Tax Law

Ed. note: We will not be publishing on Monday, February 19, in observance of President’s Day.

* Congratulations to my friend and former co-clerk, John Demers, on his long-overdue confirmation as head of the Justice Department’s National Security Division. [Reuters]

* Which lawyers and justices take the lead on the most important Supreme Court cases? Adam Feldman has the answers, as always. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Professor Ilya Somin breaks down the recent Fourth Circuit ruling on Trump’s Travel Ban 3.0. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* A leading legal technology company, Kira Systems, is looking for a few good law librarians (to apply for its new job as a Machine Learning Knowledge Analyst). [Dewey B Strategic]

* Lawyer and activist Glenn Magpantay, executive director of the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA), explains what’s at stake with the Dream Act. [Advocate]

* Stroock’s Joel Cohen draws lessons for lawyers from the buzz-generating new movie, The Post. [New York Law Journal]

* What role can expert witnesses play in #MeToo litigation? Lawyer Kat Hatziavramidis shares some insights. [Forensis Group]

* The Mrs. Palsgraf of the United Kingdom — a famous torts plaintiff named May Donoghue, who sued a beverage manufacturer after she discovered a decomposing snail in a bottle of ginger beer — is getting a statue erected in her honor. [Legal Cheek]

* Not as bad as sexually assaulting a student intern, but another Biglaw partner stands accused of making degrading, sexually charged comments to a junior attorney. [RollOnFriday]

* In advance of its Global Legal Hackathon (February 23-25), the Global Legal Blockchain Consortium welcomes a new member: Fasken, a leading Canadian law firm. [Artificial Lawyer]

Plus rankings of the law schools and lower-court judges that send the most folks into these prestigious posts.

Unfortunately, the changes don't look promising.

* When it comes to the retrial of sexual-assault charges against Bill Cosby, there are many women — 19, to be exact — willing to testify #MeToo. [Jezebel]

* Best friends: which organizations file the most amicus briefs in the U.S. Supreme Court? [Empirical SCOTUS]

* Judicata just ranked the brief-writing skills of 20 top California law firms; how did your firm fare? [Dewey B Strategic]

* How will artificial intelligence transform society? Brad Smith, president and chief legal officer of Microsoft, and Harry Shum, executive VP of Microsoft’s AI and research Group, share their insights. [Microsoft]

* Speaking of AI, how will it affect the world of legal practice? Jake Heller, CEO of AI pioneer Casetext, has answers.
[Artificial Lawyer]

* Professor Noah Feldman identifies the shortcomings of Twitter as a forum for legal discussion (but has some kind words for legal blogs, including the one you’re reading right now). [Bloomberg]

* Message boards are also valuable resources — like this one, “where all the unemployed lawyers go to cry.” [The Outline]

* Marc Randazza is a commendably fierce defender of the First Amendment, but this latest case might be a bridge too far. [Huffington Post]

* Check out this fascinating profile of a Mormon lawyer who lost his faith searching for an archaeological site. [Science]

* Why do we need people from s**thole countries? Meet five lawyers who prove the merits of immigration. [Lawfuel]

* Think twice before asking your accountant buddy to do your taxes for you. [Going Concern]

* Speaking of taxes, we’ve finally uncovered the real victims of the new tax scheme — partners who want a break on sports tickets. [Accounting Today]

Assuming, of course, that at least five Supreme Court justices are ready to engage with the modern world.

Ed. note: We will not be publishing on Monday, January 15, in observance of Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

* Will Geoffrey Berman, acting U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of New York, recuse from Deutsche Bank matters? It sure sounds like he should…. [Bloomberg Politics]

* Judge Shira A. Scheindlin and Joel Cohen offer advice to companies on how to handle sexual harassment allegations in a manner consistent with due process. [Guardian]

* And Glenn Reynolds has this modest proposal, also related to the problem of sexual harassment (in the federal judiciary): abolish clerkships. [Wall Street Journal]

* A quartet of tax law professors explain how a proposal to transform state and local tax payments into deductible charitable contributions to state and local government organizations could actually work.
[Slate]

* From Biglaw to big bucks: former associates Stephen Scanlan and Travis Leon sell their law-related startup, XRef, for a cool $10 million. [RollOnFriday]

* Professor Eugene Volokh: “There’s a fine line between being a ‘badass’ and….” [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* “Appeals court OKs F-Bombs for federal trademark protection.” F**king finally. [Techdirt]

* The Dewey & LeBoeuf criminal case ends with a whimper: former accounting manager Victoria Harrington just got sentenced to unconditional release (i.e., no prison time). [Law360]

* Michael Cohen is suing Buzzfeed over publishing the Trump intelligence dossier. He says the Russia collusion allegations are “not legitimate” but to paraphrase Judge Judy, “don’t pee on my leg and tell me it’s a Russian prostitute.” [Bloomberg]

* Iowa coach Kirk Ferentz is embroiled in boring, plodding lawsuit which actually sums up his offense pretty well. [Deadspin]

* The IRS is getting into the Bitcoin game. Maybe they can explain blockchain in terms that don’t involve magic. [Forbes]

* Justice Sotomayor bluntly confronted Noel Francisco over the administration’s 180 on voting rights. Francisco didn’t have a clear, straightforward  answer ready which is weird because “we managed to slip in the back door of the White House so we’re basically the Allstate Mayhem guy but for the Constitution” would’ve been a perfectly acceptable and honest answer. [National Law Journal]

* Meanwhile, a federal judge threw out a challenge to Alabama’s strict voter ID law finding the state had an important regulatory interest in combatting the voter fraud crisis that they can’t string together any evidence of. Jeez, maybe Brett Talley would have actually improved the Alabama federal bench. [NPR]

* For your daily reminder that Texas is a jerkweed backwater, the woman accused of drunkenly destroying hundreds of thousands of dollars in art faces a possible life sentence because Texas couldn’t figure out how to put the death penalty on it. [Texas Lawyer]

* Kirsten Gillibrand will use her blue slip to block the nomination of Greenberg Traurig’s Geoffrey Berman for the SDNY U.S. Attorney post. Or, more accurately these days, Kristin Gillibrand will use her blue slip to do absolutely nothing to slow down the nomination of Geoffrey Berman for the SDNY U.S. Attorney post. [New York Law Journal]

* Skadden avoids sanctions in Vijay Singh suit. Remember when the PGA was accusing people of doping… in golf? [Law360]

Key DOJ components, such as the Criminal Division and National Security Division, still lack Senate-confirmed leaders.

* Former White House chief strategist Steve Bannon has apparently “lost his mind,” and now he’s found himself on the receiving end of a cease-and-desist letter from President Trump’s lawyers, with claims that he’d not only violated his employment agreement with the Trump Organization, but that he’d likely defamed Trump. [Washington Post]

* According to Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York will be filing suit against the government over the new tax plan, contending that its limitation on SALT deductions constitutes unconstitutional “double taxation.” Will other states with high local taxes get on board? [Big Law Business]

* In an effort to beat a deadline, Attorney General Jeff Sessions is using his executive authority to appoint almost 20 interim U.S. attorneys. The jurisdictions where these appointments were made include districts in California, Florida, Guam, Hawaii, Louisiana, Michigan, Minnesota, Missouri, New Jersey, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, the Virgin Islands, and Washington. [NBC News]

* There were 102 law firm mergers in 2017, topping a record that was previously set in 2015. Now, just a few days into 2018, law firm mergers are still going strong and show no sign of stopping, and it may be because younger managing partners have replaced their baby boomer predecessors. [American Lawyer]

* Earlier this week, Judge Adrienne Nelson was appointed to the Oregon Supreme Court by Governor Kate Brown. Nelson is the first African-American to ever serve on the state’s high court. Congratulations on making history, Your Honor! [Oregonian]

* Yet another DOJ veteran is leaving for greener pastures in academia. This time, it’s Doug Letter, director of the Civil Division appellate staff, who will bring 40 years of government service experience to Georgetown Law, where he’ll join the school’s Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection. [National Law Journal]

* Luke Skywalker’s legal duty to save the galaxy. (Spoilers for The Last Jedi.) [The Legal Geeks]

* Will the class-action lawsuits against Apple for throttling older phones lead to a resurgence in class-actions? [Law and More]

* The latest episode of the Amicus podcast explores how to combat a history of harassment in the judiciary in the wake of the Alex Kozinski scandal. [Slate]

* Tracking the use of the phrase “help me” by Supreme Court justices in oral arguments… which is to track the passive-aggressive stylings of the Court. [Empirical SCOTUS]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yWP6Qki8mWc

* Yup, this is how the President of the United States used his Twitter account in 2017. [The Hill]

* Speaking of the President, he teases a Constitutional crisis in an impromptu interview. [Huffington Post]

* Could a feminist perspective change the tax code? [TaxProf Blog]

* Remember when President Trump attacked the federal judiciary, and Neil Gorsuch, then a Supreme Court nominee, called those statements “disheartening” and “demoralizing”? Gorsuch’s comments reportedly pissed off the president so much that his SCOTUS nomination was almost rescinded. [Washington Post]

* After passing the GOP’s sweeping tax overhaul by a margin of 227-203 yesterday afternoon, the House will need to vote again this morning because several provisions in the bill — including its name — violate the Senate’s Byrd Rule requirements. [TIME]

* Under would-be SCOTUS Justice Chief Judge Merrick Garland’s leadership, the D.C. Circuit will now live-stream audio of any oral argument upon request. Send your requests by email to liveaudiorequest@cadc.uscourts.gov. [Washington Post]

* See ya, Sedgwick! Up to 15 partners and up to 65 lawyers and staff members from the failed firm will be headed to Clyde & Co, boosting the British firm’s U.S. partnership by one-third. [American Lawyer; Big Law Business]

* What are the 20 cheapest law schools in the U.S. News Top 100? If you want to do your future finances a favor, you may have to go South. [Law.com]

* What are the legal words of the year? Here’s a hint, Above the Law helped popularize some of them. [Clear Writing]

* What will due process look like for Judge Alex Kozinski? Here’s a hint, a lifetime appointment certainly changes things. [National Law Journal]

* Is law school really “cool” again? Here’s a hint, it never was. [Law and More]

* What do you need to know about tax law in Trumpland? Here’s a hint, Tax Prof Blog has you covered. [Tax Prof Blog]

* Did Florida congressman Matt Gaetz really call for Robert Mueller to be fired? Here’s a hint, he’s not so good at “optics.” [ABC News]

* Do you really have to deal with sleep deprivation as a working mom? Here’s a hint, yes. Yes, you do (and here’re some tips to get through). [CorporetteMoms]

The proposed tax bill hurts partners and helps associates -- who'd have thunk it?

Is this lawyer happy with his decision to pay off his loans? Obviously.

Wow! What an accomplishment!

Companies need to be wary of whether the mechanisms ostensibly designed to repatriate foreign income and IP assets will actually have the desired effect.  

* This weekend was full of huge news in Trumpland. Following Michael Flynn’s guilty plea, President Trump tweeted that he fired Flynn because he lied to the FBI. If you recall, Trump originally said that he’d fired Flynn because his former NSA adviser had lied to Vice President Pence. [New York Times]

* Here’s why Trump’s shift is pretty important, according to Justice Department spokesman Matthew Miller: “Oh my god, he just admitted to obstruction of justice. If Trump knew Flynn lied to the FBI when he asked Comey to let it go, then there is your case.” [The Hill]

* Slow your roll, prosecutors. President Trump is now saying that he never asked former FBI director James Comey to stop investigating Flynn, even though Comey testified to that version of events before Congress. Per Trump, it’s “[j]ust more Fake News covering another Comey lie!” [CBS News]

* But wait, there’s even more! It seems that President Trump wasn’t the author of that tweet. Apparently it was written by one of his lawyers, John Dowd, who now says it was “[his] mistake” as he’s “out of the tweeting business” and “did not mean to break news.” [Washington Post; Axios]

* Finally, in case you missed it, the Senate passed its version of the tax bill in the dead of night as it was still being written, with a 20 percent tax rate for corporations. Now, President Trump — the client who will never be satisfied — says that rate might go up to 22 percent. [CNBC]

* Last, but not least, President Trump has endorsed accused child-toucher Roy Moore via tweet (obviously) for the Republican Senate seat that was left open by Attorney General Jeff Sessions. This has reached a whole new level of ridiculousness. [CNN]

* In other news, CVS is planning to buy Aetna for $69 billion. We’ve not yet seen which law firms are representing the companies on the deal, but this is a move that could seriously change the way our health care system looks. (And as an aside, it could seriously change the way your EOBs look, since CVS is a fan of those absurdly long receipts.) [DealBook / New York Times]

* Brock Turner, the former Stanford swimmer who served just three months in jail for sexually assaulting an unconscious woman, is now appealing, claiming that his trial was “fundamentally unfair.” Most would counter that raping an unconscious woman in the street is what’s really “fundamentally unfair,” but that’s neither here nor there. [NBC News]

* Trump team decries Kate Steinle verdict as jury finds their preferred political talisman not guilty of murder. [SF Gate]

* IRS needs $1.7 million in back taxes? X gon’ give it to you. [Law360]

* Judge Pryor thinks court packing is stupid, which probably burned all his bridges with the Heritage Foundation. [National Law Journal]

* Pay for in-house counsel is up… women still lag behind. [Corporate Counsel]

* Black women in law face discrimination on two fronts. It’s almost like they sit at the intersection of oppressions. [American Lawyer]

* Judge orders handcuffs to prevent spanking. [ABA Journal]

* Even Texas can’t defend voter suppression anymore. [Texas Tribune]

* More M&A firms join the AI train. [American Lawyer]

Oh, please. This isn't going to happen, no matter how much it would benefit associates.

* If you were wondering how the tax bill would screw over attorneys, here it is. [Law360]

* Neil Gorsuch appeared at the Federalist Society dinner and made jokes about the “frozen trucker” case because a lifetime appointment means never having to say you’re sorry. [National Law Journal]

* Jared Fogle tried the old “sovereign citizen” trick. Unfortunately for him, admiralty courts have jurisdiction over subs. [ABA Journal]

* Does the media’s prophylactic use of “allegedly” to avoid libel contribute to a culture that dismisses women’s stories of harassment? An interesting Al Franken-inspired case study. [Washington Post]

* Don’t kill Section 230 just because some websites don’t take the time to manage their trolls. [Slate]

* Robert Hays secured a fifth term as chair of King & Spalding. Woe to those who oppose his glorious reign. Dilly dilly. [American Lawyer]

* The Washington Supreme Court has finally ruled that former Skadden Fellow Tarra Simmons can take the bar exam. [KING5]

* When you’re paying $160 million in bribes, you’re doing something wrong. [Law360]