Third Circuit

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  • Morning Docket: 09.27.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 09.27.16

    * “Even with a new Republican appointee, [Justice Clarence] Thomas is likely to remain somewhat isolated on the extreme right.” In the case of Justice Thomas, it wouldn’t even matter if Donald Trump won the presidency — he’d still be the most conservative justice in the modern history of the Supreme Court. [New York Times]

    * The Supreme Court’s long conference was yesterday, and we’ll likely find out later today (or in the days to come) the cases for which the justices decided to grant certiorari for the 2016-17 term. One of those cases may be NCAA v. O’Bannon, where the question of sports amateurism for the purpose of athletes’ pay is up for debate. [CBS Sports]

    * Hot on the heels of the news that Dentons dragged down revenue per lawyer rankings for the entire 2016 Global 100 thanks to its mega-merger with Dacheng, the firm had a more upbeat announcement. Partners Mike McNamara, Jeff Haidet, and Peter Wolfson have ascended to national and global leadership positions. Congrats! [Big Law Business]

    * Under a new California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, actors may conceal their age and force websites like IMDb to remove their age from bio pages in order to shield themselves from age-based discrimination in casting. Critics of the law are calling this an attack on free speech — and it’s too little, too late for Junie Hoang. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Judge Leonard I. Garth, Third Circuit Court of Appeals jurist, RIP. [Washington Post]

    * Daniel O. Bernstine, president of LSAC, RIP. [ABA Journal]

  • Morning Docket: 08.19.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.19.16

    * “Donald Ducks,” the DNC’s mascot that’s being used to taunt Donald Trump for his undisclosed tax returns, bears a striking resemblance to Disney’s Donald Duck, and people are starting to wonder: “Is Donald Ducks waddling over Disney’s intellectual property rights?” [WSJ Law Blog]

    * The Third Circuit declined to re-seal excerpts of depositions in the Bill Cosby case where he admitted to giving women Quaaludes, but included in its opinion an interesting footnote calling out the district court judge’s decision to unseal the records in the first place, saying its “public moralist rational” had “no basis in our jurisprudence,” and that the term itself was “vague and undefined.” [THR, Esq. / Hollywood Reporter]

    * This fall, Indiana Tech Law will welcome its largest class ever, with 55 students set to begin their legal studies next week. With only 15 students in its inaugural class, this huge jump in enrollment could possibly be due to the fact that the ABA gave the school a provisional rubber stamp (as it’s wont to do) back in March. [Indiana Lawyer]

    * “There is a disconnect between what banks are doing and what consumers want,” and what they want is the ability to sue. More and more big banks — 72 percent of them, in fact — are using mandatory binding arbitration clauses in their contracts to prevent customers from filing suit. Read the find print, people. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * “What if somebody gets injured on somebody else’s property? Trip on a rock or get bitten by the neighbor’s dog? There would be a whole host of responsible parties.” A New York firm already filed a class-action suit against the company behind Pokemon Go, but this lawyer thinks there’s a minefield of tort actions available to sue over. [Mlive.com]

  • Morning Docket: 08.18.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.18.16

    * A Brazilian judge ordered that Olympic swimmers Ryan Lochte and Jimmy Feigen surrender their passports and remain in Rio until investigators can determine whether they filed a false police report of being robbed at gunpoint. There’s one problem: Lochte is back in America. Jeah! [USA Today]

    * As we mentioned yesterday, according to NALP, law school graduates in the class of 2015 landed fewer jobs in private practice than any other class in the past 20 years. There is a bright side, though: Biglaw firms are hiring in droves and the median starting salary for new lawyers has risen to $100,000, which is 5 percent higher than it was for the class of 2014. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Graduates who sued Widener Law in 2012 over the school’s allegedly deceptive employment statistics lost a federal appeal to overturn a denial of class certification. A three-judge panel of the Third Circuit — one which included Donald Trump’s sister, Judge Maryanne Trump Barry — rejected a class-wide theory of damages. [Law.com]

    * Legal ethics professor Ronald Rotunda of Chapman Law wrote an op-ed striking out against the ABA’s adoption of a new professional misconduct rule which seeks to combat discrimination and bias in the law. He refers to the new rule as a misguided “foray into political correctness,” and thinks the ABA overstepped its bounds. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * “At best he was doing something profundity stupid with the hopes of meeting someone he will never get to meet in his lifetime.” A lawyer for Stephen Rogata, the teen who scaled Trump Tower, says her client should receive psychiatric treatment instead of jail time. He’s being held on $10,000 bail bond or $5,000 cash. [New York Daily News]

  • Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 05.18.16

    * Check your spam folders! The Ticketmaster settlement email may be in there. [Slate] * Conservative lawyer Ted Olson is drafting an amicus for companies opposed to North Carolina’s anti-transgender bathroom law, HB2. [Time] * Amanda Knox can now sue Italy for an unfair trial. [New York Post] * Will there be a long-term chilling effect […]