WilmerHale

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.06.16

* Rudy Giuliani will be taking a "voluntary leave of absence" from Greenberg Traurig thanks to his activities related to Donald Trump's campaign for the presidency. Is Giuliani's move truly voluntary, or was the prominent partner forced to take a break as Election 2016 draws closer and the race for the White House becomes even more heated? We'll have more on this development later today. [Observer] * In 196 deals with a total volume of $379.6 billion, White & Case is ranked No. 1 on Bloomberg’s M&A charts for global deals in the first three quarters of 2016. The firm surpassed the likes of SullCrom (No. 2), Wachtell Lipton (No. 3), Davis Polk (No. 4), and Skadden (No. 5). This time last year, Skadden was leading the pack. [Big Law Business] * In one of the first cases related to race that SCOTUS grappled with this Term, some say it appeared as though the justices may side with a black death row inmate in search of a new sentence because his own lawyer used an expert witness at trial who testified that the man was more likely to be dangerous in the future because of his race. [Reuters] * Government lawyers continue to flock to Biglaw firms, and this time, the lateral hire is a "true patriot, who believes in service to the nation as a calling." WilmerHale welcomes Alejandro Mayorkas, a former U.S. Attorney who has worked for the the past three years as No. 2 at the Department of Homeland Security. Congratulations! [WSJ Law Blog] * "I just hope that when people think the rules don’t apply to them, they will think twice before they abuse their power." Thanks to a California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, it is now a felony punishable by up to three years in prison for state prosecutors to tamper with evidence or hide exculpatory material from the defense. [Los Angeles Times]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.03.15

* According to this former Supreme Court clerk, Justice Scalia's judicial zingers are just like porn in that they're "titillating, but over time they coarsen the culture of which they are a part." (Plus, for what it's worth, the jurist's audience usually never gets a money shot.) [Washington Post] * Better late than never? The ABA dropped the hammer on law schools trying to game their employment stats with a new rule that'll force them to report school-funded jobs as part-time unless certain length and salary reqs are met. [WSJ Law Blog] * The largest of D.C.'s largest law firms grew even larger over the past year, and thanks to a merger, an outsider firm -- Morgan Lewis -- managed to infiltrate the capital's Big Four. Sorry, WilmerHale, but maybe 2016 will be your comeback year. [National Law Journal] * In other ABA news, the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar rejected a plea for academic credit for paid externships, because we apparently want to keep students as indebted as possible before they begin their professional legal careers. [ABA Journal] * A judge dismissed a lawsuit filed by Richard Lee, a known conspiracy theorist, who sought the release of the Seattle police department's death-scene photographs from Nirvana star Kurt Cobain's suicide. Hey! Wait! He'll file a new complaint. [Seattle Times]

By Staci Zaretsky