Sexual Harassment

* Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who was paid six figures in exchange for not spilling the beans about her affair with Donald Trump, is now suing him, claiming that the “hush agreement” she entered into prior to the election is invalid because he never signed it. [Washington Post]

* File this under Not Top Ten: Former ESPN legal analyst and sports anchor Adrienne Lawrence, a onetime associate of Greenberg Traurig, Arent Fox, and McGuireWoods, has filed a sexual harassment suit against the sports network, claiming that SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross constantly harassed her. [American Lawyer]

* Not only will the government be able to seize more than $7.3 million of disgraced pharma bro Martin Shkreli’s assets — including his one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album — but prosecutors want to throw him behind bars for no less than 15 years. [New York Law Journal]

* Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce today that the Justice Department will be filing suit against California over its “sanctuary state” laws. As alleged in the complaint, the Golden State’s laws — AB 450, SB 54, and AB 103 — were all created to impede immigration laws. [USA Today]

* “When I heard the gun went off accidentally, that just didn’t ring true. Someone has to pull the trigger. They just don’t accidentally discharge.” Prospective jurors in former Biglaw partner Claud “Tex” McIver’s murder trial weren’t exactly buying his defense. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

* Forget about the egregious law school tuition you’ll have to pay in the future, because it can cost quite the pretty penny to apply to law school in the first place. You may want to look into fee waivers so you can save yourself some cash. [U.S. News]

* Billy McFarland, the millennial entrepreneur who organized the disastrous Fyre Festival, has taken a plea deal after defrauding the investors who bought into the failed event. He’s looking at sentence of eight to 10 years in prison. [Big Law Business]

* The NFL is going to ask Jerry Jones to reimburse legal fees spent on Roger Goodell’s contract negotiations because Jones — prudently and responsibly — argued that the league had an obligation not to rubber stamp a multi-million dollar extension to this idiot. You’ve got to hand it to Goodell… he’s made Jerry Jones a sympathetic figure. [NPR]

* Tim Kaine is leading a handful of Democrats in an effort to make it harder to enforce anti-discrimination laws in the housing market. Oh. [Huffington Post]

* Kirkland & Ellis is out there doing crazy stuff to bolster revenue… and it’s working. [Law.com]

* SEC reportedly issuing subpoenas in crackdown on fraudulent ICOs. Apparently, the agency is concerned that some companies handing out magic beans may not be on the up and up. [Bloomberg Markets]

* Alston & Bird tagged by jury as 32 percent liable for its role in enabling millions in ill-gotten gains. [Daily Report Online]

* Harvey Weinstein’s carrier refuses to cover his legal bills. Apparently “Chubb” doesn’t cover horny men accused of misconduct which seems ironic. [Variety]

* A dive into just how badly the Supreme Court kneecapped detained immigrants and their attorneys this week. [VICE News]

* The first editorial from the American Lawyer’s Young Lawyer Editorial Board tackles sexual harassment in the legal industry. [American Lawyer]

* “With respect, I dissent.” Thanks to this Supreme Court opinion, asylum seekers and other immigrant aliens can now be held indefinitely without bond hearings. Justice Breyer was so pissed off that he read part of his 33-page dissent from the bench. [National Law Journal]

* Was Trump compromised? In the latest phase of special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, members of his legal team have been asking about Donald Trump’s business activities in Russia prior to his campaign, when he was still considering running for president. [CNN]

* Partner billing rates at the biggest of Biglaw firms (750 or more lawyers) continue to climb, and they’re now 45 percent higher than those of slightly smaller Biglaw firms (501 to 750 lawyers). In fact, the gap between the two types of firm grew by 11 percent over 2016. We wonder what the highest hourly rate of all is. [American Lawyer]

* The 2019 edition of the U.S. News law school rankings will be released on March 20, 2018. We repeat, the 2019 edition of the U.S. News law school rankings will be released on March 20, 2018. Prepare yourselves for the annual running of the deans after law schools drop in rank. [Morse Code/ U.S. News & World Report]

* Karma is great: The Weinstein Company will be filing for bankruptcy following a failed deal with investors to sell the tainted film and television studio in the wake of Harvey Weinstein’s sexual misconduct scandal. [DealBook / New York Times]

* “Eat sh*t, Bob.” Last Week Tonight’s John Oliver convinced a judge to dismiss a defamation suit filed by Robert Murray of Murray Energy, finding that the comedian was well with his First Amendment rights to criticize the coal baron and his company on HBO. [Hollywood Reporter]

* Former Skadden associate Alex van der Zwaan has already pleaded guilty to lying in the Russia investigation, but special counsel Robert Mueller isn’t nearly done with the Biglaw firm. According to sources, “[l]awyers at Skadden are on edge,” which means we should get ready for some juicy Skaddenfreude. [New York Times]

* This weekend, Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee released their declassified rebuttal to Republican claims that FBI and DOJ officials abused their powers, calling those claims a “transparent” attempt to undermine the special counsel’s investigation into Russian election interference. [NBC News]

* “Do better NKU. Dont let him teach us.” Students and alumni of Northern Kentucky University Law School are demanding action after former dean Jeffrey Standen was allowed to resign and then return as NKU’s highest-paid full-time professor following sexual harassment allegations, but the school says it can’t fire him. [Cincinnati.com]

* How are you reacting to the scrutiny of sexual harassment in the workplace? That’s just one of the questions the ABA Journal and Working Mother want you to answer in this important survey for women and men working in law firms. [ABA Journal]

* Audacious: former Mercer Law student Stephen McDaniel, who took apart the body of Lauren Giddings after brutally murdering her, seeks habeas corpus. [WGXA]

* “Did #MeToo really bring a reckoning to the legal industry?” A discussion featuring Katherine Ku, Dahlia Lithwick, Leah Litman, Ian Samuel, and me. [Vice]

* Speaking of #MeToo and the legal profession, look for more disturbing stories like this one to emerge in the weeks ahead. [Medium]

* Best friends: which amici in the Supreme Court have the strongest track records in major cases? [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Speaking of SCOTUS, if you were a billionaire who dropped $32.5 million on beachfront property, you too would hire Paul Clement to seek certiorari in your takings case. [SFGate]

* As someone with a mild case of prosopagnosia (aka face-blindness), I totally agree with Eugene Volokh’s recommendations about nametags at conferences. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* Divorce lawyer and former Playboy model Corri Fetman, no stranger to our pages, is running for Cook County Circuit Court judge — and calling out her opponents for running body-shaming attack ads. [Chicago Reader]

* Here’s what the United States can — and can’t — learn from the small, happy, and fairly homogenous nation of Denmark (by Megan McArdle via Glenn Reynolds). [Instapundit]

* If you share my confusion about blockchain, here’s a recommendation: check out the new Integra Wallet, just released by legal-blockchain pioneer Integra Ledger. [Artificial Lawyer]

* Speaking of leveraging the power of blockchain, you simply must check out Casey Flaherty’s new Magic Money Machine™. [3 Geeks and a Law Blog]

* If you work a lot with expert witnesses, you might want to check out Courtroom Insight, for reasons explained by Jean O’Grady. [Dewey B Strategic]

* Congratulations to Professor Jennifer Levi, recipient of the ABA Stonewall Award for her pioneering work on transgender rights! [Western New England University]

* Only 23 percent of law school grads think their education was worth the cost. That number seems high. [CNBC]

* Apparently, judges can’t use their office to trade leniency for nude photos. You learn something new every day. [Courthouse News Service]

* Professor Epps patiently explains how bad Clarence Thomas is at basic constitutional law. [The Atlantic]

* Ogletree slapped with a sexual harassment suit on the heels of a big gender discrimination suit. Somebody over there really needs to learn labor law. [The Recorder]

* Just as a recap: Protecting minority voting rights — not a priority for the DOJ. Challenging a settlement to give people $2 wine coupons — absolutely a priority for the DOJ. [National Law Journal]

* Summer programs are shrinking again, so go ahead and start panicking. [American Lawyer]

* Boies is leading a coalition challenging the “winner-take-all” electoral system — but not the Electoral College itself — as an affront to “one person, one vote.” Because when I think about improving fairness, it’s turning over the task of choosing Electors to gerrymandered maps. [Bloomberg]

* School superintendent about to get a crash course on basic constitutional law. [Washington Post]

* Now that people have suddenly decided that sexual harassment is a real problem, can we revisit the guy with the lifetime appointment whose Senate confirmation testimony has been branded false by multiple accusers? Just a question from New York Magazine. [New York]

* New initiative aims to mint more lawyers through apprenticeship to avoid law school debt. [The Root]

* The keys to a great law firm website. The article doesn’t mention it, but “dank memes” should be your top priority. [Forbes]

* Vivia Chen thinks Michael Cohen’s story about paying off Stormy Daniels makes him a pimp, which is… pretty fair actually. [American Lawyer]

* Department of Justice tells judge that Donald Trump does have it in for CNN but that’s not a reason to block the AT&T merger. “Oh Kent, I’d be lying if I said my men weren’t committing crimes.” [National Law Journal]

* Who’s paying Schulte Roth & Zabel? That’s the big question in the ongoing New York state government corruption case. [New York Times]

* Trump tabs Skadden partner Michael Scudder for Seventh Circuit seat. Here’s some quotes from James Comey praising Scudder, so we know the Deep State must be happy. [National Law Journal]

* Yes, it’s accurate to say that the specific job of sheriff has an “Anglo-American heritage.” And, yes, given that it’s entirely unnecessary to do so — when terms like “common law” exist — the fact that someone would use that phrasing is indicative of racial bias. In fact, if anyone drops “heritage” when talking about white people it’s probably a bad sign. [Washington Post]

* All 56 Attorneys General are asking Congress to end forced arbitration in sexual harassment cases. Florida’s Pam Bondi stepped out of her usual ethical cloud to say, “decades of private arbitration proceedings regarding sexual harassment have had the unintended consequence of protecting serial violators.” You can go ahead and delete “regarding sexual harassment” and only improve the accuracy there. [Daily Business Review]

* DLA Piper has a new senior partner, which I believe grants him the official title of “Pied Piper.” [International]

* ABA looking to make online education easier. [Inside Higher Ed]

* Jones Day continues to have the top law firm brand according to the annual Acritas survey of clients. [American Lawyer]

* One of the tourists killed in the Grand Canyon helicopter crash this weekend was a lawyer. [American Lawyer]