Ron Wyden

* 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]

* If Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump wins the election, he may be the first president-elect to be standing trial for fraud prior to taking the oath of office. Judge Gonzalo Curiel has tentatively refused to dismiss one of the two pending Trump University cases, saying plaintiffs had met requirements for the case to move forward for a jury to decide whether Trump “participated in a scheme to defraud” students. [San Diego Union-Tribune]

* After being served with a class-action suit alleging she rigged the Democratic primaries and the release of emails in the latest Guccifer hack showing her favoritism for Hillary Clinton over Bernie Sanders, Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz is resigning as the Democratic National Committee’s chair after this week’s convention. [CNN; Observer]

* Five senators, including Bob Menendez (D-NJ), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), and Cory Booker (D-NJ), have introduced the Student Loan Tax Relief Act, which would exempt forgiven loans from being taxed as income. Law school grads on IBR, ICR, or PAYE should pray this bill is passed. [Forbes]

* In an announcement made before markets opened, Verizon said it would be purchasing Yahoo for $4.83B. It’s rumored that Faiza Saeed, Cravath’s incoming presiding partner — who was appointed to a committee to explore Yahoo’s sale — was the driving force behind the deal, which is expected to close in early 2017. [Reuters; Big Law Business]

* Law firms are apparently in a “weak spot” when it comes to the detection of money laundering operations. That may be how Shearman & Sterling got mixed up with an alleged Malaysian plot to siphon funds from its trust account to purchase luxury items in a scheme that’s turned into an attempted $1B DOJ asset forfeiture. [WSJ Law Blog]