University of South Dakota School of Law

  • Morning Docket: 10.16.17
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 10.16.17

    * Colin Kaepernick, who remains unsigned six weeks into the season, has filed a grievance against the NFL and its owners alleging collusion under the latest collective bargaining agreement, claiming that he’s been deprived of employment in retaliation for “bringing awareness to peculiar institutions still undermining racial equality in the United States.” [Bleacher Report]

    * Harvey Weinstein was planning to file suit against the New York Times for defamation, but Charles Harder, the hot-shot lawyer who brought down Gawker, has left the media mogul’s legal team. Harder is the third lawyer to step away from this representation, following moves made by Lisa Bloom and Lanny Davis. [Deadline]

    * Attorney General Jeff Sessions has rolled back protections for transgender people in the workforce and in education, but the Department of Justice is taking a hard line when it comes to federal hate crimes that have been committed against the very people his policies have thrust into potential danger. [New York Times]

    * Harvard Law students and alumni want major improvements to be made to the school’s public service loan assistance program, saying their alma mater has “fallen behind its peer schools” when it comes to supporting graduates who work in public interest. Will HLS act to preserve its stature, or to help its own? [Harvard Crimson]

    * Even though women account for more than 40 percent of the school’s student body, there aren’t enough women’s bathrooms at the University of South Dakota School of Law, and students who’ve been forced to wait in long lines are pretty pissed that the administration has done such a piss-poor job of handling this issue. [Wichita Eagle]

  • Morning Docket: 10.03.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 10.03.16

    * The New York Times has obtained Donald Trump’s tax records from 1995, revealing a nearly $916 million loss that would have enabled him to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period. Marc Kasowitz, name partner of Kasowitz Benson, represents Trump, and has threatened the paper with “prompt initiation of appropriate legal action” for its publication of his client’s tax records. [New York Times]

    * George Mason University will host a grand opening ceremony this week for the twice renamed Antonin Scalia School of Law Antonin Scalia Law School — a ceremony that five SCOTUS justices will reportedly attend — and some students and faculty are planning to protest the Koch brothers’ funding of scholarships by wearing red tape over their mouths to symbolize their voices being taken from them. [Big Law Business]

    * Katherine Magbanua, the woman who is suspected of connecting Florida State University law professor Dan Markel’s alleged killers, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, with the family of Markel’s ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, has been arrested on murder charges. According to police, she has “received numerous benefits from the Adelsons since Markel’s murder.” We’ll have more on this later today. [Tallahassee Democrat]

    * According to Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida, Orlando-based firm Butler & Hosch violated the WARN Act when it closed suddenly in May 2015 and conducted mass layoffs of more than 700 employees without giving them 60 days of advance notice. The firm, which is bankruptcy, could be on the hook for millions of dollars in damages. We may have more on this later today. [Orlando Sentinel]

    * Following the embarrassment that was former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner’s light sentence in the sexual assault of an unconscious woman at his school, California Gov. Jerry Brown has broadened the state’s legal definition of rape to include penetration with a foreign object, mandate prison time if the victim was unconscious at the time of the assault, and forbid judges from granting probation or parole in such cases. [Reuters]

    * “Frankly, USD has been a bit behind in that, in part, up until 2014, we had no problem with the bar exam. When you’re hitting in the high 80s or 90s, you don’t worry about much.” Unofficial results from the South Dakota bar exam are out, and after years of declines in passage rates for graduates of South Dakota Law, administrators are ready to take action now that only about 50 percent of graduates passed the test. [Argus Leader]

    * “I was empty and then this woman walked into my life. I didn’t think it would happen again and it did. She is it.” LGBT rights pioneer Edie Windsor, the plaintiff whose Supreme Court case rendered DOMA unconstitutional in 2013 and laid the groundwork for the high court to declare that marriage equality was a fundamental right just two years later, remarried in New York last week. Our very best wishes! [New York Times]

  • Bar Exams, Barack Obama, Biglaw, Celebrities, Crime, DUI / DWI, Eric Holder, Law Schools, Morning Docket, Sarbanes-Oxley / Sarbox / SOX, SCOTUS, Supreme Court

    Morning Docket: 11.06.14

    * “Perhaps Congress should have called this the Sarbanes-Oxley Grouper Act.” Based on the justices’ reactions during oral argument, it seems like SCOTUS isn’t taking the bait in the Yates case. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * It seems that President Obama still hasn’t made a decision on who he wants to replace Eric Holder as attorney general. Maybe the results of the midterm election made him change his mind. [Legal Times]

    * Jay Z may have 99 problems, but this champagne deal ain’t one because Cooley helped to seal the deal. If Armand de Brignac is good enough for Queen Bey, it’s good enough for this Biglaw firm. [Am Law Daily]

    * Students at the University of South Dakota School of Law are wondering whether they’re receiving a good legal education considering they’re being trained to pass the “easiest [bar] in the nation.” [The Volante]

    * Kenneth Desormes of Connecticut was charged after trying to eat the results of his breathalyzer test. He may be the same Kenneth Desormes who tried to get his law school to admit to fraud. [Hartford Courant]

  • Biglaw, Fashion, Fashion Is Fun, Gender, In-House Counsel, Lateral Moves, Law Schools, Mergers and Acquisitions, Morning Docket, Sports, Tax Law, Women's Issues

    Morning Docket: 09.10.13

    * Even at the top of the in-house food chain, women lawyers are still paid less than their male counterparts. But hey, at least they’re not being forced to cry poverty like their in-house staff attorney brethren. [Corporate Counsel]

    * Neil Barofsky, the former King of TARP in the United States, is making the move to Jenner & Block, specifically because as opposed to all other firms, “Jenner took the side of really getting to the truth of the matter.” [Reuters]

    * Luxury fashion is fun: four Biglaw firms, including Cleary Gottlieb, Cravath, Torys, and Proskauer Rose, all took Tim Gunn’s mantra to heart to make it work for the $6 billion sale of Neiman Marcus. [Am Law Daily (sub. req.)]

    * If you want to try some lawyer, we hear that they taste great when poached this time of year. Speaking of which, Troutman Sanders just reeled in three attorneys from Hunton & Williams. [Richmond BizSense]

    * Law schools in the Dakotas are renovating their buildings in the hope of enrolling more students. Luckily, South Dakota has that sweet indentured servitude plan. [Prairie Business; National Law Journal (sub. req.)]

    * If you’re thinking of applying to law school, here’s a plan of attack for the month of September. That’s right, friends, you can start gunning right now! [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News & World Report]

    * Are you ready for some tax law?! The NFL and other professional sports leagues might lose their nonprofit status if new tax reform legislation makes it through the House and the Senate. [Businessweek]

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