Morning Docket

  • Morning Docket: 11.29.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.29.18

    * Trump’s talking about pardoning Manafort again. The power of the president to pardon people is clear, but the power of the president to tease a pardon to tamper with a witness is an interesting legal wrinkle. In a way, the pardon power is a Yoda conundrum: “do or do not, there is no publicly Tweeting signals.” [NPR]

    * Speaking of Manafort, his attorneys claim their joint defense agreement covered his tipping off Trump on details of the Mueller investigation. Except… he pleaded guilty. That kind of ends the “joint defense” part. [The Hill]

    * Jeffrey Epstein’s massive child sex ring allegations ended in a 13-month sentence and the prosecutor who bent over backward to protect him is now in Trump’s cabinet. Oh, and somehow Cy Vance’s obsequious starf**king ass shows up in this story because of course it does. [Miami Herald]

    * It’s been a few days, so it’s time to remind everyone that the Big 4 accounting firms are about to wreak havoc on Biglaw. [American Lawyer]

    * Stacey Abrams is suing over Georgia’s voting laws, and Professor Hasen is here to explain how brilliant this suit is. [Slate]

    * Uber ordered to pay more than $1 million in fines because they failed to notice the surge pricing on data breach liability. [Corporate Counsel]

    * Attorney poised to become godparent to royal baby. [Legal Cheek]

    * The author of this piece is confused by how Republicans seem to completely misunderstand Section 230. It’s probably not confusing: they just want to kill it and lying about it is the easiest path. [The Verge]

  • Morning Docket: 11.28.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.28.18

    * Dr. Christine Blasey Ford says that she’s used some of the money in the GoFundMe account started by her supporters for security costs after her sexual assault testimony against then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, but plans to donate the rest of the funds to trauma survivors. [Fox News]

    * Of course Justice Department lawyers are going to appeal the ruling blocking the Trump administration’s new asylum restrictions and of course they want that ruling to be put on hold while the appeal is pending. Let’s keep teargassing kids while we’re at it. [CNN]

    * Paul Manafort’s lawyers sure are acting strangely in the wake of new allegations from Robert Mueller. “You would expect them to be a little more bold and say, ‘This is untrue, he has cooperated,’” but that’s not what seems to be happening. [Daily Beast]

    * “We’re very keen to do something in the U.S.” Hot off a three-way merger, U.K.-based CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang is looking for yet another merger partner, but this time, the firm’s leaders are looking across the pond. [ International]

    * Sorry if you were planning to lateral up the in-house food chain from a Biglaw firm, but according to this survey from the Association of Corporate Counsel, most GCs were born and bred in corporate law departments. [Corporate Counsel]

  • Morning Docket: 11.27.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.27.18

    * So much for that plea deal! Mueller’s office says it’s caught Manafort in multiple lies since ostensibly reaching an agreement. I’m sure we’ll soon hear how this is all a “perjury trap” too. [Huffington Post]

    * James Ray III says he shot his girlfriend in self-defense. Sure. [NJ.com]

    * Hong Kong aims to be Asia’s arbitration hub and its neighbors aren’t giving up that title easily. [International]

    * There’s apparently a DB Cooper convention. Amazing. [Courthouse News Service]

    * The Thomas Jefferson School of Law still trying to keep its head above water. [Voice of San Diego]

    *Meanwhile, the Florida legislature is looking to clear the obstacles to renaming FSU’s law school. [Florida Politics]

    * Boies Schiller attempting to chase down deadbeat real estate magnate who stiffed the firm on million-dollar fees. The media keeps calling him a “Chinese dissident” which is technically true, but obscures the whole “fabulously wealthy” part. [Law360]

  • Morning Docket: 11.26.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.26.18

    * In an effort to bypass the decisions — and injunctions — of lower appellate courts, the Trump administration has taken the “highly unusual step” of asking the Supreme Court to issue a ruling on its transgender military ban. [USA Today]

    * In other news, the Trump administration has reportedly struck a deal with Mexico that will completely overhaul our asylum system so that seekers will have to Remain in Mexico (the plan’s eloquent name) while their cases move through our courts. [Washington Post]

    * Sorry, but you’re not “immune” to this one: A New York judge has asserted jurisdiction over Donald Trump in a lawsuit brought by AG Barbara Underwood against the Trump Foundation, the president, and three of his children. [NPR]

    * “We shouldn’t be in this position where the future of certain policies turn on whether this old woman is healthy or not.” The Supreme Court’s future is resting on Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s health, and people are starting to get nervous. [The Hill]

    * “Let’s have a hearing and invite everyone to see.” Former FBI director James Comey says he’ll fight a subpoena to testify privately before the House Judiciary Committee if for no other reason than because he wants the world to know what happened. [CNN]

    * In case you missed it amid this year’s bonus frenzy, senior associates at top-tier Biglaw firms taking in $465K are now making more in total compensation than partners from at least a dozen Am Law 200 firms. Ouch. [American Lawyer]

  • Morning Docket: 11.21.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.21.18

    * President Trump pardoned two turkeys yesterday with a stern warning that “House Democrats are likely to issue them both subpoenas,” and that he couldn’t “guarantee that [their] pardons won’t be enjoined by the Ninth Circuit” since it “[a]lways happens.” [NBC News]

    * In case you missed it, and we’re pretty sure that’s exactly what was intended here given the timing, President Trump submitted written answers to special counsel Robert Mueller’s questions regarding Russian interference with the 2016 election. [Washington Post]

    * That’s our Trumpy! He also wanted to order the Justice Department to prosecute his 2016 opponent Hillary Clinton and former FBI director James Comey, and reportedly only backed down when he heard he could be impeached. [New York Times]

    * Biglaw partners are leaving their firms to become judges, and it’s because ex-White House counsel Don McGahn picked people just like him — “traditional, conservative, blue-ribbon, white-shoe law firm lawyers” — to fill vacancies. [American Lawyer]

    * Retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, a staunch defender of LGBT rights who helped keep a woman’s right to choose legal, will receive a Lifetime Achievement Award from the American Lawyer next month. Congratulations, Your Honor! [American Lawyer]

    * Seattle University School of Law has suspended its externship program with ICE after students signed a petition stating that the agency goes against the school’s mission to “empower[] leaders for a just and humane world.” [Seattle Times]

  • Morning Docket: 11.20.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.20.18

    * ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights score win with court order proclaiming the obvious: No, you can’t blanket deny asylum seekers. [Associated Press via Huffington Post]

    * Cyrus Vance accuses someone of seeking publicity over justice. [Variety]

    * Are you suggesting that law firms and clients don’t listen to each other? [American Lawyer]

    * The Trump administration wanted to share census answers with the cops… which is why they were so hot to get those illegal citizenship questions on there. It’s like 3D checkers of bumbling xenophobia over here. [Washington Post]

    * The SEC’s whistleblower program handed out more awards this year than ever before! Unsurprisingly, the article makes no mention of Justice following up on any of these financial crimes. [Law360]

    * Third Circuit taking a stab at New Jersey’s ban on high-capacity magazines — just as the Framers’ envisioned. [New Jersey Law Journal]

    * What are law schools training students for? Debt management, maybe?[Forbes]

  • Morning Docket: 11.19.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.19.18

    * “You were very busy. Wow. Wow. I always knew I liked him.” President Trump posthumously awarded the Medal of Freedom to the Justice Antonin Scalia on Friday and managed to crack a joke about the late justice’s sex life when referring to his wife and their nine children. Wow. [USA Today]

    * Speaking about birth control… President Trump has proposed a new way for employers to get around the Affordable Care Act’s birth control mandate by creating a Title X loophole that would “hijack” programs that already have limited funding and send women to low-income family planning clinics to get their contraceptives. [New York Times]

    * Will Biglaw be the next thing that millennials kill? Not only has Weil Gotshal shortened its partner track in order to keep its youthful talent from walking out the door, but the firm that once made a big joke out of work/life balance is now allowing associates to work from home once a week. [American Lawyer]

    * The California bar exam results are out, and they’re not anything to write home about — except if you enjoy schadenfreude, that is. Nearly six in 10 failed the test, and the overall pass rate is historically horrible. More on this later. [The Recorder]

    * After having already been rejected by the ABA’s House of Delegates, the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has sent its proposed 75 percent bar-passage rate within two years of graduation accreditation standard right back for another vote. Will it be approved this time around? We shall see. [ABA Journal]

    * Joel Sanders, the ex-CFO of failed firm Dewey & LeBoeuf, was jailed on Thursday for failing to pay a $1 million fine associated with his fraud conviction, but he was out by the wee hours of the morning on Friday thanks to his new firm, Greenspoon Marder, which paid the entire sum on his behalf. [American Lawyer]

  • Morning Docket: 11.16.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.16.18

    * After delaying the decision, Judge Tim Kelly will be releasing his ruling in CNN’s First Amendment case at 10 a.m. Is it lawful to revoke a reporter’s press pass after an argument with the president? We’ll soon find out. [USA Today]

    * “[W]e’re not going to leave any judges behind over these next two months.” According to Senator Tom Cotton, the Senate is apparently planning to work through Christmas and New Year’s Eve to confirm all of President Trump’s judicial nominees in an effort to head off any obstruction by the Democrats. [Washington Times]

    * “I’m not trying to be rude. I can see your résumé. You’re a rock star.” Despite her strong résumé, Allison Jones Rushing, the 36-year-old Fourth Circuit nominee, was repeatedly questioned by the Judiciary Committee about her “life experience” — or lack thereof, since she graduated from law school 11 years ago. [National Law Journal]

    * What is David Boies planning for his next act? Is retirement on the table? He and the other name partners at Boies Schiller Flexner have apparently “been planning succession for 15 years.” He said if he retired today, “the firm would be in good shape,” but he thinks he “still [has] some things to contribute.” [New York Law Journal]

    * Stormy Daniels says that while the “serious and obviously very troubling” domestic violence allegations against her lawyer Michael Avenatti are “only allegations” and that she’ll “reserve judgement” [sic] until the investigation ends, she’ll be “seeking new representation” if it turns out that the allegations are true. [New York Magazine]

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  • Morning Docket: 11.15.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.15.18

    * Michael Avenatti arrested on domestic violence charges. There’s not a lot of detail yet — initial reports indicated his ex-wife made the call, but when reporters talked to her, she debunked that. [Vox]

    * We should be seeing a CNN case ruling today. Does anyone else feel like Don McGahn’s absence looms over all of this? Like, he’d have put a stop to this nonsense out of the gate, wouldn’t he? [National Law Journal]

    * This was, literally, a sitcom. [The Recorder]

    * Law firms aren’t up to snuff when it comes to cybersecurity. [Law360]

    * Jeff Flake says he’ll block all judicial nominees until he gets some guarantees about the sanctity of the Mueller probe. We’re all looking forward to watching him cave on this like he has everything else. [Courthouse News Service]

    * You can’t copyright a cheese. In case you were wondering. [Washington Post]

  • Morning Docket: 11.14.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.14.18

    * Insiders say that President Donald Trump is expected to turn over his written responses to special counsel Robert Mueller’s questions about Russia’s interference with the 2016 election as soon as sometime this week. Ooooh boy, this should be fun. [Reuters]

    * According to retired Justice Anthony Kennedy, the world’s culture is “becoming vulgar,” and it’s up to the United States to “show a culture, a discourse, a civil dialogue that’s enviable and admirable.” Yeah… good luck with that. [Washington Times]

    * White House regulatory czar Neomi Rao has been nominated to fill Justice Brett Kavanaugh’s seat on the D.C. Circuit. In case you somehow missed it, Rao had a hand in the renaning of George Mason Law to ASS Law. Congrats! [National Law Journal]

    * Remember Joel Sanders, the ex-CFO of Dewey & LeBoeuf? He says his “dire financial circumstances” prevent him from paying a $1M fine, but the Manhattan DA says he’s trying to commit “a fraud on [the] court.” [New York Law Journal]

    * It’s not just Berkeley Law that’s trying to erase its association with a racist namesake. It’s just now being reported that Mercer Law School quietly removed segregationist and Southern Manifesto signatory Walter F. George’s name this summer. [13WMAZ]

    * Stephen Scharf, film finance pioneer and co-chair of the Entertainment, Sports & Media Practice at O’Melveny & Myers, lost his battle with cancer. RIP. [THR, Esq.]

  • Morning Docket: 11.13.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.13.18

    * Matt Whitaker releasing opinion supporting Matt Whitaker. Well, that’s settled then. [Wall Street Journal]

    * Tesla loses securities lawyer. They’d best take Elon’s Twitter machine away from him until further notice. [LA Times]

    * I dunno, this still seems cheaper than an actual ticket. [Law360]

    * Man with pet alligator calls Jungle Law to get his monster back. Are you unfamiliar with Jungle Law? Enjoy! [WDAF]

    * Jones Day has hired 11 SCOTUS clerks which is supposed to be surprising except when the Court gets more Trumpist and every law firm but Jones Day gets less Trumpist, this is what one should expect. [National Law Journal]

    * While Republicans continue to allege without evidence that Broward County broke election laws, it turns out a Republican stronghold allowed hundreds of illegal votes and no one seems to be too concerned about it. [Politico]

  • Morning Docket: 11.09.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.09.18

    * Matt Whitaker thinks Marbury v. Madison should be overturned. We truly live in the dumbest timeline. [National Law Journal]

    * Heightened security as Kavanaugh formally joins the Court. That’s a good idea, he seems like a dangerous man. [NPR]

    * Amazon really excited about its new role as a leader in wrongly convicting people. [The Verge]

    * Baker Donelson is just a big Skinner Box for tech adoption now. More firms should follow suit. [American Lawyer]

    * Google is ending its practice of forcing sexual harassment claims into arbitration in another advancement spurred by the #MeToo movement. [Law360]

    * Bryan Cave unveils new tech service to help clients evaluate the value of pursuing litigation. [Corporate Counsel]

    * The Justice Department put out a new rule limiting asylum claims in violation of international law because that’s how this country rolls now. [Reuters]

    * Voter suppression tactics don’t work as well after the votes are cast. [The Hill]

  • Morning Docket: 11.08.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.08.18

    * Is Matt Whitaker’s appointment as Acting Attorney General even legal? Well, Justice Thomas certainly doesn’t think so. [Twitter]

    * Associate signing bonuses are on the decline according to a new report. On the other hand, we’ve heard about more firms offering payouts to make associates whole on bonuses when jumping firms, and I’m not sure this decline captures that. If not, this decline might be a distinction without difference. [American Lawyer]

    * Rudy Giuliani claiming he’s got “financial troubles” while spending over $12K on cigars. Maybe he should ask for an advance from his client who claims to be a billionaire but is pretty obviously not even close to being a billionaire. [NBC]

    * Ron Wyden proposes criminal penalties for corporate data breaches. [Corporate Counsel]

    * Attorney wanted for murder has been apprehended in Cuba. [Law360]

    * As much as we tout advances in legal technology, it’s the changes to the legal business model that may usher in the biggest transformation. [Forbes]

    * More insights from the In-House Benchmarking Report. Work is still moving in-house and technology has a lot to do with this shift. [Legaltech News]

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  • Morning Docket: 11.07.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.07.18

    * Republicans’ control over the Senate grew after the midterm elections, but Democrats managed to take the House. Here are six interesting reasons why that means President Donald Trump could be in “huge legal trouble” now. [Law & Crime]

    * Florida voters approved an amendment to their state constitution to restore felons’ voting rights, which will now be automatically restored after prison time is completed and restitution paid. That’s at least 1.4 million more voters! [Orlando Sentinel]

    * Remember Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed after she refused to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples? Last night, she lost her reelection campaign to Elwood Caudill Jr., a Democratic challenger. [Lexington Herald Leader]

    * In case you missed it, President Donald Trump chose former White House counsel and current O’Melveny of counsel A.B. Culvahouse to go Down Under to put another shrimp on the barbie serve as U.S. ambassador to Australia. [National Law Journal]

    * A California appellate court has paved the way for former Winston & Strawn partner Constance Ramos to get out of an “unconscionable” arbitration agreement with the firm. This may be the first Biglaw gender bias case to make it to trial. [The Recorder]

    * Sorry, but you can’t deduct the cost of your law degree on your taxes because it qualified you for a new trade or business. The U.S. Tax Court says that even with a shiny new J.D. in your possession, you’ve only enhanced your current skills. [Law360]

    * Grab ’em by the public interest: Per a new Gallup survey, pre-law students don’t care about Biglaw money; no, they say the top reason to go to law school is to “pursue a career in politics, government, or other public service.” [Idaho Business Review]

    * A group of crypto investors has filed suit against rapper T.I., alleging that they could not have whatever they like because he tricked them into backing FLiK Token. The Rubberband Man’s lawyer says, “Tip is truly disheartened by the lawsuit.” [Complex]

  • Morning Docket: 11.06.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.06.18

    * Apparently there’s some kind of election today? In any event, law firms are taking on a huge role as volunteers. [American Lawyer]

    * Flush with nearly $250 million in fundraising, Northwestern Law says it’s facing a “difficult time.” Time to cut back on those platinum casebooks. [Law.com]

    * Pressure mounts in the UK to make all law firms — not just those bigger than 250 employees — publish gender pay gap data. Meanwhile, US law firms are still so iffy on whether or not to allow associates to give birth that parental leave is a huge deal. [LegalCheek]

    * Weinstein defense team wants all charges dropped alleging faulty indictment process. It feels like this is an argument half of Riker’s could benefit from but won’t. [CNN]

    * Calm before the storm? Supreme Court refuses to disturb ruling that the Second Amendment doesn’t protect randos carrying concealed weapons. I feel a lot of these punts are designed to let the Kavanaugh fervor die down for a year before they revisit women’s suffrage. [The Hill]

    * Another day, another insider trading conviction overturned. [Law360]

    * They’re all good lawyers, Brent. [Corporate Counsel]

  • Morning Docket: 11.05.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.05.18

    * On Friday, Judge Eleanor L. Ross (N.D. Ga.) decided that Georgia’s “exact match” voting law was too restrictive, issuing a preliminary injunction against the law just days before the midterm election and ruling that the state must allow those who were flagged by the law — “individuals who are predominantly minorities” — to prove their citizenship and identity more easily. Strike one against Republican gubernatorial candidate and Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp. [Washington Post]

    * Unwilling to accept his potential fate in the election after having been dealt a blow by Judge Ross, Kemp announced on Saturday that he was investigating the Georgia Democratic Party for allegedly trying to hack the state’s voter registration system. Of course, he had little to no evidence to prove these allegations. [New York Times]

    * Speaking of the midterm election, you NEED TO VOTE tomorrow. No idea where your polling place is? Not an excuse. Find out right here. Click the link. [HeadCount]

    * “[O]ut of an abundance of caution due to security concerns,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh will skip the walking down the Supreme Court’s front steps with the chief justice following his formal investiture ceremony. Every other new justice has done so since 1975 when John Paul Stevens started the tradition. [Big Law Business]

    * James Polsinelli, name partner and founder of Am Law 100 firm Polsinelli, will be retiring from the firm on January 31, 2019. What will he do after he steps away from Biglaw? “I’ve got a golf game I’ve neglected for a long time, so I’ll see how much of it I can resurrect,” he said. Congratulations on wonderful career! [American Lawyer]

    * “I get to be a part of history”: Denia Perez, a DACA recipient, is the first Dreamer to be admitted to the Connecticut bar. The Quinnipiac Law graduate worked hard to change bar rules so that people like her with U.S. work authorization would be able to practice law in the state. She plans to practice immigration law. [NECN]

  • Morning Docket: 11.02.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.02.18

    * Justice Brett Kavanaugh isn’t the only one who’s relying upon calendars as a defense to sexual misconduct allegations. President Donald Trump says he’ll turn over portions of his calendars and journal entries to combat allegations that he forcibly kissed Summer Zervos, a former Apprentice contestant. [USA Today]

    * Do you support term limits or a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices? If yes, then a majority of Americans agree with you. Fix the Court polled 1,000 people, and 78 percent of them said they’d like to restrict the length of service for SCOTUS justices. [The Hill]

    * Per a new survey conducted by Diversity Lab and ChIPs called the Inclusion Blueprint, the Biglaw firms with the best policies to build gender equity are Brooks Kushman and Sheppard Mullin. We may have more on this later. [Big Law Business]

    * Shocking absolutely no one, now that Cooley Law is magically in “compliance” with the American Bar Association’s accreditation standards, the school has dropped its lawsuit against the ABA. This is terribly convenient, isn’t it? [ABA Journal]

    * Ieshia Champs, the 33-year-old single mother of five children whose inspirational graduation photos went viral this past spring, recently found out that she passed the Texas bar exam. Congratulations! All of your hard work paid off! [Fox 10 KSAZ]

  • Morning Docket: 11.01.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.01.18

    * Supreme Court looks to further cripple class actions by killing off cases that chasten corporate misconduct but can’t feasibly reimburse every individual victim. So, if you’re planning to injure a bunch of people, make sure to do it in a small and difficult to track manner! [National Law Journal]

    * Brexit comes to Biglaw as Kirkland moves its European hub to Paris. [International]

    * Biglaw associate suing USA Gymnastics for all the reasons USA Gymnastics is getting sued these days. [American Lawyer]

    * Tribes are suing North Dakota over its naked effort to disenfranchise Native Americans. [National Law Journal]

    * Shocking absolutely no one, the EEOC finds that the #MeToo movement has not resulted in a surge in false allegations. [Law.com]

    * This lawsuit against Spirit Airlines uses a lot of fast food analogies but misses the most apt: flying Spirit Airlines is like willfully going to the dirtiest Sbarro you can find and being shocked. [Law360]

    * The legal battle over Selendy & Gay’s billings following the departure from Quinn Emanuel pits contractual obligations against legal ethics. [New York Law Journal]

  • Morning Docket: 10.31.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 10.31.18

    * Senator Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) says he plans to introduce legislation to end our “absurd policy of birthright citizenship.” Good luck with that, Senator, because if you want to amend the Constitution, you’ll need a two-thirds majority in Congress and ratification of three-quarters of the states. [The Hill]

    * Women are allegedly being paid to make false sexual assault and harassment claims against Special Counsel Robert Mueller, and now the FBI is investigating the situation. The going rate for these made-up stories is apparently $20,000. [The Atlantic]

    * After having its plan to gift a troubled law school to Middle Tennessee State University be flat-out rejected, Valparaiso Law has decided to call it quits. We’ll have more on this totally unpredictable development later today. [ABA Journal]

    * If you’re in law school and your girlfriend breaks up with you, you should probably stop calling her — unless, of course, you don’t mind a harassment conviction and spending a year in jail. Now this fellow is trying to overcome his character and fitness obstacles to become a member of the bar. [Milwaukee Journal Sentinel]

    * In case you missed it, the Library Innovation Lab at Harvard Law School just unleashed about 6.5 million digitized court decisions online, for free, as part of the Caselaw Access Project. No, that’s not a typo — everything is free. [Fortune]

    * How did graduates of the Charleston School of Law do on the South Carolina bar exam this past summer? Not too well. For the second year in a row, more than half of them failed the test. On the “bright side,” 59 percent of first-time takers from the school passed, up 11 percentage points from last year. [Post and Courier]

  • Morning Docket: 10.29.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 10.29.18

    * Robert Bowers, the suspect in the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting that left 11 dead and six wounded, has been charged with 29 federal criminal counts including hate crimes and using a firearm to commit murder and 36 state criminal counts including homicide and ethnic intimidation. Our thoughts are with the family and friends of those who lost their lives this weekend. [New York Times]

    * According to the criminal complaint filed against Cesar Sayoc, the pipe bomb he allegedly tried to mail to former U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder was addressed to his office at a “certain law firm” — a certain law firm that’s better known as Covington & Burling. Good thing the package never made it there. [National Law Journal]

    * When asked to reflect on the misconduct allegations against Yale Law School Professor Jed Rubenfeld, alumni from the school are not the least bit shocked. “It was not a surprise to basically any woman in my class that this investigation is going on,” said one 2015 graduate. Will the school take appropriate action? [Yale Daily News]

    * Partners from Allen & Overy and O’Melveny & Myers are cozying up to each other as merger talks between the two firms continue, but there may be trouble in paradise. “There is some opposition in London,” said a former A&O partner, “but it’s fairly disorganised—there’s a lot of moaning but nobody leading a charge.” [International]

    * In case you missed it, after the involuntary revocation of its accreditation, Arizona Summit Law School will eventually close its doors. But first, the school must finalize a teach-out plan for its remaining students, and when it’s all over, “that would be the life of the school.” What a sad little life. Farewell to AZ Summit Law. [Arizona Republic]

    * You might not have known it, but the Michigan State University College of Law has been operating as a private school for all these years. Soon, the school will be fully integrated into the university, and you know what that means: in-state tuition costs will be coming to the MSU Law. Congratulations! [Lansing State Journal]

    * RBG is my Patronus, and a course on Harry Potter and the Law is coming to a law school near you — if you live in India, that is. The National University of Juridical Sciences will be teaching the class, and muggles students are “expected [to] have already read all the books at least twice, if not more.” [The Guardian]