San Bernardino

This isn't surprising...

* 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]

The Last Week Tonight host tackles Apple's clash with the government over iPhone security with trademark wit.

* Hooray, this study says it’s a great time to be a lawyer! According to career website Glassdoor, lawyers are the second-highest paid professionals in the country, with a median base salary of $144,500. See, everybody, you’ll be able to pay off your six-figure law school debt in no time! You’re probably rich! [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* John Oliver of “Last Week Tonight” trademarked the word “Drumpf” ahead of the humorous segment on his show, and he turned to Kenyon & Kenyon to get the job done. The comedian was apparently trying to keep it in the “Daily Show” family with his choice of legal representation — as we’ve noted before, Kenyon’s managing partner is Stephen Colbert’s older brother. [Am Law Daily]

* Here’s a ranking that’ll be useful for prospective law students and legal professionals who love being boastful: Which law schools have the highest percentage of graduates who pass the bar exam on the first try? You may legitimately be surprised by the placement of some of the law schools on this list. We’ll have more on this later. [AL.com]

* “The tone of the brief reads like an indictment.” The Justice Department filed a pretty feisty response to Apple in its legal battle over the encryption of an iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino shooters. Apple’s GC says the DOJ lawyers are now “so desperate” to get what they want that they’ve “thrown all decorum to the wind.” [CNBC]

* U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York will have to face a lawsuit filed by David Ganek of Level Global Investors, once a $4 billion hedge fund, over allegations that the federal prosecutor’s office filed a misleading affidavit and fabricated evidence as part of an insider trading probe that resulted in the fund failing. [Newsday]

Apple lays out the battle lines in its bout with the federal government over privacy, law enforcement, national security, and hacking.

* Given the unusually “circus-like atmosphere” surrounding the Supreme Court confirmation process, anyone who is nominated to fill Justice Antonin Scalia’s seat must “have the backbone to take the risk of being out there in front of the recalcitrant Senate.” Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval apparently didn’t have the testicular fortitude necessary for the challenging endeavor. [WSJ Law Blog]

* President Obama nominated Judge Lucy Koh (N.D. Cal.), the queen of Silicon Valley tech-industry and patent litigation, to the Ninth Circuit. Consider what’s likely to be her difficult confirmation a preview to the politically divisive process of getting Justice Scalia’s replacement a meeting before the Senate. [San Jose Mercury News]

* Of the current justices, Elena Kagan is the only one who has experienced the fallout of an eight-member Supreme Court. She clerked for Justice Thurgood Marshall when there was an almost eight-month vacancy on the Court, and may have learned how to avoid 4-4 decisions from Chief Justice William Rehnquist. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

* Apple wants to vacate an order compelling the tech giant to help the FBI unlock one of the San Bernadino shooter’s iPhones, noting “[i]f this order is permitted to stand, it will only be a matter of days before some other prosecutor, in some other important case, before some other judge, seeks a similar order using this case as precedent.” [The Hill]

* Johnson & Johnson may have suffered a $72 million blow in its loss in a case alleging links between talcum powder and ovarian cancer, but it doesn’t necessarily mean that other plaintiffs will come away from their talc-cancer cases with windfalls quite as large. They’ll still have to convince a jury that J&J’s products caused their illness. [Reuters]

The government effort to force Apple to break into one of its phones has spawned some double-speak.

This is not about about gun control, pro or con. It’s not a column about terrorism, the homeland, or anything like that. It’s much more personal.

* “MSNBC embarrasses itself inside San Bernardino attackers’ apartment. Un-freaking-believable, even for MSNBC. And why did the FBI allow this?” [Instapundit]

* The latest additions to the Supreme Court docket — will SCOTUS come to the rescue of Puerto Rico? [How Appealing]

* Judge removed from office for trying to pressure his clerk into having a “special friend” relationship. [Associated Press]

* Additional (and actually earlier) coverage of the “questionable entertainment” at a lawyers’ seminar in Las Vegas. [South Florida Lawyers]

* A $30 casebook? Where can law students sign up? [TaxProf Blog]

* Tips from Dan Binstock for how to get a signing bonus when you make a lateral move. [The Careerist]

* How can Asian-American lawyers break through the “bamboo ceiling”? A report from the GC roundtable discussion hosted by Major, Lindsey & Africa. [Corporate Counsel]

* Luis Salazar and Linda Jackson — founding partners of Salazar Jackson, an innovative new boutique firm — really (really, really) like their Post-it notes. [Daily Business Review]

* Stanford law professor Deborah L. Rhode, author of The Trouble with Lawyers (affiliate link), calls out Biglaw firms for their weak pro bono efforts. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

https://youtu.be/9z7pLAEPs2c

* You don’t hear this much, but The Daily News nails it with a biting criticism of the GOP presidential candidates’ response to the tragic San Bernardino shooting: “Prayers aren’t working.” [The Daily News]

* Looks like Dickstein Shapiro is looking to get hitched before the end of the year — they are reportedly talking to multiple potential merger partners. [Law.com]

* Cozen O’Connor partner Wayne Rohde is accused of lying about his attorney disciplinary record. [National Law Journal]

* Rahm Emmanuel is resisting calls for his resignation amid the scandal surrounding the shooting death by Chicago cops of Laquan McDonald. [CNN]

* Browne George Ross LLP was hit with a $6 million malpractice suit. [Law360]

* Law firms are getting in the holiday spirit, over 100 firms are working together on a clothing drive for the homeless. [Legal Times]

* The Apple Samsung carnival returns to court today. I can’t wait to see what happens. We will probably have more on this later. [Bloomberg Businessweek]

* After being found guilty of judicial misconduct for misappropriating public funds, Michigan state Judge Sylvia James will be removed from the bench for the remainder of her term. [Detroit Free Press]

* London-based Herbert Smith poached six partners from Chadbourne, including the head of the firm’s litigation group, Thomas Riley, and Gregory Loss, who helmed the products liability group. [Thomson Reuters News & Insight]

* San Bernardino is the newest California city to declare bankruptcy. The city apparently has over $1 billion in debt. I wonder if they had to cut their prosecutors’ salaries also. [Wall Street Journal]

* First-year associates at Husch Blackwell will see a nice salary bump this year. Oh boy! [Blog of the Legal Times]

* President Obama nominated prosecutor Pamela Chen to be a new judge for the Federal District Court in New York. If confirmed, she would become the second female Chinese-American federal judge in U.S. history, and also would be one of the first openly lesbian federal judges. [Metro Weekly]

* Republicans filibustered the Obama administration’s high-priority cybersecurity bill. [New York Times]