Reed Smith

  • Morning Docket: 04.26.19
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.26.19

    * Donald Trump won’t stop tweeting about the Mueller report, most recently claiming that he “never told then White House Counsel Don McGahn to fire Robert Mueller.” Meanwhile, the president’s allies would really like it if he just STFU about it. [POLITICO]

    * Federal prosecutors have charged Judge Shelley Richmond Joseph of Massachusetts with obstruction and perjury for allegedly allowing an undocumented immigrant to leave a courthouse through a back door to prevent immigration authorities from conducting an arrest. [USA Today]

    * Reed Smith, which represents Concord Management and Consulting, the Russian company indicted in special counsel Robert Mueller’s probe, has asked that both Mueller and AG Bill Barr be held in contempt over the redacted release of the Mueller report. [National Law Journal]

    * The ugly side of fashion law: A senior in-house attorney at LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton Inc. has filed suit against the company, claiming that she was sexually harassed by a male coworker and punished for reporting it. [New York Law Journal]

    * Weil Gotshal is willing to pay big money to pre-law students who’ve been accepted at certain T14 schools for doing nonprofit work. The Biglaw firm is planning to fork over $1 million a year so these up-and-coming law students can work at public interest jobs. [Big Law Business]

  • Morning Docket: 02.13.19
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 02.13.19

    * Former Attorney General Eric Holder headed to Iowa earlier this week, but claims that he’s still deciding whether or not he’s going to throw his hat into the already crowded ring for the 2020 Democractic presidential nomination. [NPR]

    * Michael Cohen was supposed to appear before the Senate Intelligence Committee yesterday, but his testimony was postponed for the third time this month, this time “due to post surgery medical needs.” What’s he getting done before jail? [CNN]

    * In the “mommy track” class-action lawsuit that was filed against Morrison & Foerster, the firm isn’t now claiming that its positive track record for supporting women and working parents contradicts claims that MoFo is actually discriminating against mothers and pregnant women behind closed doors. [The Recorder]

    * It is possible to survive — and even thrive — in Biglaw while living with depression and other mental health disabilities. Mark Goldstein, counsel at Reed Smith, tells the tale of how his firm supported him through it all with open arms. [American Lawyer]

    * Jones Day has once again been named by Acritas as the best law firm brand in the country. The firm was “proud” to take the top spot, but other firms like Skadden, which came in second place this year, are busy “catching up.” [Big Law Business]

    * Carmel Prashker Ebb, the first woman to clerk for a federal appellate judge, RIP. [ABA Journal]

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  • Morning Docket: 06.01.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 06.01.18

    * New firm, new pay: Recently merged firm Bryan Cave Leighton Paisner is going to be moving to a merit-based pay system for partners. Messing with people’s money? This should be interesting! [Legal Week]

    * Reed Smith has rolled out a new plan that will “revamp” associate life at the firm, complete with new training, billing requirements, and reviews. This isn’t specifically for millennials (suuuuure), but rather, “an acknowledgment that there are some creative and inventive ways to do things differently.” [American Lawyer]

    * In case you missed it, President Trump says he’s considering commuting former Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich’s 14-year sentence for corruption and he might even throw a pardon Martha Stewart’s way. Hmm, it’s almost like the president is trying to set the stage for something that could come in the future… [Chicago Tribune]

    * According to Vivia Chen, if we really want gender equity in the legal profession, it might be time for some quotas. It’s working for corporate boards in Europe, so it could work here too, but alas, “the topic has largely been a nonstarter in the U.S.” [The Careerist]

    * Jennifer Ihns, the former clinic administrator at Notre Dame Law, has been sentenced to seven years in prison for embezzling about $200,000 from the school, but she’ll only spend two years behind bars, with five years of probation. [Law.com]

  • Morning Docket: 03.26.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 03.26.18

    * As it turns out, Joe diGenova — the lawyer who’s convinced that the Justice Department is trying to frame Trump with its Russia investigation — won’t be joining the president’s personal legal team after all due to conflicts of interest. DiGenova’s wife, Victoria Toensing, has been conflicted out as well. Oopsie! [New York Times]

    * President Trump tweeted this weekend that “[m]any lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case,” and that his difficulty in finding lawyers to join his defense team is “Fake News.” Meanwhile, at least four defense attorneys at separate Biglaw firms have been approached, and most have turned down the offer. [CNN]

    * In her 60 Minutes interview, Stormy Daniels says she was once physically threatened to keep quiet about her affair with Donald Trump and was later pressured into signing a false statement denying the affair because she believed that Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, would “make [her] life hell.” Cohen has denied threatening Daniels. [Washington Post]

    * In the summer of 2014, Bracewell & Giuliani warned Cambridge Analytica that foreign citizens shouldn’t have “substantive management” roles running U.S. election campaigns, and yet, that’s exactly what the company did in its work with the Trump campaign, and now Robert Mueller is on the case. [Washington Examiner; TIME]

    * Some law firms in the U.K. have started including information on partners’ salaries in their mandatory gender pay gap reporting. The first firms to do so were Norton Rose Fulbright, with a 27 percent pay gap for all employees (including partners), and Reed Smith, with an 8 percent pay gap among only partners. [Financial Times]

    * Law student Jordan Crewe has already filed suit against the soon-to-be-closed Savannah Law School, accusing the school of committing fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty. She’s requesting punitive damages from the school, and wants a jury trial too. [WSAV]

  • Morning Docket: 02.23.18
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 02.23.18

    * According to White House counsel Don McGahn in comments made at CPAC, President Trump has picked judicial nominees “he can relate to.” Hmm, so maybe that’s why he chose people like leading legal luminaries Brett Talley, Jeff Mateer, and Judge John Bush. [National Law Journal]

    * Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort and his onetime aide, Rick Gates, face tax and bank fraud charges in a new 32-count indictment in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russian election interference investigation. Do ya feel like taking a plea and cooperating now? [Bloomberg]

    * Missouri Gov. Eric Greitens was indicted by a grand jury on a Class D felony charge of invasion of privacy after allegedly tying up a woman he had an affair with, taking a nude picture of her, and threatening to release it. He doesn’t intend to resign and called the Circuit Attorney on the case a “reckless liberal prosecutor.” [USA Today]

    * Look out, Biglaw, because the Big Four are coming for you. Accounting firm PwC, which already has more than 1,000 legal contractors, is planning to expand its Flexible Legal Resources offering into global markets. [American Lawyer]

    * A Reed Smith partner’s widow has asked the Seventh Circuit to uphold a $3 million jury verdict against GlaxoSmithKline for its failure to warn about an alleged risk of suicidal behavior on Paxil’s labeling. Her late husband took his own life days after starting a generic version of the antidepressant drug. [Big Law Business]