University of Chicago Law School

  • Non-Sequiturs: 11.21.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 11.21.16

    * Some big reasons why Trump will probably stick to well-worn tradition and select a federal appellate judge to fill Justice Scalia’s seat. [Empirical SCOTUS]

    * Class action against Chipotle over burritos containing over 300 calories. [Slate]

    * Should lawyers learn how to code? Maybe not. Hell, I’d just be happy if someone showed me how Minecraft works. [Lawyerist]

    * Police are spending millions spying on protesters because the Bill of Rights is merely advisory these days. [Washington Post]

    * A look at “ageism in the digital era.” I’m sure no one will read it because it’s not properly Snapchatted. [Digiday]

    * Law professors weigh in on Mike Pence’s night at the theater. Honestly, has anyone considered that they may have just been chanting, “Boourns“? [TaxProf Blog]

    * The Pawnee Nation has filed suit against the federal government over oil-and-gas operations on tribal lands. If the last 400 years are any indication, they may be out of luck. [Pawnee Nation]

    * University of Chicago 3L Joshua B. Pickar is a Rhodes Scholar. Congrats. [Rhodes Trust]

  • Morning Docket: 09.30.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 09.30.16

    * According to a labor relations suit filed in 2012, Donald Trump allegedly wanted to fire female employees of Trump National Golf Club in California, who he didn’t think were pretty enough. The suit was settled without any admission of wrongdoing. [Los Angeles Times]

    * Biglaw mega-merger alert: Word on the street is that London-based firms CMS and Olswang will join with international firm Nabarro for a three-way merger that would create a combined entity with more than 3,000 lawyers. If the merger were to go through, the firm would have more than $1.5 billion in revenue. [LegalWeek]

    * According to the results of this survey, corporate counsel don’t think too highly of millennials when it comes to loyalty. Almost 70 percent of baby boomers and Gen Xers thought millennial lawyers in their legal departments would leave in less than five years, potentially causing “major problem[s]” in terms of turnover rates. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * How many women serve as lead counsel in New York state and federal courts and in mediation and arbitration? That’s what a new study being conducted by the New York State Bar Association’s Commercial and Federal Litigation Section hopes to find out, because “[o]nce you have a diagnosis, you can get to a solution.” [New York Law Journal]

    * “Something is going wrong at this bank, and you are the head of it. You should be fired.” Wells Fargo CEO John Stumpf may be forfeiting $41 million in pay, but lawmakers were still pretty darn upset with him when he testified before the House Financial Services Committee at a hearing yesterday. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Phil C. Neal, former dean of University of Chicago Law School, RIP. [UChicago News]

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  • Non-Sequiturs: 09.15.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 09.15.16

    * A considered case for pardoning Edward Snowden by Timothy Edgar, who was on the team responsible during the George W. Bush administration for determining that most of the secret surveillance programs had a firm basis in law. [Lawfare]

    * The Virginia Supreme Court denied an effort by Republican legislators to find Governor McAuliffe in contempt over an effort to restore voting rights to felons. [Richmond Times-Dispatch]

    * The “Urban Cowboy” threatens to sue New York City. Most importantly, he’s lawyered up with Richard Luthmann, the Staten Island lawyer who previously sought trial by combat. This should be fun. [Gothamist]

    * An omnibus look at what the election means for the courts. Beyond Justice Peter Thiel, of course. [Law.com]

    * Many University of Chicago professors have denounced the “no safe spaces” publicity stunt from a few weeks ago, but the law school has largely missed the point of the dispute stayed out of the fray. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * You don’t see many paeans to the Lochner era, but here’s one. [Library of Law and Liberty]

    * Oregon has settled with Oracle over the state’s troubled health exchange. [Oregonlive]

    * Walking meetings improve productivity. Yeah, I’ve watched West Wing reruns too. [TaxProf Blog]

    * ATL Editor Kathryn Rubino talks politics on the latest Today’s Verdict. [BronxNet]

  • Morning Docket: 08.03.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 08.03.16

    * Singer Kesha has dropped her lawsuit in California against producer Dr. Luke, but will continue her appeal in New York. She says she dropped the suit because she’s “focused on getting back to work,” but Dr. Luke’s lawyer says it’s because she has “no chance of winning.” Ouch, that’s got to sting. [People]

    * Get off my lawn, you damn kids! A New Jersey personal injury attorney has filed a class-action lawsuit against Niantic, the company behind Pokemon Go, for the “unlawful and wrongful” invasion of his property. It seems that in the rush to catch ’em all, people have been gathering outside of his home, knocking on his door, and asking to enter his backyard. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Following up on his tentative oral ruling, Juge Gonzalo P. Curiel has ruled that a Trump University fraud case filed against Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump may proceed to trial, but he refused to release Trump’s videotaped deposition. We suppose that the transcript will have to be good enough. [New York Times]

    * “These are things that don’t just affect one job; it keeps women’s wages down over their entire lifetime.” Thanks to a new law geared toward closing the gender wage gap, in Massachusetts, it is now illegal for employers to ask about applicants’ salary history before offering them jobs. This goes into effect in 2018. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * “We are confidently looking to the future.” Following a series of “regrettable departures” and a capital call that successfully raised about $18.4 million from the firm’s existing partners, it looks like the “modernization” and restructuring of the King & Wood Mallesons partnership is finally going to be drawing to a close. [Big Law Business]

    * Jenner & Block has teamed up with the University of Chicago Law School to create a Supreme Court and Appellate Clinic, with the goal of “educat[ing] and train[ing] the next generation of extraordinary appellate advocates and continu[ing] the tradition of helping clients hanks their most important litigation problems.” Congratulations! [ABA Journal]

  • Non-Sequiturs: 04.26.16
    Non-Sequiturs

    Non-Sequiturs: 04.26.16

    * Is this judge dangerous or just doing her job — or worse, both? [Guile is Good]

    * So, you find yourself “in between” legal jobs at the moment. What do you do with the time? [Reboot Your Law Practice]

    * This University of Chicago Law student is just trying to make his nut, and he’s developed a card game called “The Golfing Dead.” A standard card game put through the “apocalyptic ringer.” Even his law professor is on board with the fun game… it may not be important or amazing, but it is entertaining. [Kickstarter]

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LRN6vfrIY1c

    * This Anthony Weiner documentary looks like it is going to be everything you didn’t even know you always wanted from a political documentary. [Gawker]

    * Despite blood testing company Theranos’s recent onslaught of issues, including SEC and U.S. Attorney’s Office investigation, David Boies reports the board is standing behind CEO and founder Elizabeth Holmes. [Vanity Fair]

    * When a decrease in the number of prisoners in a state is the cause of a budget crisis, you know things are jacked up. [Lawyers, Guns and Money]

    * Deutsche Bank is pushing back against rising legal costs. Is this the new normal that law firms have to deal with? [Law and More]

    * New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman’s lawsuit against Trump University is going forward. [Law Newz]

  • Morning Docket: 04.04.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 04.04.16

    * “Say you’ll remember me, standing in a black robe, waiting for a hearing, babe. Begging the SJC, say you will confirm me, even if it’s just in my wildest dreams, ah-ha ohh.” SCOTUS nominee Judge Merrick Garland has something in common with an overwhelming number of teenage girls: he loves Taylor Swift sing-alongs. That’s cute! [People]

    * “A judge does not check his First Amendment rights at the courthouse door.” Judge Olu Stevens has filed suit against the Kentucky Judicial Conduct Commission on free-speech grounds in an attempt to stave off an ethics sanction for publicly commenting on Facebook about all-white juries and their “disproportionate and disparate impact on black defendants.” [Courier-Journal]

    * Hardly any partners leave Cravath, but a very important one just did, and his exit is making people talk. Scott Barshay, once a top M&A partner at the firm that tends to set the associate bonus scale, has defected to Paul Weiss, where he’ll become its global head of M&A. Which clients will he take to the “dream team”? [DealBook / New York Times]

    * This plaintiff’s antitrust allegations against Uber’s CEO may be “wildly implausible” and representative of an “impossibly unwieldy conspiracy,” but in Judge Jed Rakoff’s eyes, they were enough to overcome a motion to dismiss that was filed by Boies Schiller. Something tells us Uber’s legal bills are going to see some surge-pricing. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * Per a study by Ravel Law, in a new index that tracks federal judges by their rulings and subsequent citations to those rulings, Michigan produces the most influential judges on the federal bench, followed by Chicago, Harvard, and Yale. Harvard has finally gotten one over on Yale — but for a measly bronze trophy. [Crain’s Detroit Business]

    * According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal sector gained 1,200 jobs in March. On top of that positive news, February’s numbers were revised from a loss of 1,500 jobs to a gain of 100 jobs. In any case, what with the huge discrepancy, we’re happy to see Dewey’s bookkeepers found new work. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

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