United Kingdom / Great Britain

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.13.19

* 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.)]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.08.19

* 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]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.22.18

* Remember how Trump promised that he'd "fight for" the transgender community while he was campaigning? Perhaps he meant that he'd fight to erase them. The Trump administration is reportedly considering defining sex under Title IX "based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth." [New York Times] * Democratic senators in Washington are refusing to return their blue slips for Perkins Coie partner Eric Miller, a Ninth Circuit nominee, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is pissed. Slow your roll, Chuck. I thought we didn't care about blue slips anymore? [The Recorder] * About half of lawyers in the United Kingdom say they're not ready to deal with Brexit. That's okay. The United Kingdom isn't ready to deal with Brexit either -- and 40 percent of lawyers think their Biglaw firms will try to escape the UK because of it. [Am Law International] * In case you missed it, Paul Manafort showed up at the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday afternoon in a wheelchair, citing health concerns as his attorney requested an expedited sentencing date. Manafort seems to have gotten what he wanted, and will be sentenced there on February 8. [National Law Journal] * During his inauguration speech, the University of Virginia's new president, James Ryan -- a UVA Law graduate who once worked as a UVA law professor -- pledged that tuition would be free for students whose families earned less than $80,000 a year. We wonder if that applies to law school tuition as well. [WTTF Fox 5]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.06.18

* Could this be the year that law firms break out of their cycle of tepid growth? [American Lawyer] * In ordinary times, Roy Moore's laughable lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen would be bigger news. We do not live in ordinary times. [Law360] * One would have thought "independence" would be "having a lifetime job with no oversight and an impossibly onerous removal process." But, "independence" really means "only answering hypotheticals that don't raise potentially serious questions about a guy's fig leaf of a judicial philosophy." This is why it's so important to be a textualist! [Courthouse News Service] * It makes for a nice, vapid buzzword, but there actually is an "I" in "Team of Nine." [National Law Journal] * A federal judge has banned the Texas "bury your zygote" law. Don't worry Texas, your boy Brett's will make sure you don't have to worry about this ever again. [NPR] * Shocking no one, lawyers think Brexit was a bad idea. [Legalweek] * Oh, and we're going to "open up libel laws" now. [CBS]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 07.16.18

* A White House spokeswoman claims that Judge Brett Kavanaugh "had never heard any allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment" made against Judge Alex Kozinski prior to last year when everyone else found out, and an extern who worked in Kozinski's chambers while Kavanaugh clerked is backing him up. [Washington Times] * The art of the deal don't: United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May says that President Trump told her she should sue the European Union instead of negotiating when it comes to Brexit options. There's no real cause of action, so she says that won't be happening -- not like that's something that has ever stopped Trump before. [Vox] * President Trump leaned heavily on Biglaw partners for his latest nominations to the federal judicary. Perkins Coie, K&L Gates, and Barnes & Thornburg could soon see representation on the Ninth Circuit, the Western District of Washington, the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the Northern District of Indiana. [The Recorder] * After months of debate, a panel has finally recommended that Florida State rename the law school building via legislative action. It currently recognizes former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice B.K. Roberts., a " staunch segregationist" who once tried to deny a black student's admission to U. Florida's law school. [Tallahassee Democrat] * "For better or worse, I have become an agent for hope for those that are opposing this president." Michael Avenatti is famous for being President Trump's biggest critic, but he's "using that platform for good." In addition to Stormy Daniels, he now represents parents whose children were separated from them at the border. [AP]

By Staci Zaretsky