Morning Docket

* According to Rudy Giuliani, if special counsel Robert Mueller issues a subpoena, Donald Trump “[doesn’t] have to” comply with it. After all, “[h]e’s the president of the United States. [He] can assert the same privileges other presidents have.” And he has no plans to allow Trump to sit for an interview with Mueller — Giuliani won’t allow him to “walk him into a prosecution for perjury.” Admitting during a TV interview that your client is a liar? Check. [Washington Post]

* And that’s not all, folks! According to Rudy Giuliani, although he has “no knowledge” of it having happened, Michael Cohen may have paid hush money to other women — similar to money that was paid to Stormy Daniels — to get them to stay silent about their alleged affairs with Donald Trump “if it was necessary.” [CNN]

* So, about Morrison & Foerster’s $100 million “mommy track” lawsuit: The firm’s managing partner, Larren Nashelsky, has commented on the allegations, stating that MoFo is “somewhere between disappointed and angry” because “[i]t’s just not who we are, it’s not what we value and it’s, in fact, not how we operate.” [American Lawyer]

* Of course a Biglaw partner owns the horse that won the Kentucky Derby. Congrats to both Justify and C. Edward Glasscock, chairman emeritus of Frost Brown Todd, on their big win during the first leg of this year’s Triple Crown. [American Lawyer]

* Sylvia Bloom, a legal secretary who retired from Cleary Gottlieb after working at the firm for 67 years, amassed a $9+ million fortune by purchasing the same stocks as her boss. In her will, she directed that the majority be donated for college scholarships. Be sure to thank your maybe-millionaire secretary today, everyone. [New York Times]

* Mueller requests 70 blank subpoenas! Which… actually doesn’t seem like an inordinate amount in a case like Manafort’s, but let’s overreact anyway. [Courthouse News Service]

* Ty Cobb absolutely demolishes Steve Bannon. [Vanity Fair]

* Trump Place successfully won the right to drop Trump’s name from the building. According to the Constitution, the building will now be called “Pence Place.” [New York Times]

* Wild lawsuit against the former president of Ohio Christian University, who allegedly pulled a Trump and fired the people investigating wrongdoing. That move seems to be coming back to haunt him. [Inside Higher Ed]

* Young lawyers call for office overhaul. Ostensibly this is to make offices better suited to modern work styles, but it’s mostly because law offices are generally all terrible and we’re reaching for any excuse that might actually convince someone to renovate. [Law.com]

* Firm plans IPO to raise $58 million. [International]

* A copy of an intangible thing can be tangible rules NY Court of Appeals after, apparently, binging on edibles [Law 360]

* “What did Rudy say? Oh. OK, so, you see, the thing is, Cohen was paid back, but through his monthly retainer so I didn’t know he was paying hush money to porn stars that I definitely didn’t sleep with because that might trigger an out in my prenup… are we done here?” [Twitter]

* A look at Biglaw firms still owed big bucks by bankrupt clients. [American Lawyer]

* Yale Law is so far ahead of the curve, they’ve got 1Ls suing Jeff Sessions. [Connecticut Law Tribune]

* A webcam is drawing attention to the osprey nest on the roof of Oregon’s Law School. Anything to keep attention off the blackface-wearing professor they still employ… [Around the O]

* In case you were looking for another reason to feel revulsion over the Washington NFL team, the cheerleaders allege the team asked them to be literal escorts for wealthy sponsors on a trip to Costa Rica… that they didn’t get paid for. [CNN]

* Which law firms boast the best legal tech game? [Legaltech News]

* The Second Circuit is bringing back the lawsuit over abuse of the no-fly list. The government allegedly dumped people on the no-fly list if they refused to be informants. [Law360]

* “This isn’t some game. You are screwing with the work of the president of the United States.” This is what John Dowd reportedly said in response to special counsel Robert Mueller when the possibility of issuing a subpoena for President Trump to appear before a grand jury was raised during a meeting with the president’s legal team. [Washington Post]

* Unnamed Republican lawmakers have drafted articles of impeachment against Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein, and he seems pretty pissed. Not only did he refuse to comment on documents that “nobody has the courage to put their name on,” but he countered that “the Department of Justice is not going to be extorted.” [USA Today]

* Per ex-White House aides, Ivanka Trump is “involved in everything,” so why hasn’t she been called in for questioning by Robert Mueller yet? Not only would the president “go nuclear,” but Mueller knows that “trying to interview Ivanka Trump would be like lighting a match to the highly combustible Donald Trump.” [Politico]

* For what it’s worth, Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein isn’t a fan of the fact that the Senate has been taking its sweet time to confirm his would-be colleagues at the Justice Department. The Criminal, Civil, Civil Rights, and Environment and Natural Resources Divisions have leaders in vote-pending purgatory. [National Law Journal]

* Before he had clients like Donald Trump and Sean Hannity, Michael Cohen was a personal injury attorney, and some of his clients allegedly staged their car “accidents” in an effort to commit insurance fraud. Some of Cohen’s clients are alleged to have not even been in the vehicle that was in the “accident” being litigated. [Rolling Stone]

* The New York Times has a list of the questions Mueller would like to ask Trump. Why are we hearing about it? Methinks the “he’s exceeding his mandate” noise is about to ramp up. Either that or the New York Times scored a coup with their RudyGiuliani_69@aol.com account. [NY Times]

* California Supreme Court opts for employee classification standard that critics claim could ruin the gig economy. That… sounds like a good thing. Happy May Day! [Law.com]

* Cleary is getting slapped with a harassment suit arising from conduct between two Williams Lea employees. What does Cleary have to do with this? Well, the employees work at Cleary, use Cleary equipment, and are directly controlled by Cleary. It’s the common law “walks like a duck” doctrine. [Law360]

* Bush ethics lawyer Richard Painter is running for Senate in Minnesota as a Democrat because we’ve reached the point where even the W era is renouncing the GOP. [CNN]

* The lawyer social event of the season is upon us, and it’s called the Sprint/T-Mobile merger. At least a dozen firms are getting in on this fray. [American Lawyer]

* Justice Sotomayor will get “reverse shoulder replacement surgery” which… sounds like the wrong direction. [National Law Journal]

* DACA fight looks like it’s heading for the Second Circuit. [Courthouse News Service]

* DA candidate in Maine suspended from practicing law over sexual assault allegations brought by a former client who was living in the candidate’s house. [Sun Journal]

* “Please Stay, Justice Kennedy. America Needs You.” The editorial board of the paper of record has penned a moving letter to Justice Anthony Kennedy, pleading with him not to retire from the Supreme Court during a moment in history when the high court — and the country at large — faces “an institutional crisis.” [New York Times]

* Par for the course? In order to be hired for her job, Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s top spokeswoman apparently had to swear fealty to President Donald Trump because she had criticized him during the 2016 Republican primaries. [Washington Post]

* House Republicans want to impeach Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, a punishment that was last used against an executive branch employee 122 years ago. FYI, “[i]t’s not meant to use to go after officials who don’t share your policy views or your political goals,” so it’s not likely to happen, but good luck with that. [USA Today]

* T-Mobile has agreed to buy Sprint (again), and this time, they think that the Trump administration will allow the deal to go through because they want Make America’s 5G Great Again. To paraphrase what Sprint spokesman Paul would say, all law firms are great, but we wonder which ones are on this deal. [Wall Street Journal]

* The first lawsuit has been filed against Southwest Airlines by a survivor of the deadly flight where a passenger was partially sucked out of the window following an engine explosion. The suit was filed by Lilia Chavez, who “prayed and feared for her life” after she “witnessed the horror” of the disaster, and now claims she has PTSD. [ABC News]

* Judge Robert F. Chapman, senior judge of the Fourth Circuit, RIP. [Fourth Circuit]

* Barbara Jones, a former federal judge who now serves as a partner at Bracewell (a firm where Rudy Giuliani was once a name partner), has been appointed as a special master in Michael Cohen’s case to decide which materials that were seized from his office are protected by attorney-client privilege and which materials can be reviewed by prosecutors. [New York Post]

* This just got really interesting: The anonymous Proskauer partner who is suing the firm in a $50 million gender bias case has come forward and revealed her name. Jane Doe is better known as Connie Bertram, head of the firm’s labor and employment practice in D.C. and co-head of the firm’s whistleblowing and retaliation group. [American Lawyer]

* Veteran Supreme Court advocate Lisa Blatt of Arnold & Porter received a rare honor at the high court earlier this week during oral arguments in Trump v. Hawaii when Justice Stephen Breyer mentioned her as the author of an amicus brief. This almost never happens. Congratulations on a job well done! [National Law Journal]

* The Stanford Law Class of 1998 has the special sauce for producing female deans at top law schools. Kimberly Yuracko of Northwestern, Kerry Abrams of Duke, and Gillian Lester of Columbia all graduated in the same year. [The Recorder]

* Cooley Law School is back in compliance with ABA accreditation standards. Apparently the school is now admitting candidates who appear capable of finishing law school and gaining admission to a state bar (even though recent bar exam pass-rate statistics seem to strongly disagree with that assessment). [ABA Journal]

* Rudy Giuliani is reportedly in talks with Robert Mueller over a Trump interview again. Because whenever you have a loose cannon for a client it’s important to get them talking to federal investigators as soon as possible. [CBS News]

* A quick primer on today’s Michael Cohen hearing. [Courthouse News Service]

* Looks like Geoffrey Berman gets to stay on the job at the SDNY. A little-known quirk of the system is that an interim U.S. Attorney, like Berman, can only stay in that role for 120 days and if the White House fails to confirm someone to the role by then, the district court gets to choose who will act as the U.S. Attorney. Judge McMahon says they’ll choose Berman. It’s an anticlimactic conclusion for those of us hoping the judges would put Preet back on the job. [Law360]

* Charlotte Law may be gone, but it has managed to live on as a whistleblower suit, though that may be coming to an end soon and Staci Zaretsky and Kathryn Rubino are partially to blame according to the judge’s opinion. [Daily Business Review]

* The Cosby jury asked the judge to explain the legal definition of consent. How was that not a jury instruction? [Vulture]

* Sally Yates, who lost her job over Trump’s original Muslim ban, offers her take on the latest version. [PBS Newshour]

* That story making the rounds about the golf course that called the cops on black golfers for golfing too slow? Well, one of those golfers is a lawyer. [Legal Intelligencer]

* The Supreme Court will hear oral arguments today on the Trump travel ban case. What’s at stake here, aside from the high court potentially allowing the travel ban to become permanent? The legacy of the Roberts Court also hangs in the balance. A decision upholding the ban could very well be the next Dred Scott, Plessy, or Korematsu, and forever marring this Court’s record. [Take Care]

* Is AG Jeff Sessions recusing himself from the investigation into Michael Cohen, or isn’t he? According to the DOJ, Sessions isn’t involved in any investigations “related in any way to the campaigns for president,” but according to news sources, he hasn’t decided to recuse himself from the Cohen probe quite yet. [Politico; Bloomberg]

* Judge John Bates of the District of Columbia has ruled that the Trump administration’s decision to end the DACA program was “arbitrary and capricious” and “virtually unexplained,” and therefore “unlawful.” Judge Bates ordered that the government must not only continue DACA, but accept new applicants. He stayed his ruling for 90 days to give DHS a chance to explain itself. [Washington Post]

* Kyle Duncan, President Trump’s fifteenth federal appeals court nominee who’s known for litigating disputes involving voter ID requirements, same-sex marriage bans, transgender bathroom access, and the Affordable Care Act’s contraceptive mandate, was very narrowly confirmed to the Fifth Circuit. [Big Law Business]

* According to the Harvard Law Women’s Law Association, there’s a glass ceiling at the school. The faculty is “overwhelmingly male,” and the administration is “turning a blind eye” to the success of women once they’re enrolled. Something has to change so women can achieve as much success as their male classmates. [Harvard Law Record]

* The long, drawn out saga of the “Monkey Selfie” case has crossed another milestone with the Ninth Circuit ruling that the monkey can’t sue for copyright violations. Reached for comment, the monkey’s attorney expressed disappointment in the decision and hurled feces. [Courthouse News Service]

* Jones Day loses more partners to the lateral market. We assume they saw the Above the Law Law Firm Rankings and decided they had to get out. [American Lawyer]

* Colorado passes “secret prisons” reform bill… in secret. Hurray irony! [9News]

* Kimberly Yuracko named the new dean of Northwestern Law. [Northwestern University NewsCenter]

* Good news for DLA Piper: the Second Circuit upholds their malpractice victory. [Law360]

* K&L Gates adds firepower in Asia. That should serve them well until Trump hears a scary Pokemon Go story on Fox and cuts off all trade to Japan. [International]

* Checking in on the finale of the Global Legal Hackathon. So if you got a suspicious request for money from your practice management software the other day, it was probably hacked. [Legaltech News]

* Because there is never a moment without drama in this administration, AG Jeff Sessions has told White House counsel Don McGahn that he’s probably going to have to quit if President Trump fires Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein. [Washington Post]

* Meanwhile, White House Director of Legislative Affairs Marc Short says the president “has no intention of firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein and special counsel Robert Mueller.” Hmm… we’ll just wait right here until those firings don’t happen. *insert Jeopardy music here* [CBS News]

* “[T]here is no human being, on the planet, with more knowledge about federal criminal law than Michael Dreeben, and no one with more expertise than him.” Meet Michael Dreeben, special counsel Robert Mueller’s Supreme Court closer. He’s argued more than 100 SCOTUS cases, and is a force to be reckoned with. [ABC News]

* Hiring for the law school class of 2017 is “up,” with 75.3 percent of graduates employed in full-time, long-term jobs that require law degrees or are considered “JD advantage” positions — but you probably shouldn’t get too excited about that. The only reason the percentage of those employed is higher this year is because the class was 6 percent smaller. In reality, entry-level hiring has decreased. [ABA Journal]

* Which Biglaw firm did Wells Fargo turn to ahead of being hit with record fines that turned into a $1B settlement with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau and Office of the Comptroller of the Currency? That would be Sullivan & Cromwell, which “always [tries] to play absolutely straight with the regulators.” [American Lawyer]

* Riley Safer, a spinoff of Schiff Hardin, just elected its first managing partner, and she may be the first black woman to lead a national law firm. Congratulations to Patricia Brown Holmes as she leads the legal profession in the future. [American Lawyer]

* Welcome Rudy Giuliani to the Trump legal team. Reminder that the last time he offered Trump legal advice he inadvertently built the strongest case against the travel ban, so this should go well. [CNN]

* Overshadowed by the Rudy announcement, Trump also hired married Miami duo Marty and Jane Serene Raskin. They’re actually competent criminal defense attorneys, so I don’t expect them to last long. [McClatchy]

* Alexander Hamilton earns honorary degree from Albany Law School. Upon learning he’ll have the same degree as Megyn Kelly, Hamilton decided Aaron Burr might have done him a favor. [Law.com]

* Officials have moved the “Fearless Girl” statue citing “safety” though the fear of a completely frivolous lawsuit from the sculptor of “Charging Bull” may be the real culprit. So a woman took a bold stand and will therefore be shuffled off to another office out of the way… that may be the most iconic depiction of Wall Street yet. [Dealbreaker]

* In the wake of the horrific Larry Nassar cover up, Michigan State’s GC Robert Noto nabbed $436000 in severance pay. Because accountability is important. [Corporate Counsel]

* James Comey keeps receipts. [Huffington Post]

* If you’re looking for your daily dose of wackiness, here’s a $100M lawsuit from Jason Lee Van Dyke against the man trying to get him disbarred. [Daily Beast]

* Chuck Schumer’s going to introduce a bill to decriminalize marijuana. Because it’s 4/20. Chuck Schumer is making 4/20 jokes now. [NPR]

* The proposed cap on federal student loans for graduate students will make life a lot rougher for law students who will have to resort to the more expensive private market for tuition bucks. On the other hand, it could devastate the bottom-tier schools who rely on the government gravy train to bilk students into buying a degree they can’t use. So it’s not all bad news. [Law.com]

* When it comes to appointing a Special Master, the government and Michael Cohen have wildly different preferences. The government would like a retired Magistrate, someone well-versed in making tough calls in discovery disputes. Cohen’s camp would prefer a former prosecutor, which you should read as “someone who currently represents criminals and has a vested interest in defining privilege broadly.” Trump’s lawyers haven’t submitted a list of preferred candidates but we can go ahead and pencil in Jeanine Pirro, Andrew Napolitano, and Judge Judy. [New York Law Journal]

* While we’re talking about Cohen, he just dropped his libel suits against Buzzfeed and Fusion GPS over the Steele dossier. So there’s definitely a pee tape. [Politico]

* Oh, and documents suggest he owes $110K in taxes. [Law360]

* Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has asked state lawmakers to eliminate a state law that prevents state prosecutions of individuals who have already reached the plea or a jury is sworn in a federal case. Or, more to the point, when someone in that situation is pardoned. [NY Times]

* There are hints that the jury may acquit Tex McIver of the most serious charges related to his wife’s shooting death. As a reminder, McIver shot her in the back while she rode in the front seat of their car when his gun, which he says he had loaded and ready because he was worried about Black Lives Matter, went off when the car hit a speedbump. [Daily Report Online]

* If you notice some new changes to your Facebook privacy protections, you might think that’s a response to Zuck’s recent congressional testimony. But actually, it’s just Facebook playing shell company roulette to make sure you’re not covered by GDPR. [Reuters]

* The organizer of the Charlottesville “Very Fine People On Both Sides” rally popped into the UVA Law library yesterday. Vigilant students kept an eye on him. [Cavalier Daily]

* We’d also be remiss if we didn’t express our sadness over the loss of Judge Harry T. Stone. Harry Anderson’s portrayal of the free-wheeling but fair judge contributed to making Night Court one of the greatest, and most honest, courtroom television shows of all time. [CNN]

* President Trump seems to be addicted to lawyers, and maybe someday he’ll be able to find another one like Michael Cohen who is “willing to sacrifice reputation, sanity, and perhaps a paycheck” to defend him. [Politico]

* Proskauer Rose and Jane Doe, the partner who sued the firm in a $50 million gender bias lawsuit, will be entering mediation to see if they can reach a settlement. At the same time, limited discovery will take place as to whether Doe is an “employee” under the anti-discrimination laws cited in the suit. [American Lawyer]

* Anthony Borges, a student who was shot five times while blocking a doorway to save other students during the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, has filed suit against Nikolas Cruz for for assault and battery. Perhaps we should be expecting more of these lawsuits in the future. [Sun Sentinel]

* Parents whose children were killed at Sandy Hook Elementary School in 2012 have filed a defamation lawsuit against Alex Jones of Infowars. Jones responded to the lawsuit going on a 10-minute rant on his show about how his lawyers thought the suit was frivlous. [New York Times]

* Bonus season isn’t over yet — for staff members, that is. Mintz Levin recently awarded hundreds of its staff members with special bonuses to celebrate an increase in equity partner profits. [Big Law Business]

* The Incredible Shrinking Biglaw Partnership: Who’d have thought the idea of making more money by sharing it with fewer people would be so popular? [Law360]

* Mayer Brown has a new managing partner. [American Lawyer]

* In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the president just fired 256 judges for, by and large, not having law degrees. That’s so weird, over here our judging problem are all the unfit hacks with law degrees. [Al Jazeera]

* How do you expeditiously sort through millions of pages of documents in a wide-ranging criminal investigation? That’s a question Robert Mueller’s team has, and one that legal technology can actually answer. [Legaltech News]

* Merely threatening frivolous defamation claims can be big business. Charles Harder made $93,000 off Trump’s fear of Fire and Fury. [CNBC]

* Neil Gorsuch seems to understand diversity in practice better than his colleagues. [Slate]

* Sheppard Mullin sets up a new lateral-fueled Dallas office. [Texas Lawyer]

* Michael Cohen has until 2 p.m. this afternoon to produce the names of his clients with proof of their relationship, lest his attorneys’ temporary restraining order over the alleged privilege of the “thousands, if not millions of documents” that were taken in the FBI raid upon his office get tossed. [New York Law Journal]

* In other news, President Trump wants to review all of the material that was seized by the FBI from his lawyer Michael Cohen before federal investigators are able to take a look at it — after all, as the president says, attorney-client privilege “is dead.” [Washington Post]

* Many partners at Allen & Overy are “dead against” the firm’s reportedly proposed merger with O’Melveny & Myers, which is probably just fine, considering the fact that O’Melveny “[has] no plans to merge [with A&O] and never [has].” [Legal Week]

* Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein is supposed to make his debut at the Supreme Court later this month on April 23 to argue a case regarding sentencing guildelines on behalf of the United States government. We’ll see how things go if he’s already been fired by President Trump by the time oral arguments roll around. [CNN]

* According to Senate Republican Cory Gardner of Colorado, now that he’s struck a deal with President Trump that will undercut Attorney General Jeff Sessions’s recission of the Cole memo, he’ll be happy to puff-puff-pass votes on all of the Department of Justice nominees he’s been holding up. [Washington Post]

* “[T]op tier firms [must] take a more ‘people-centric’ approach, and break the tyranny of the billable unit as the overriding priority.” This managing partner says that work/life balance and mental health for lawyers will never improve unless the legal profession addresses “onerous billable hour targets.” [Lawyers Weekly]

* Hooooo boy, this just got even better! President Trump and his attorney Michael Cohen plan to file a motion to stay the Stormy Daniels suit on the grounds that in the wake of the FBI raid on Cohen’s office and the ensuing criminal investigation, continuing the Daniels litigation could violate Cohen’s right not to incriminate himself under the Fifth Amendment. [THR, Esq. / Hollywood Reporter]

* In other news, President Trump is set to pardon Scooter Libby, Vice President Dick Cheney‘s former chief of staff, who was convicted in 2007 of lying to the FBI and obstruction of justice in the investigation into the leak of former CIA operative Valerie Plame’s identity. [ABC News

* When the AP was investigating a $30K payout that American Media Inc. made to a doorman to keep quiet about a rumor involving President Trump’s love child with a former employee, reporters had some trouble with a Biglaw firm that was recently involved in another sexual misconduct case — Boies Schiller. [American Lawyer]

* HoLove learning to show love? The firm is ditching its “broken” associate performance review system for its new “Pathways” program, which will provide them with “flash feedback” from partners about how they’re doing on a year-round basis. [National Law Journal]

* Your tuition dollars actually at work: Georgia State Law is using predictive modeling and data analytics to identify students who may be at risk for failing the bar exam after their first year of studying law. Administrators at the school want to be able to help students before it’s too late. [Daily Report Online]

* Savannah Law School may not be closing after all? It seems that talks are underway to donate the law school’s charter to another college or university, like Savannah State and Georgia Southern. Savannah Law’s new owner would get everything but the law school building itself. [Fox 28 Media]

* A sneak peek at Am Law 200 reports. [American Lawyer]

* Two lesser charges against Tex McIver shot down. [USNWR]

* The Waffle House sextortion case ends in acquittal. Defendants celebrate at IHOP. [Daily Report Online]

* Four Thomas clerks are behind the new “HAWA” legal challenge to make Harvard All White Again. [National Law Journal]

* A quick look at Robert Khuzami, the former SEC Enforcement honcho who most likely fulfilled the SDNY USAO’s role in ordering the Cohen raid. [Courthouse News Service]

* JP Morgan decided to join the cryptocurrency revolution by declaring that customer purchases of cryptocurrencies were really “cash advances” instead of regular transactions… a move that allowed them to charge higher fees. Now cryptoheads are suing. Look, you can’t have it both ways. [Law360]

* President Trump may have a very busy Saturday night planned, because according to inside sources, he’s considering firing Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein — or even Attorney General Jeff Sessions — in an attempt to take “aggressive action” against special counsel Robert Mueller. He could even fire Mueller, since he “believes he has the power to do so.” [CNN]

* Squire Patton Boggs ended its relationship with Michael Cohen on the same day his office was raided by the FBI, but sources inside the firm seem to have no idea why the firm’s relationship existed with Cohen in the first place. Cohen was supposedly there to “advance the interests” of Squire’s clients, but lawyers say they were generally kept in the dark about those alleged client interests. [American Lawyer]

* The Trumpiest of those who reside in Trumpland? Apparently that honor goes to Justice Clarence Thomas and his wife, Ginni, but it’s worth noting that the justice “has not gone nearly as far as his Ginni in embracing fringy Trumpist dogma.” [Slate]

* Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg swore in 201 new U.S. citizens in New York yesterday, much to their surprise. Here’s what one new American said about being addressed by Justice Ginsburg: “I felt so important. Sitting in front of somebody so special, I felt so special. I feel like I’m in my own country now.” [New York Daily News]

* Ieshia Champs, a 33-year-old single mother of five children, will be graduating from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University later this spring, and her inspirational graduation photos — which include all five of her kids — are going viral. A well-deserved congratulations go out to Ieshia from ATL! [The Grio]

* Now that the FBI is all up in his business, Squire Patton Boggs has cut ties with Michael Cohen. They had been working together in an amorphous strategic alliance that was almost certainly some kind of murky lobbying-related arrangement. [American Lawyer]

* Today is Equal Pay Day and in-house counsel hold the key to remedying pay inequality. [Corporate Counsel]

* This lawyer’s got 99 problems and all of them are a year in prison for trading sex for legal work. [Texas Lawyer]

* Trump advised that he can’t contribute to legal defense fund. This story assumes the phony billionaire has enough non-debt-financed disposable income to help his cronies, which is a very open question. [Bloomberg]

* In shocker, the Texas Supreme Court doesn’t understand homosexuality. [Slate]

* Wilmer and Foley Hoag seek documents to prove the Family Research Council and the Heritage Foundation drove the administration’s decision to ban transgender troops — since we know the general serving as Secretary of Defense wasn’t pushing it. [National Law Journal]

* Gawker’s liability releases hit snag. [Law360]