United Kingdom / Great Britain

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.26.18

* As it turns out, Joe diGenova -- the lawyer who's convinced that the Justice Department is trying to frame Trump with its Russia investigation -- won't be joining the president's personal legal team after all due to conflicts of interest. DiGenova's wife, Victoria Toensing, has been conflicted out as well. Oopsie! [New York Times] * President Trump tweeted this weekend that "[m]any lawyers and top law firms want to represent me in the Russia case," and that his difficulty in finding lawyers to join his defense team is "Fake News." Meanwhile, at least four defense attorneys at separate Biglaw firms have been approached, and most have turned down the offer. [CNN] * In her 60 Minutes interview, Stormy Daniels says she was once physically threatened to keep quiet about her affair with Donald Trump and was later pressured into signing a false statement denying the affair because she believed that Michael Cohen, Trump’s personal attorney, would “make [her] life hell.” Cohen has denied threatening Daniels. [Washington Post] * In the summer of 2014, Bracewell & Giuliani warned Cambridge Analytica that foreign citizens shouldn't have "substantive management" roles running U.S. election campaigns, and yet, that's exactly what the company did in its work with the Trump campaign, and now Robert Mueller is on the case. [Washington Examiner; TIME] * Some law firms in the U.K. have started including information on partners' salaries in their mandatory gender pay gap reporting. The first firms to do so were Norton Rose Fulbright, with a 27 percent pay gap for all employees (including partners), and Reed Smith, with an 8 percent pay gap among only partners. [Financial Times] * Law student Jordan Crewe has already filed suit against the soon-to-be-closed Savannah Law School, accusing the school of committing fraud, negligent misrepresentation, breach of contract, and breach of fiduciary duty. She's requesting punitive damages from the school, and wants a jury trial too. [WSAV]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.14.18

* Ever since Judge Alex Kozinski of the Ninth Circuit, who had been accused of sexual harassment by 15 women, retired, a working group within the federal judiciary has been trying to come up with reforms to be made as far as sexual harassment is concerned. Thus far, they've come up with about 20 reforms, and Chief Justice John Roberts is confident the group's work will "ensure an exemplary workplace for every court employee." [National Law Journal] * Time's up, UK: The Solicitors Regulation Authority of England and Wales has warned law firms not to use nondisclosure agreements to cover up sexual harassment and assault scandals. After all, these are instances of professional misconduct, so of course a professional regulatory agency wants to know about that. [American Lawyer] * Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will be turning 85 later this week, and she says she's "feeling fine." Many hope that the self-described "flaming feminist litigator" continues to feel that way until we find a way to turn her into a little RBG judicial bot that will never, ever short-circuit -- or until there's a Democrat in office. [USA Today] * Nichole Ashley Collins, the Pennsylvania lawyer who was fired for allegedly stealing money from her firm and then returned to the firm to allegedly steal more money to buy sex toys, has been disbarred. Who would've expected such a thing... [FOX 43] * Prosecutors in Florida will seek the death penalty against Nikolas Cruz for his role as the accused gunman in the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre. Last week, Cruz was indicted by a grand jury on 17 counts of premeditated murder in the first degree and 17 counts of attempted murder in the first degree. [CNN]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.30.18

* Just in time for the State of the Union, the Ninth Circuit ruled that immigrant children can be railroaded out of the country without access to a lawyer. Maybe they'll avoid Trump's ire tonight. [The Hill] * Have you read about the Presidents Club dinner? If not, then you can read here, but it's basically Tailhook for rich people. Now read about the law firm partners who may or may not have shown up including a Fried Frank partner who "did not attend the dinner and left shortly after arriving" which is an Escher painting of a statement. [Legal Cheek] * New study from ALM Intelligence and Harvard Law School suggests part of the reason women are underrepresented at the partnership level is a propensity to selecting lower risk paths earlier in their career, locking them out of greater opportunities. Of course, this fails to answer what happens in the law that tends to encourage women to step off the path, but it's valuable for diagnosing the problem. [American Lawyer] * Money laundering with the Russians... yeah, lawyers aren't supposed to do that. [Daily Business Review] * Texas judge blocks law requiring respect for unborn children, provoking a fierce outcry from politicians worried about the sanctity of life. Texas has the highest maternal mortality rate in the developed world, but who really cares about that? I mean, once they get past negative 8-and-a-half months they stop being cute. [Dallas Morning News] * Sad news, the former shadow attorney general of the UK, media lawyer Arthur Davidson, has passed at 91. [The Guardian]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.24.18

* Now that special counsel Robert Mueller has interviewed Attorney General Jeff Sessions for hours on end, he's getting closer to interviewing the president himself, and it looks like the focus will be on the ouster of Michael Flynn and James Comey (i.e., obstruction of the Russia investigation). [Washington Post] * After the federal government shutdown ended, Justice Neil Gorsuch dined with Senate Majority Whip John Cornyn and other Republican senators and Trump administration officials. Ethics violation? Nah. "Justices don’t take vows to be hermits. Nothing here remotely suggests ethical issue." [National Law Journal] * More than one million corporate email addresses from the United Kingdom's top law firms were found on the dark web, and 80 percent were associated with passwords, which puts those firms at a very significant risk of being hacked. Be wary about cybersecurity breaches in the future thanks to this. [Infosecurity Magazine] * The University of Windsor Faculty of Law in Ontario, Canada, suffered a major data breach earlier this month after a law school staff member accidentally posted confidential information -- names, GPAs, LSAT scores, the works -- about current applicants to a blackboard accessible by current students. Oops! [Lawyer's Daily] * If you're thinking about applying to law school, make sure you keep in mind that anything you include (or neglect to include) in your application can and will be used against you during your character and fitness evaluation when you apply to take the bar exam after graduation. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

By Staci Zaretsky