S.D.N.Y.
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S.D.N.Y., Television
Standard Of Review: I'm Holding Out For 'Show Me A Hero' Till The End Of Sunday Night
Culture critic Harry Graff offers his thoughts on David Simon's new HBO show, in which a federal judge plays a prominent role. -
Boutique Law Firms, Small Law Firms, Trials
Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi: The End
The parties have written the final chapter is this long-running saga. - Sponsored
The Business Case For AI At Your Law Firm
ChatGPT ushers in the age of generative AI – even for law firms. -
Labor / Employment
Second Circuit Takes Firm Stance On Educational Value Of Being Poor
The Second Circuit takes the war to unpaid interns. Poor kids never had a chance.
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Litigators, Small Law Firms, Technology
Beyond Biglaw: The End of Paper Filing in the S.D.N.Y.
Change is constant, as columnist Gaston Kroub notes: starting yesterday, filing civil cases in the S.D.N.Y. will be done electronically in the vast majority of cases. -
Litigators, Small Law Firms
Always Be Ready To Advocate On Any Open Issue
Clients hire litigators to win for them, so litigators need to be ready to argue and win -- on anything -- every time they get in front of a judge. -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 05.20.15
* Thus far, five law schools — Hawaii, Iowa, St. John’s, Drake, and Buffalo — have decided to drop the LSAT for top-performing applicants, and it’s no surprise that all five law schools have watched their enrollment numbers take traumatic tumbles. [Bloomberg Business]
* “[E]veryone calls colleagues for advice, particularly when we get gnarly jury notes.” As it turns out, judges in the Southern District of New York are big proponents of the “phone a friend” lifeline for their trickier cases. FYI, those friends are never law profs. [New York Times]
* Well, that was incredibly quick! Josh Seiter, the 2013 graduate of Chicago-Kent Law who’s built a successful career stripping, working as an escort, and appearing on reality TV shows, didn’t even make it past the first rose ceremony on The Bachelorette. [Heavy]
* Without WARNing? Butler & Hosch, one of the largest foreclosure firm’s in the country, decided to abruptly close up shop, leaving hundreds of attorneys and staff members of out work. Sources have told us that the firm was unable to make payroll. [Orlando Sentinel]
* Sorry, boutiques, but according to Lexis/Nexis CounselLink’s Enterprise Legal Management Trends report, the biggest of all Biglaw firms are controlling the market when it comes to performing specialized IP litigation work. [DealBook / New York Times]
* As we mentioned previously, Sam Kamin of Denver Law is the first professor to hold a pot law professorship. Here’s an interesting Q&A with the law firm partner who came up with the idea. See Prof. Kamin at our marijuana law event in June. [National Law Journal]
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Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.27.15
* The job market may be “improving,” but people aren’t going to start applying to law school in droves any time soon. There’s been a 40 percent drop in applicants since 2005, and according to LSAC’s latest data, “the downward spiral is still… spiraling.” [WSJ Law Blog]
* Lines to see what could be one of the most historic arguments before the Supreme Court started forming last Friday, but the rest of the country will have to sit back and wait until June to see if a constitutional right to same-sex marriage will be declared. [Reuters]
* Kris Jenner was just hit with a six-figure lawsuit thanks to model Kendall Jenner’s 19th birthday party, which was allegedly complete with more than 100 guests and a male stripper. Don’t worry, mom, the stripper already spanked your daughter. [Ministry of Gossip / Los Angeles Times]
* The latest edition of the Am Law 100 rankings are out, and it looks like gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, and profits per partner are on the way up at most firms. You’ll never believe which firm is the new No. 1. We’ll have more on this later. [American Lawyer]
* Hey, here’s some info you’ve never heard before now! People who graduated from law school in 2010 are still screwed because they’re drowning in debt and some have never worked as lawyers! Never fear, the New York Times is on it! [DealBook / New York Times]
* “Obviously, the concussion affected my judgment — oops, I shouldn’t say that, given my day job.” At 92 years of age, Judge Robert Sweet of the S.D.N.Y. splits his time between legal pirouettes in the courtroom and skating pirouettes on the ice. [New York Times]
* “It’s time for restraint of the federal government’s over-aggressive weed warriors.” States that have legalized pot are tired of the Feds prosecuting their citizens, and that’s what the Respect State Marijuana Laws Act of 2015 aims to stop from happening. [High Times]
* “[L]awyers are naturally drawn to writing because we spend our days working with words.” If you’re a lawyer thinking about writing a legal thriller in your spare time, you’re not alone. Just ask Scott Turow and our very own David Lat. [National Law Journal]
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Small Law Firms, Trials
Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi: What Did She Win In Attorneys' Fees?
A six-figure sum, but nothing close to her $1.4 million request. - Sponsored
Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
The rise of remote work has dramatically reshaped the relationship between Lawyers and Law Firms, see how Scale LLP has taken the steps to get… -
Federal Judges, Rudeness
Federal Prosecutor Says Ticking Off Judges Is His 'Public Interest' Duty
Why you gotta be so rude, Preet? -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 04.17.15
* “The top is eroding and the bottom is growing.” Even as class sizes get smaller and tuition gets lower, the law school brain drain continues. America’s best and brightest won’t be fooled into studying law when the job market is still so unstable, but others have been. [Bloomberg]
* Attorneys for California’s sex workers have filed suit to overturn the state’s ban on prostitution, claiming that “[t]he rights of adults to engage in consensual, private sexual activity (even for compensation) is a fundamental liberty interest.” Yeah, okay. [AP]
* “The simple story is that $160,000 as a starting salary at large law firms is less prevalent than it was immediately prior to the recession.” You can scream “NY TO 190K!” all you want, but starting salaries have remained flat. Sowwy. [DealBook / New York Times]
* U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York has involved himself in an “escalating war of words” with members of the federal judiciary that he may come to regret. Will this “petulant rooster” be able to kiss and make up? [New York Times]
* Per a recently filed lawsuit, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees still hasn’t paid a single law firm for their representation in the Biogenesis case. He allegedly owes Gordon & Rees $380,059 in unpaid fees. Come on, A-Rod. You’ve got the cash. [New York Daily News]
* Infamous plaintiffs’ attorney Steven Donziger of the $9.5 billion Chevron / Ecuador kerfuffle decided that if he can’t win his case in a court of law, he might as well try to win it in the court of public opinion. Check out his side of the story. [Law360 (sub. req.)]
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Biglaw, Federal Judges, Small Law Firms
Federal Judge Begs Lawyers To STFU In 'Behemoth' Pleadings
Lawyers, your pleadings are supposed to be "short and plain" -- not 303 pages long! -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 02.17.15
* Following NBC’s announcement of his six-month suspension without pay, Brian Williams turned to Robert Barnett of Williams & Connolly to save his career. The pair met when they were Supreme Court clerks — oopsie, we guess that’s another misrepresentation. [Am Law Daily]
* “We weren’t about to ask them to risk life and limb to get in.” As Boston braces for yet another snowstorm, Biglaw firms are trying to figure out how they can continue to operate. Punxsutawney Phil is keeping the wheels of justice from turning. [National Law Journal]
* The Supreme Court has granted Colorado an extension to respond to a lawsuit filed by Nebraska and Oklahoma which claims that its decision to legalize marijuana was unconstitutional. Puff, puff, pass this cert vote, SCOTUS. [Cannabist / Denver Post]
* Regulators! Mount up… and then run away to your new Biglaw firms. Preet Bharara’s S.D.N.Y. roster is constantly changing thanks to the golden handcuffs large law firms offer, but Bharara still “love[s] all [his] children equally.” [DealBook / New York Times]
* David Messerschmitt, the DLA Piper associate who was found dead in a Washington, D.C., hotel room last week, is remembered by his colleagues as “someone so talented and so nice.” There have been no new breaks in his murder investigation. [Legal Times]
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Jury Duty, Trials
Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi: A Juror Speaks
A juror in this high-profile, high-stakes case explains what went on inside the jury room.
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Is The Future Of Law Distributed? Lessons From The Tech Adoption Curve
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Jury Duty, Trials
Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi: A Post-Trial Interview With Plaintiff's Counsel
How does Alexandra Marchuk feel about the jury verdict in her case, and what does she plan to do next? -
Jury Duty, Trials
Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi: A Post-Trial Interview With The Defense
How should we view the jury's verdict and damages award in Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi? -
Jury Duty, Trials
Breaking: Verdict In Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi
What did the jury decide in this high-profile and salacious case? -
Morning Docket
Morning Docket: 01.23.15
* Preet Bharara, the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, was recently referred to as the “most dangerous man in American politics.” Why’s that, you ask? It’s because he’s “a federal prosecutor who doesn’t give a f*ck.” Damn straight. [BuzzFeed]
* Just when you thought the Alan Dershowitz sex scandal couldn’t get any more intense, the investigative sleuths over at Gawker found flight records that allegedly place the professor as a passenger on a billionaire bad boy’s pedo plane. [Gawker]
* Dewey know which former chairman of a failed firm had to beg to get a refund on his bail money because he couldn’t otherwise afford to pay the expert witnesses for his upcoming criminal trial? Aww. Poor, poor Steven Davis. [New York Law Journal]
* Fried Frank’s chairman says that completely pulling the firm out of Asia was a “difficult but necessary decision.” On the other hand, an ex-partner at the firm says this move had basically been “inevitable” since at least 2009. Hmm. [Am Law Daily]
* If you want advice on how to pick a “cost-efficient” law school, the first thing you should realize is that your scholarships may come back to bite you in the ass. Go on, read the fine print — after all, you want to be a lawyer. [U.S. News & World Report]
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Quote of the Day, Rudeness, Trials
Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi: A 'Shocking' Revelation
A federal judge professes ignorance of an infamous hand gesture. -
Quote of the Day, Trials
Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi: A Prickly Pear
How can you ward off an allegedly lecherous colleague? Here's one idea. -
Jury Duty, Sexual Harassment, Small Law Firms, Trials
Alexandra Marchuk v. Faruqi & Faruqi: 5 Observations From Inside The Courtroom
What are the latest developments in this high-profile and salacious case?