Noah Feldman

  • Morning Docket: 03.13.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 03.13.18

    * Winston & Strawn revenue up 19 percent last year after securing a hefty contingency fee in the pink slime matter. Despite their victory, we suspect these lawyers are using their windfall on grass-fed free-range beef. [American Lawyer]

    * In the continuing war on class actions as a lingering nuisance to our corporate overlords, the Supreme Court may be taking aim at cy pres settlements to “protect the class” by making class actions harder to pull together. [National Law Journal]

    * The photographer from the horrendous decision ruling that embedded Tweets are copyright violations is fighting an effort by defendants to get an interlocutory appeal to clear up this travesty as quickly as possible. You know, to save the Internet. [Law360]

    * In an article that manages to avoid any reference to Ready Player One, Rhys Dipshan considers the IP challenges facing widespread adoption of VR and AR products. As an example, the article considers what would happen if someone put that famous picture of Albert Einstein into the game. Perhaps the better question is why isn’t that in the public domain and can VR be the technology that finally reverses the broken IP regime Sonny Bono dropped on us? [Legaltech News]

    * Can California’s sanctuary laws survive federal assault? Professor Noah Feldman says they should. [Bloomberg]

    * Professor Tobias Barrington Wolff considers the sideshow of a career his Penn Law colleague Amy Wax has decided to pursue. [Faculty Lounge]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 01.19.18
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 01.19.18

    * When it comes to the retrial of sexual-assault charges against Bill Cosby, there are many women — 19, to be exact — willing to testify #MeToo. [Jezebel]

    * Best friends: which organizations file the most amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court? [Empirical SCOTUS]

    * Judicata just ranked the brief-writing skills of 20 top California law firms; how did your firm fare? [Dewey B Strategic]

    * How will artificial intelligence transform society? Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, and Harry Shum, executive VP of Microsoft’s AI and research Group, share their insights. [Microsoft]

    * Speaking of AI, how will it affect the world of legal practice? Jake Heller, CEO of AI pioneer Casetext, has answers.
    [Artificial Lawyer]

    * Professor Noah Feldman identifies the shortcomings of Twitter as a forum for legal discussion (but has some kind words for legal blogs, including the one you’re reading right now). [Bloomberg]

    * Message boards are also valuable resources — like this one, “where all the unemployed lawyers go to cry.” [The Outline]

    * Marc Randazza is a commendably fierce defender of the First Amendment, but this latest case might be a bridge too far. [Huffington Post]

    * Check out this fascinating profile of a Mormon lawyer who lost his faith searching for an archaeological site. [Science]

    * Why do we need people from s**thole countries? Meet five lawyers who prove the merits of immigration. [Lawfuel]

    * Think twice before asking your accountant buddy to do your taxes for you. [Going Concern]

    * Speaking of taxes, we’ve finally uncovered the real victims of the new tax scheme — partners who want a break on sports tickets. [Accounting Today]

  • Morning Docket: 08.04.17
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.04.17

    * The White House announces ten new judicial nominations, including two for circuit courts (previously predicted in these pages). We’ll have more on this later. [Washington Times]

    * King & Spalding joins Jones Day and Sullivan & Cromwell as a “feeder firm” for the Trump administration. [Law.com]

    * Will the Trump Justice Department’s possible attack on affirmative action succeed? Law professors disagree. [How Appealing]

    * Michelle Carter, the woman convicted for basically texting her boyfriend into committing suicide, gets sentenced to 15 months. [ABA Journal]

    * White-collar criminal defense lawyers discuss what to expect from the grand jury convened by special counsel Robert Mueller. [National Law Journal]

    * The trend continues: fewer law school graduates, better employment statistics. [ABA Journal]

    * Elliot Katz, a leading lawyer in the self-driving-car space, motors from DLA Piper to McGuireWoods. [Law.com]

    * If you’ll be online in the afternoon on Wednesday, August 16, join me and ABA Legal Career Central for a Twitter chat about career paths for lawyers, especially alternative careers. [American Bar Association]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 06.13.17
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 06.13.17

    * Professor Ann Althouse wants to know: What’s the theory that take-home exams redress gender inequity? [Althouse]

    * Legal analytics versus legal research: what’s the difference? Owen Byrd of Lex Machina explains. [Law Technology Today]

    * Professor Noah Feldman is not a fan of the Ninth Circuit’s recent ruling on Trump Travel Ban 2.0. [Bloomberg View via How Appealing]

    * And Professor Sam Bray is not a fan of nationwide injunctions in the travel ban litigation. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

    * My colleague Elie Mystal yesterday offered an ideological critique of Justice Ginsburg’s opinion in Morales-Santana; Professor Will Baude has a technical one (and I think he might be right). [PrawfsBlawg]

    * Mollie Hemingway respectfully dissents from the James Comey lovefest.
    [The Federalist]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 08.10.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 08.10.16

    * “NEW CIVILITY WATCH: Dem Senate candidate and former Ohio Gov. Ted Strickland: Scalia’s death ‘happened at a good time.'” [Instapundit]

    * A Skull and Bones society for top NYC law firms? Professor Rick Swedloff discusses a secretive group whose membership includes some of Biglaw’s biggest names. [SSRN]

    * A notable new petition (filed by Professor Orin Kerr and Marcia Hofmann) in a high-profile appeal about the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act. [Volokh Conspiracy]

    * Donald Trump’s infamous “Second Amendment” quip is protected by the First Amendment — but just barely, according to Professor Noah Feldman. [Bloomberg View via How Appealing]

    * Jury consultant Roy Futterman of DOAR wonders: is concern about prejudicing jurors actually driving them to using the internet for decision-making? [Big Law Business]

    * Could the ABA someday lose its power to accredit law schools? Steven J. Harper thinks its day of reckoning is coming closer. [The Belly of the Beast]

  • Morning Docket: 07.28.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 07.28.16

    * State’s Attorney Marilyn Mosby dropped all remaining charges against the three Baltimore police officers still awaiting trial in the death of Freddie Gray — a decision she called “agonizing.” [New York Times]

    * Judge Paul L. Friedman (D.D.C.) ordered the release of John W. Hinckley Jr., the man who in 1981 attempted to assassinate President Ronald Reagan (and who, some argue, murdered White House press secretary James Brady). [Washington Post]

    * Traci Ribeiro, a non-equity partner at Sedgwick, sued the firm for discrimination, alleging that she and other women “cannot crack the glass ceiling at Sedgwick.” [Law.com]

    * A promising proposal from the Justice Department for how to deal with the law enforcement challenges presented by evidence stored in other countries (in the wake of Microsoft’s Second Circuit victory over the DOJ). [Christian Science Monitor]

    * “Is fake burping in gym class enough to get a seventh-grader arrested?” Professor Noah Feldman analyzes an interesting new Tenth Circuit ruling. [Bloomberg View via How Appealing]

    * Judge Janet Bond Arterton: sorry, Principal National Life Insurance Co., but you can’t escape paying out on the $10 million life insurance policy you issued to a law firm partner just because he died 15 months after the policy’s issuance. [Law.com]

    * For folks finishing up the bar exam today, some advice from former ABC News president (and former SCOTUS clerk) David Westin: it’s okay to walk out of there early. Good luck! [Big Law Business]

  • Morning Docket: 03.29.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 03.29.16

    * Legal showdown averted (for now): the feds were able to access the data on the San Bernardino shooter’s iPhone without any help from Apple. [Washington Post]

    * A Harvard Law School grad stands accused of a $95 million fraud scheme — yikes. We’ll have more on this later. [ABA Journal]

    * Does a sentencing delay violate the Sixth Amendment right to a speedy trial? Some on SCOTUS seem skeptical. [How Appealing]

    * Georgia Governor Nathan Deal announces his intention to veto the Free Exercise Protection Act, which critics claimed would have protected discrimination as a form of religious liberty. [New York Times]

    * Hillary Clinton takes Republicans to task for their handling of the current Supreme Court vacancy. [Wisconsin State Journal via How Appealing]

    * Some thoughts from Professor Noah Feldman on the recent Seventh Circuit ruling about the use of form contracts on the internet (which nobody reads). [Bloomberg View]

    * Save money (on taxes), live better: a federal judge strikes down a tax levied by Puerto Rico on mega-retailer Wal-Mart. [Reuters]

    * The Bracewell law firm, now sans Giuliani, elects Gregory Bopp as its new managing partner. [Texas Lawyer]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 03.04.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 03.04.16

    * Perhaps this means the return of cool Hillary. [The Slot]

    * Yes, you can laugh at the Supreme Court. [Bloomberg View]

    * Deflategate oral arguments happened. Prognosticators are prognosticating that Tom Brady may indeed have to sit out some games. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

    * Yeaaaah, you aren’t supposed to do that. Lab tech faked results, and now 2,100 criminal convictions are up for review due to the impropriety. [NJ.com]

    * Multitasking — and not looking like an ass in the process — is a real art form. [Daily Lawyer Tips]

    * Why is no one talking about how progressive Hillary’s tax plan really is? [Slate]

    * Yeah, Donald Trump is still TOTALLY into war crimes. [Huffington Post]

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  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.22.15

    * Getting arrested on federal criminal charges accusing you of conspiring with loathed pharma CEO Martin Shkreli is very stressful — so one can understand why Biglaw partner Evan Greebel needs a Cancun vacation right about now. [USA Today; BloombergBusiness] * Speaking of Evan Greebel, here is a closer look at the charges against him, […]

  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 10.28.15

    * Good news, everyone! Legally Blonde 3 is supposedly in the works, and Reese Witherspoon says that the movie may involve Elle Woods becoming a Supreme Court justice or some kind of an elected official. It’s really too bad that SCOTUS robes aren’t pink. [Washington Post]

    * Biglaw firms aren’t the only ones that are downsizing when it comes to their headcount. Case in point, Lear Corporation’s in-house legal department has dropped from 20 attorneys to 11, but its GC Terry Larking says it’s working for the company. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

    * Cornell Law School will be teaming up with Cornell Tech to launch a new LL.M. degree in law, technology, and entrepreneurship. Like most LL.M. degrees, we imagine that it will cost a pretty penny, but that its overall value on the market will be low. [Cornell Chronicle]

    * “Do we really need to protect people from trying to achieve their dreams?” Professor Noah Feldman of Harvard Law thinks we shouldn’t coddle law school applicants who are unlikely to pass a bar or try to “save” them from a lifetime of debt. [Bloomberg View]

    * She shoots, she scores? An ex-cheerleader filed suit against the Milwaukee Bucks under the Fair Labor Standards Act because she alleges she was paid less than minimum wage to cheer for the team. The suit is the first of its kind filed against an NBA team. [ABC News]

  • Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 03.23.15

    * This would-be POTUS can’t jump? Ted Ruger, Penn Law’s new dean, used to hang out with Republican presidential candidate Ted Cruz during law school, and he’d “like to think that [their] legal skills far exceeded [their] mediocre basketball skills.” [Philadelphia Inquirer]

    * Why do we still need law schools considering the crisis in the legal academy? Please allow Noah Feldman of Harvard Law — an unbiased law professor — to explain why “law school is absolutely essential — not for lawyers with clients, but for our society as a whole.” [Bloomberg View]

    * Apparently there’s some major drama going down with regard to which attorneys will argue the same-sex marriage cases before the Supreme Court. It seems that no one wants to give up their 15 minutes of fame before the high court. Sigh. [National Law Journal]

    * These days, law schools are looking at more than their applicants’ GPAs and LSAT scores. Prospective law students now need to be “well-rounded and involved.” For what it’s worth, not minding going into debt is a helpful trait, too. [Omaha World-Herald]

    * Another day, another gender bias lawsuit in Silicon Valley: This time around, Tina Huang, a female software engineer who used to work for Twitter, is alleging that the company’s secret promotion process bypasses women and favors men. [CNET]

  • Baseball, Biglaw, Drinking, DUI / DWI, Football, Noah Feldman, Non-Sequiturs, Sports, Video games

    Non-Sequiturs: 08.02.13

    * A DWI attorney shows up to court drunk. Kicker? He was in the wrong courtroom. Still, the best way to defend a client is to stumble a mile in their shoes. [KRQE] * A sitting appellate judge shares his poetic stylings. [Law Poetry] * Here’s a brutally honest letter from a hypothetical senior Biglaw partner to a new associate. Since this week established that we need to point this out, this is a satirical letter. [Associate's Mind] * Well this is a pretty comprehensive tirade against a judge. It makes calling a judge a “cock” seem tame. [Legal Juice] * Harvard Professor Noah Feldman talks about democracy. He thinks monarchies have funny traditions. I guess he’s talking about the royal family of Canada. [Zach Talks] * EA can’t use the First Amendment to get out of the right of publicity problem it faces with its college football video game. And the death watch on the NCAA continues. [IT-Lex]