They sometimes go up to two months without receiving paychecks, and say that this has been going on for at least five years. [WWLP 22News]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 12.28.16

* Tennessee wants to go all in with the ballot selfie ban. [The Tennessean] * What the hell does the 21st Century Cures Act do? [MedCity News] * Shoe's on the other foot now, apocryphal Nigerian billionaire. [New York Daily News] * Just after Christmas seems like the perfect time to ask the Supreme Court to figure out sales tax rules for out-of-state deliveries. [SCOTUSblog] * We'll have recreational marijuana... when we get around to it. [ABC News] * Poe's Law > Godwin's Law. [Slate]

By Elie Mystal
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.05.16

* 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]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.03.16

* Singer Kesha has dropped her lawsuit in California against producer Dr. Luke, but will continue her appeal in New York. She says she dropped the suit because she's "focused on getting back to work," but Dr. Luke's lawyer says it's because she has "no chance of winning." Ouch, that's got to sting. [People] * Get off my lawn, you damn kids! A New Jersey personal injury attorney has filed a class-action lawsuit against Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, for the "unlawful and wrongful" invasion of his property. It seems that in the rush to catch 'em all, people have been gathering outside of his home, knocking on his door, and asking to enter his backyard. [WSJ Law Blog] * Following up on his tentative oral ruling, Juge Gonzalo P. Curiel has ruled that a Trump University fraud case filed against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump may proceed to trial, but he refused to release Trump's videotaped deposition. We suppose that the transcript will have to be good enough. [New York Times] * "These are things that don't just affect one job; it keeps women's wages down over their entire lifetime." Thanks to a new law geared toward closing the gender wage gap, in Massachusetts, it is now illegal for employers to ask about applicants' salary history before offering them jobs. This goes into effect in 2018. [DealBook / New York Times] * "We are confidently looking to the future." Following a series of "regrettable departures" and a capital call that successfully raised about $18.4 million from the firm's existing partners, it looks like the "modernization" and restructuring of the King & Wood Mallesons partnership is finally going to be drawing to a close. [Big Law Business] * Jenner & Block has teamed up with the University of Chicago Law School to create a Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic, with the goal of "educat[ing] and train[ing] the next generation of extraordinary appellate advocates and continu[ing] the tradition of helping clients hanks their most important litigation problems." Congratulations! [ABA Journal]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.28.16

* Kimberly Kitchen, the woman who was parading around and pretending to be a lawyer for a decade before she was caught in the act, was recently convicted of forgery, unauthorized practice of law, and felony records tampering. On the bright side, at least she doesn't have six figures worth of law school debt to worry about right now. [WSJ Law Blog] * President Obama published an op-ed in praise of SCOTUS nominee Merrick Garland on AL.com, pleading with Alabamians to let their senators know that it's their duty to give Scalia's would-be replacement a hearing and a vote, lest we "jeopardize our system of justice, hurt our democracy, and betray the vision of our founding." [AL.com] * Who is the real Merrick Garland? Not only does he have a “résumé that makes you want to cry," but he's also a pretty endearing gent. He used to want to be a doctor, he loves singing show tunes, and he was once so nervous when officiating a wedding that he began the ceremony before the bride even walked down the aisle. [New York Times] * "We are heartened by this development and look forward to the Committee making this request directly ... as is standard practice." Republicans may be willing to accept Merrick Garland's nominee questionnaire, but the White House has yet to receive one from Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley or Senator Patrick Leahy. [BuzzFeed] * Judge Pamela A.M. Campbell, who presided over Hulk Hogan v. Gawker, has had more decisions reversed on appeal than any other judge in her county, but "a judge who's not afraid to make a decision and a not afraid to be reversed, is quite naturally going to be reversed more, and that doesn't mean the judge is not a good judge." [Tampa Bay Times] * A judge has ruled that Ropes & Gray, the firm that once represented ex-New England Patriot Aaron Hernandez, must turn over the murder convict's cellphone to his new attorneys so they can analyze it for his defense in the double murder case he's being prosecuted for by the Suffolk County DA's Office in Massachusetts. [Boston Herald]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.15.15

* "We're going to the Jersey Shore, bitch!" This probably isn't the kind of marketing that Jackson Lewis had in mind when the firm announced it was going to be opening an office north of Seaside Heights. Associates, you better get ready for some very serious GTB (gym, tan, billable hours). [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] * Kim Davis may be back to work at the Rowan County Clerk's Office in Kentucky, but that doesn't mean she's done with her fight to not do her job. She'll be suing Gov. Steve Beshear for failing to provide her with a religious accommodation. [Talking Points Memo] * Some progress has been made in the infamous "dancing baby" case thanks to a recent Ninth Circuit decision. As it turns out, "copyright law does not authorize thoughtless censorship of lawful speech.” Prince would've wanted it this way. [WSJ Law Blog] * Public interest problems: When you work in Biglaw, performing a high number of pro bono hours may keep you from "doing the amount or quality of billable that it takes to advance in the firm, because there's only 24 hours in the day." [Crain's Chicago Business] * Necrophilia is apparently still legal in several of our fine states, but a lawmaker in Massachusetts is trying to get a law on the books that would make sex with the dead illegal. It's already illegal for Massholes to have sex with animals, so it's only fair. [Metro]

By Staci Zaretsky