Morning Docket

* Which Supreme Court justice sold a nearly $2 million property to the head of Greenberg Traurig and then left the identity of the purchaser blank on the disclosure form? [Politico]

* Donald Trump’s rape trial begins today. Here’s a short primer. [Reuters]

* But if criminal law is more your fancy, Fulton County DA Fani Willis provided a July 11 timeline for criminal charges in Georgia election interference suit. [Law360]

* The legal industry is in desperate need of more financial regulation lawyers. After a couple bank failures, we should probably be more concerned about having more financial regulations first, but I digress. [The Recorder]

* Financial regulation lawyers who can help the heads of failed banks avoid turning over their multimillion dollar compensation packages. [Bloomberg Law News]

* University of Arizona College of Law moves back to online learning in response to investigation of “possible threat.” [KGUN]

* Law schools defiantly bucked U.S. News and World Report. Now they face the inevitable consequences of their own actions. [NY Times]

* Elon Musk’s management of Twitter just keeps getting worse. [Bloomberg Law News]

* NFT insider trading case begins. [Reuters]

* Bed Bath & Beyond files for bankruptcy amid sagging Beyond sales. [Law360]

* Associate latering down 66 percent. [American Lawyer]

* Fox’s Dominion settlement likely to only cost the company about three-fourths of the total. So they’ve got that going for them! [Huffington Post]

* Cop who killed Breonna Taylor has a new law enforcement job because in many offices that behavior is a feature not a bug. [Forbes]

* Senate calls Chief Justice Roberts to testify about judicial ethics… for some reason. [Huffington Post]

* Bringing lawyers back from their home offices inspired offices to embrace collaborative work spaces. Unfortunately, lawyers still require solitude to do many if not most core tasks. [American Lawyer]

* ABA data breach gets worse as investigation determines exposed usernames and passwords. [Law360]

* Berkeley adopts AI policy for final exam. Students can’t use generative AI in a way that constitutes plagiarism, “which Berkeley defines as repackaging the ideas of others.” Not sure how caselaw works into that definition, but whatever. [Reuters]

* Skadden hires judge who approved its opioid client’s bankruptcy. Like… was Sullivan just not hiring? It seems as though there are a lot of firms out there that wouldn’t require this logistical morass. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Texas is on track to require posting the Ten Commandments in public classrooms, in case you were wondering about the long-term impact of the Supreme Court giving that football coach back the job he didn’t seem to want back. [Texas Tribune]

* Clients might be “at the end of their rope on rate hikes.” They say after Biglaw billing has lagged behind inflation. “We’re done with your rate increases!” is the “my girlfriend lives in Canada, you don’t know her” of corporate legal. [American Lawyer]

* Lisa Monaco tells Congress that warrantless surveillance is key to keeping abreast of Russian activity in Ukraine. If you want to make an omelette, you’ve got to break a few core constitutional protections. [CNN]

* Court rules against effort to block Mark Pomerantz from testifying to Jim Jordan’s “We Don’t Need To Go After Every Crime We See” Committee. [Law360]

* The Supreme Court extended the stay of the Fifth Circuit’s mifepristone ruling. It’s still up in the air, but Ian Millhiser’s theory sounds plausible that Alito must lack votes or he would’ve just let the stay lapse. [Vox]

* Putting aside the political ramifications… remember that some of those Dominion lawyers were on contingency. Ka-ching. [Reuters]

* Federal Circuit drama continues as Chief Judge Moore digs into 95-year-old Judge Newman’s ability to stay on the bench. Now, if we would adopt judicial term limits like a sensible country… [Bloomberg Law News]

* Dominion may have settled, but does anyone remember Smartmatic? Because they’re still out there and the price of admission for settlement just got set. [Washington Post]

* Fani Willis moves to jettison the attorney representing a bunch of fake electors on the grounds that she presents an “impracticable and ethical mess.” That’s a shocker. [Axios]

* Interesting question: are juries influenced by the billboards and other lawyer advertisements they see? [New Jersey Law Journal]

* Jim Jordan continues his possibly criminal, definitely unconstitutional harassment of the Manhattan DA. [Reuters]

* Bob Menendez has to establish yet another legal defense fund. [Roll Call]

* Iowa places slide into Lochner era into high gear. [Insider]

* Vivia Chen interviews Faith Gay, who says women need “real power” in Biglaw. [Bloomberg Law News]

* New York has a Chief Judge again, which it could’ve had months ago but for the governor’s subpar political instincts. [Law360]

* At Paul Hastings the client is always right and they’ll move mountains for them… potentially including pushing past conflicts. [Corporate Counsel]

* Could the reports of its death be greatly exaggerated? Shearman posts tidy Q1 M&A haul. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Shaq served in FTX suit after initially avoiding process servers. How did they miss him? [Cleveland.com]

* If Dominion and Fox delayed the trial to talk settlement, that seems to have fizzled with jury selection on deck this morning. Perhaps there’s still more public embarrassment to dole out after all. [Reuters]

* In light of the horrific Yarl shooting, the local paper tries to explain that the law doesn’t allow people to just try to murder anyone who comes to the door. Which is true, but highlights the problem with these broad self-defense laws… they make ginned up gun nuts think they can and you can’t really put the toothpaste back in the tube when they act on that misinterpretation. [Kansas City Star]

* Second time’s the charm: new NY Chief Judge pick rolling through the process. [NY Times]

* EY to cut 3000 jobs after spinoff failed. [Law360]

* Dominion’s defamation trial against Fox delayed at the last moment, raising speculation that Fox may be trying to settle approximately a two years too late. [CNN]

* US News delays release of law school rankings following freak out from schools worried about what their own stupid boycott caused. [Reuters]

* Clarence Thomas is amending his old financial disclosures to include the shady revelations of the past few weeks. He claims this is all unnecessary because he lost money on these deals despite the statute being very clear that profit and loss are irrelevant to disclosure. But who really believes in holding people to the explicit text of a statute, huh? [Huffington Post]

* Federal Circuit is investigating the fitness of one of its 95-year-old judges. Not that there’s really much they can do about it. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Is it bad when your lawyer is recusing himself because he had to testify to the grand jury about you? That seems bad. [Washington Post]

* Ron Klain heads back to O’Melveny. [Axios]

* Somehow the Clarence Thomas ethical morass got worse. [ProPublica]

* Biglaw firms consider recapturing the magic of lockdown profits by severely curtailing travel for in-person meetings. Yeah, that’s what the clients want in 2023… firms to Zoom them to save $5K. [American Lawyer]

* Liberals claim calls for Dianne Feinstein to resign are “sexist.” Which is exactly what the same liberals said about calls for Ruth Bader Ginsburg to resign and how did that work out for you? [Bloomberg Law News]

* SCOTUS refuses to halt student debt settlement involving schools that the government characterized as functional diploma mills. Don’t worry, they’re still on track to strike down the student debt settlement that could help the most people. [Reuters]

* Former client is “batshit crazy” says attorney. I don’t know about this specific client, but there’s a generalizable ring of truth to this. [Law360]

* DeSantis signs 6-week abortion law which, as political mistakes go, is right up there with “pissing off Disney.” [AP]

* A pair of Fifth Circuit Trump judges approve limited stay in Mifepristone case claiming that the government failed to prove likelihood of success because “law” and “facts” don’t matter. For the record, the George W. Bush appointee on the panel dissented from the majority opinion with the collegial equivalent of “are you f**king kidding me?” [Bloomberg Law News]

* Trump’s suing Michael Cohen for half a billion dollars of attorney-client privilege breaches. So… he wants a civil case over whether or not his actions in another criminal case amounted to the crime-fraud exception? Is that what this is? Because this is just galaxy brain stuff. [Reuters]

* Debt collection companies are using AI to flood the court system. [Wired]

* Manhattan DA receives another suspicious package. [Law360]

* Why are top law firms hiring more private investigators? Other than the chance to hear words like “dames” and “palookas?” [American Lawyer]

* Don’t you hate it when you get to the eve of trial and have to admit your disclosures about the client’s leadership structure have been wrong all this time? No… because that doesn’t happen in real life. Unless you’re representing Fox News. [Law360]

* Kentucky is going to auction off the gun from the Louisville shooting? Like, for real? [Washington Post]

* Breaking up is hard to do as EY learns. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Johnson & Johnson “faces skepticism” over bankruptcy shenanigans in strong contender for understatement of the year. [Reuters]

* It’s good to be from Missouri. If you’re a law firm anyway. [American Lawyer]

* “10 pics of Pedro Pascal dressed like law firms” is surprisingly true to the headline. [LegalCheek]

* This is… a curious defense, [Rolling Stone]

* Look mom, no tears… just cancer. [Reuters]

* If folks wanna short Tesla, it might be a good move. [CNN]

* AI and law. [New York Times]

* NY has a Chief Judge nominee. Maybe the governor won’t mess this one up. [Law360]

* The WSJ editors trying to explain why this Clarence Thomas story is not massively illegal is the funniest thing you’ll read today and we write jokes about the law on purpose. [Wall Street Journal]

* Is the conservative legal movement an elite social club? Sort of… in the way the Manson family was about family values. [New Republic]

* Remember when Gunderson pushed start dates and then started laying people off? They’ve started laying off those people too. [American Lawyer]

* After this Kacsmaryk decision, Reuters asks “what’s next” as if there’s a lick of legality to anything surrounding this guy. [Reuters]

* Johnson & Johnson has uncovered the litigation funders behind the talc suit because… cancer is okay if no one stands to gain from it? It’s not really clear why this matters actually, but some lawyers got paid and we’ll celebrate that. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Texas eyes pardon for convicted murderer to own the libs. [Austin American Statesman]

* NY’s top court looking into the legality of kicking the media out of a trial. This is not about Donald Trump but… this is also very much about Donald Trump. [Law360]

* Quite the headline… “The poop emoji: a legal history” [Verge]

* Supreme Court refuses call to allow West Virginia to ban transgender athletes. Biden administration jumps in to push for that ban. We’ve entered the era where the Biden administration is trying to push to the right of this Supreme Court… what a time to be alive. [Reuters]

* Speaking of the Supreme Court, Idaho moves ahead with its slap in the face of full, faith, and credit so expect to see them at the Court real soon. [Washington Post]

* The easiest way to make sure wrongfully injured people never get justice is to disincentivize lawyers from pursuing those claims. And a bipartisan effort in Congress seeks to do just that over Camp Lejeune. [National Law Journal]

* Real Housewife owes real attorneys’ fees. A lot of them. [Daily Beast]

* When Boies Schiller started shrinking and outlets preached doom and gloom, we suggested that the firm might be transitioning to a smaller but more focused firm instead of trying to be all things to all people. Well… profits per partner are up. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Microsoft penalized for selling to sanctioned parties in Russia. But viewed another way, they’ve kept those evil entities mired in buggy software, so in a sense isn’t this a patriotic service? [Law360]

* Law firms eyeing Southeast as hotbed for growth. Break out the seersucker! [American Lawyer]

* British researchers determine that defendants opting to take their oath on non-religious texts are more likely to be convicted. So I guess you’re better off lying under oath that you’re religious? That seems sub-optimal. [LegalCheek]

* Senior associate says the quiet part out loud when it comes to the Biglaw workload. [American Lawyer]

* Dominion can make Rupert Murdoch testify at trial in yet another, “just give them a billion dollars and spare yourselves” development. [Reuters]

* Fifth Circuit panel rejects GOP state government effort to overturn Biden environmental laws. They’d better not go to Vegas because they must have the worst luck in the world to land a three-judge panel of the Fifth Circuit unwilling to arbitrarily stymie the Biden administration. [Law360]

* Diploma mills fight back against student loan forgiveness making their value proposition to students… even worse? These may not be the sharpest tools in the higher education shed. [Courthouse News Service]

* Reminiscent of all the Disney coverage lately, it seems as though the anti-ESG movement is long on state lawmakers bragging and short on substantive action. [Bloomberg Law]

* Overrated: Making these business records charges stick in 2023 rests on some flimsy legal theories. Underrated: Just charge Trump with anything and let him build a criminal contempt case for you. [Reuters]

* Back in the Miller high life again: Democrats end conservative majority on the Wisconsin Supreme Court. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Judge tosses the $500M defamation claim that Alan Dershowitz brought against CNN for making fun of him for taking the public position that presidential actions aren’t impeachable if a president believes they will “help him get elected in the public interest,” which was a legal theory only slightly less stupid than thinking you can get $500M when networks point out that it doesn’t make sense. [Law360]

* Ron DeSantis mentions “woke” and “gender ideology” multiple times in his memoir, spurring a movement to get his book banned under the explicit terms of his own anti-woke law. [The Guardian]

* Law firm for Uber suffers data breach. That’s the sort of thing that only earns you 4 stars. [Dark Reading]

* Penn Law appoints a professor to serve as first female dean. Admit it, you’re going to have to click on this just to assure yourself that it’s not Amy Wax. [Law.com]

* UK’s Shoosmiths becomes the first big firm to join TikTok. Or as its new followers might understand it, think of Nicholas Cage as “the rest of Biglaw” and Pedro Pascal as Shoosmiths. [LegalCheek]

* Report says Biglaw firms are more enthusiastic about merging this year. Shearman’s wondering why y’all got to go rubbing salt on it. [Reuters]

* Goldman Sachs estimates that AI will replace 44 percent of legal tasks. Nice try, Goldman. You’re not getting a 44 percent discount on those bills. [Legaltech News]

* The court system is a little closer to keeping judges from magically transforming acquittals into prison time. [Bloomberg Law News]

* TIL they tried to impose a salary cap on esports players, but the federal government intervened. Not sure this is the urgent antitrust action we were all waiting for, but you do you. [Law360]

* Not entirely surprising, but the financial jitters slowing big deal work have prompted more mid-sized deals and consequently more work for the Am Law second 50. It’s good to dominate the wading pool when everyone’s scared of the waves. [American Lawyer]

* Apparently Gwyneth Paltrow’s lawyer is an internet sensation. [Yahoo]

* Former aide to the governor of Maryland accused of corruption died in “agent-involved shooting” which is the awkward passive phrasing of “shot by the FBI.” Further details about how it came to that aren’t out yet. [NPR]

* New York braces for Trump surrender. A lot of people are talking about how it’s going to be just the best surrender. HUGE. Very classy. [Reuters]

* Security measures in the city follow a fake bomb threat that turned out to be a Russian ploy. Because… obviously. [Law360]

* Fenwick & West: Which client is this federal law enforcement subpoena for? Feds: Funny story… [Bloomberg Law News]

* “Disney didn’t do anything secret. They publicized it, they advertised it,” [a law professor and former GOP legislator] said. “If you’re in Tallahassee, and you’re replacing the board, how do you not know what that board is doing in their public meeting? This was negligence on the part of the governor’s office and Republican legislators.” Yup. [Wall Street Journal]

* Judge Ho expands clerk hiring boycott to Stanford, ditching “free speech” rationale in favor of religious discrimination claim in bid to reclaim spotlight from Judge Duncan. Well played. [Washington Free Beacon]

* Lawyers don’t want to be state judges any more. If you can’t drag law schools into a phony Passion play in the WSJ editorial pages, what’s even the point of being a judge? [Law.com]

* Ron DeSantis announces that he won’t allow Trump to be extradited to New York. Welcome to the phase of American decline where Florida is basically Somalia. [Politico]

* Speaking of DeSantis, some more on the Disney fiasco with a nice pull quote! [LA Times]

* And now more on the Trump situation… Elie Mystal explaining that statutes of limitations are a thing. [The Nation]

* Wells Fargo to pay $98 million in sanctions for deals with Iran, Syria, and Sudan. The wrongdoing began in predecessor entity Wachovia, who apparently failed to WATCH-OVIA its compliance. I’ll show myself out. [Law360]

* Biglaw profits are down after a gangbusters 2021. Maybe firms should drop the draconian office surveillance policies and go back to working from home when they were profitable. [American Lawyer]

* Senators eye guardianship bill of rights so people will officially have to leave Britney alone — and all the other people who didn’t have her access to elite lawyering. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Italy banning ChatGPT citing privacy regulations, which seems like it’s going to be more of a thing. [Verge]

* SEC seeks $200 million in real money to deal with enforcement problems caused by fake money. [Law360]

* We noted in our coverage of the Disney-DeSantis battle that Trump was going to roast this guy for embarrassing himself in a land deal. A Trump PAC has already started. [CNN]

* Law schools growing antsy over new USNWR rankings after they yanked their data from the process. The elite schools will still be the elite schools, but even if there’s not much change, what does it mean when we all know it’s not backed by the school’s data? [Reuters Legal]

* Legislators hate TikTok more than they like actually legislating, which totally tracks. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Federal rules may craft special provisions for MDL litigation. Has it really been that much of a problem? Judges have managed to handle it for decades at this point. [Law.com]

* Meta settles class action for $725 million, which might be the most the company has lost without Zuck wearing VR goggles. [Courthouse News Service]

* Paltrow trial “riddled With ’embarrassing’ mistakes by legal teams.” Like allowing it to happen in the first place? [Newsweek]

* Idaho planning to criminalize interstate travel to procure legal services in another state. If only the Constitution said something about states fully and faithfully crediting the laws of other states. [Huffington Post]

* Most firms aren’t worried about taking a profit hit last year. Which probably should make everyone a little more leery of the firms rushing to layoffs. [American Lawyer]

* Madison Square Garden’s ludicrous policy banning all attorneys adverse to the venue — and any entity with a tangential relationship to the venue — is still illegal as to non-sports events, but the appellate court lifted the injunction, deciding that banned lawyers can only recover monetary damages. So we’re most likely going to expand the population of adverse lawyers soon. [Law360]

* Tougher rules announced for Supreme Court justices and other federal judges getting free junkets. Or, in more practical terms, “tougher rules announced for other federal judges” because the Supreme Court has shown exactly zero interest in being bound by rules. [Reuters]

* The DoNotPay kerfuffle risks undermining other access to justice initiatives. As we’ve said in the past, these systems don’t have to be as good as a lawyer when limited to roles lawyers aren’t taking. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Over 100 law professors urge New York not to mess with bail reform laws. While propaganda outlets cast the law as though it prevents criminal sentencing to whip up public fear, the law professors remind lawmakers that this isn’t how any of this works. [AMNY]