Sexual Harassment

* Hope Hicks, Donald Trump‘s former communications director, will testify today before the House Judiciary Committee, which is leading an investigation into the president’s possible obstruction of justice. The closed-door hearing could last all day. Let’s see how this one goes… [Reuters]

* Thanks to some intervention by the DOJ, it looks like Paul Manafort won’t be going to Rikers after all. He’ll remain in federal custody during his state proceedings. [ABC News]

* In the wake of the Kozinski sexual harassment scandal, the Ninth Circuit has hired a workplace relations director and adopted some meaningful changes to its dispute resolution policy and its confidentiality policy. Plus, communications skills training will be mandatory all employees, including judges. [Big Law Business]

* In case you missed it, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg won the Best Real-Life Hero at the MTV Movie & TV Awards. She was also nominated in the Best Fight category for her fight against inequality, but lost to Captain Marvel’s fight against Minn-Erva. [The Hill]

* A student from Florida A&M Law has filed suit against the school, claiming that FAMU didn’t respond appropriately after an admissions counselor allegedly sexually assaulted and harassed her. We’ll have more on this later. [Daily Business Review]

* Law firm diversity score cards are here, and…. African-American lawyers are still not being represented. Yikes. [Law.com]

* Judge Kozinski may be gone from the Ninth Circuit, but it is still hard work to change the culture there. [Big Law Business]

* Oakland is the second city looking to decriminalize hallucinogenic mushrooms. Plan your vacations accordingly. [The Hill]

* In a continuing embarrassment to NYC, Rudy Giuliani wants a new role in the 2020 Trump campaign. [Politico]

* 5 firms have been cut out of the NFL concussion case. [Law360]

* Ted Wells for the defense, in New Jersey tax incentives case. [National Law Journal]

* Will New York strengthen sexual harassment laws? Well, maybe. But at least they’re having hearing on the issue. [New York Law Journal]

* “President Trump views the Roberts Court as his potential, perhaps literal, ‘get out of jail free’ card.” While Trump thinks he’s got allies on the high court, Chief Justice Roberts has attempted to put the president in his place numerous times — to no apparent avail. [Washington Post]

* AG Bill Barr says he may not show up at this week’s Mueller report hearing before the House Judiciary Committee unless Chairman Jerry Nadler changes the proposed questioning format. Au contraire, says Nadler: “The witness is not going to tell the committee how to conduct its hearing, period.” [CNN]

* Former Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates, who was fired after refusing to defend the Muslim travel ban, says that the Trump would “likely be indicted on obstruction” if he weren’t president. [The Hill]

* In case you missed it, Anna Delvey-Sorokin, the “socialite” who skipped out on more than $250K in fees due to three Biglaw firms, was recently convicted on grand larceny charges. [American Lawyer]

* A former Baker & McKenzie paralegal who alleged she was sexually harassed, sued the firm for $200 million, and later withdrew her suit is now on the hook for $35,445 in attorneys’ fees after disobeying court orders to substantiate her claims. [Big Law Business]

* 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]

* “There needs to be some kind of ongoing legislative inquiry—whether for impeachment or something else [to release grand jury material.” If you’re eager to get your hands on the full Mueller report, you may have to wait a bit longer thanks to this D.C. Circuit case. [Big Law Business]

* Meanwhile, during part of a weekend tweetstorm, President Donald Trump said that “even though [he] [has] every right to do so,” he’s not yet read the Mueller report. But even if he does read it in the future, it’s unlikely he’ll change his “complete and total exoneration” tune. [Slate]

* In the wake of recent accusations of inappropriate touching, the way former Vice President Joe Biden handled Anita Hill’s sexual harassment claims against Justice Clarence Thomas’s dramatic confirmation hearing is coming back to bite him. [CNN]

* Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kirstjen Nielsen resigned on Sunday, effective immediately. According to a senior administration official, the UVA Law alumnus said the President was “making unreasonable and even impossible requests” about the border. [CBS News]

* Weekend at Ruthie’s? Windmill cancer experts Conspiracy theorists think that Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has been dead for quite some time and Democrats are covering it up to prevent President Trump from taking her seat. [The Hill]

* Congratulations to Justice Christopher McDonald, the first person of color to serve on the Iowa Supreme Court. McDonald, “an immigrant’s son,” says he’s “deep[ly] concern[ed]” with racial justice issues. [Des Moines Register]

* Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) of the House Intelligence Committee is none too pleased with the Justice Department at the moment. Apparently two unnamed senior officials said the DOJ might refuse to share special counsel Robert Mueller’s report with Congress, a claim Schiff called “absolutely insupportable.” [ABC News]

* Last week, Paul Manafort was sentenced to under four years in jail by Judge T.S. Ellis III (just a little less than the 19 to 24 years called for in the sentencing guidelines), and today, Judge Amy Berman Jackson could sentence him to up to 10 years behind bars. [The Hill]

* Michael Avenatti and Stormy Daniels have officially “broken up” (i.e., their attorney/client relationship has ended), and their announcement was obviously made on Twitter. Clark Brewster will now serve as her personal lawyer. [Daily Beast]

* In case you missed it, the federal judiciary announced a major change to how it will respond to allegations of sexual misconduct. Per Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit, it is now “misconduct not to report misconduct.” [Big Law Business]

* “[I]f this deal is not passed, then Brexit could be lost.” Unconvinced, British lawmakers have once again rejected Prime Minister Theresa May’s Brexit plan to leave the European Union. Will this be the end of Brexit? [USA Today]

* Women lawyers continue to push for lactation rooms in courthouses across the country, and now, the ABA House of Delegates has passed a resolution to make sure all courts create proper facilities for mothers who need to pump or nurse. [Law.com]

* Elon Musk claims that the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to unconstitutionally censor him and “trample on” his First Amendment rights. This is all over a tweet on Twitter, mind you. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]

* Only four Supreme Court justices attended President Donald Trump’s State of the Union address last night. Chief Justice John Roberts was accompanied in the front row by Justices Elena Kagan, Neil Gorsuch, and Brett Kavanaugh — who still likes beer, but was unable to participate in any #SOTU drinking games. [USA Today]

* Biglaw partnership classes are getting smaller and smaller, which is making it that much harder for women and minorities to advance at their firms. In fact, it’s becoming a scenario where “at the end of the day, when they look around and look at who’s now reached the level of seniority to be considered, they’re left with a lot of white men.” [American Lawyer]

* “I wouldn’t be surprised if the next industry to see a #MeToo movement would be in the legal industry.” It’s already happening, but it seems that the mainstream media is just now discovering that the legal profession is a prestigious breeding ground for sexual harassment. [CBS News]

* In case you missed it, earlier this week Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg made her first public appearance since undergoing a pulmonary lobectomy in late December to attend “Notorious RBG in Song,” a concert written and performed by her daughter-in-law. [Big Law Business]

* Vanessa Tyson, the woman who’s accusing Virginia Lt. Governor Justin Fairfax of sexual misconduct, has hired the same law firm Dr. Christine Blasey Ford used to guide her through her testimony against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. [Salon]

* Florida Coastal Law is reportedly ditching its owner Infilaw and its status as a for-profit institution to join with a non-profit university partner. The school is also planning to double or triple its student base. We’ll have more on this later today. [Jacksonville Business Journal]

* Jerry Sandusky will be resentenced for his child sex abuse conviction, since he received a mandatory minimum sentence of 30-60 years, and it has since become unconstitutional for judges to impose sentences based on mandatory minimums. Keep in mind, his new sentence could very well be the exact same. [Reuters]

* Judge Dabney Friedrich proves every stereotype about joyless judges by throwing a fit over Reed Smith’s practice of writing actually engaging briefs, prompting the firm to muse whether or not the judge is trying to get the firm’s almost certainly Putin-allied client to fire him right when we were about to learn the truth of the nude selfies. [Courthouse News Service]

* Federal judiciary trying desperately to keep the lights on one week later than initially reported. [National Law Journal]

* The big winner of Brexit? Ireland’s lawyers who firms are stockpiling in advance of Britain’s departure. [International]

* Rajat Gupta’s conviction upheld by the Second Circuit. [Very Seinfeld voice] Newman! [Law360]

* Supreme Court declines to enter the Skakel murder case because try as they might, they couldn’t find anything about the case that would result in disenfranchising poor people. [Boston Herald]

* In a total shock, sexual harassment claims went up as soon as America stopped immediately dismissing sexual harassment claims out of hand. Amazing! [Corporate Counsel]

* Roger Stone continues to wait in torturous limbo for a decision on whether or not he’ll be indicted while burning through cash on lawyers. Yeah… that’s how this process works. Welcome to white-collar crime. [ABC News]

* Out of the mouths of babes federal judges: “Those conclusions – that the president’s statements on national security are not always to be taken literally or to be trusted – are legal victories for his Justice Department….” Did you think you’d ever see a something like this written about the U.S. president? That’s our Trump! [USA Today]

* A good New Year’s resolution for the federal judiciary? Chief Justice John Roberts says that while progress has been made when it comes to protecting law clerks from sexual harassment, “[t]he job is not finished until we have done all that we can to ensure that all of our employees are treated with fairness, dignity, and respect.” [Washington Post]

* The American Federation of Government Employees, a labor union for federal employees, has filed suit against the government, claiming that requiring essential employees to work without pay during the shutdown — an “inhumane” practice for people who don’t know when their next paycheck is coming — violates the Fair Labor Standards Act. [CNN]

* Barbara Underwood really made a name for herself during her short tenure as New York’s first female attorney general. After she was thrust into the role, she quickly began her assault against President Donald Trump, eventually taking down his charitable foundation after alleging that he was using it as a front for his his private businesses and political campaign. [NBC News]

* Yet again, it’s time for women in Biglaw to celebrate fractional achievements for gender equality. According the Diversity and Flexibility Alliance, 39 percent of new partners named at Am Law firms were women, which was a “slight uptick,” but “the numbers really haven’t changed that much in the last five years.” Hooray. [Big Law Business]

* It’s a new year, so you know there are going to be a bunch of interesting new laws. Here are just a few: In California, domestic-violence convicts can lose their gun rights for life; in Hawaii, physician-assisted suicide is now legal; in Virginia, legislators and their staff members must undergo mandatory sexual-harassment training; and in New York City, non-binary people can now list their gender as “X” on birth certificates. [Wall Street Journal]