Above the Law

Missouri Keeps Beating Dead Horse Of A Map — See Generally

If At First The Supreme Court Tells You To Stop: Missouri Republicans keep unsuccessfully sending its gerrymander to the Supreme Court.

Try, Try Again: And the Supreme Court keeps telling them to pound sand.

Fifty-One Shades Of ‘Rigged’: DOJ and Education Department say Berkeley Law illegally favors Black students… where 51 of 1,128 students are Black.

Scale Model: Weil announced the loss of its corporate chair and a half-dozen M&A partners to Cravath by explaining that they had left for “a smaller platform.”

Deep In The Heart Of Private Equity: Kirkland & Ellis passed Jackson Walker to become the largest firm in Texas at 549 lawyers, twelve years after it first opened an office there.

Baby Steps To $455K: Liu Shur Kravis, a D.C. litigation boutique founded in April by three former federal prosecutors, matched the Milbank scale five months into its existence.

1 & Done & Done: Elon Law Dean Zak Kramer promised his students a tattoo if the class hit an 85% first-time bar passage rate, and got “1 & Done” inked on his forearm after they posted 91.96%.

Detector Gadget: Law professors have Pangram mania as they clutch their pearls over the possibility that fellow scholars might use AI to draft law review articles. Here’s a novel proposal: just read the submissions and see if they’re any good.

Life, Uh, Finds A Way To Sue: Minor Character Theater’s long-suffering Wonka general counsel is back, and he’s handling compliance for John Hammond.

That’s Some Epic Biglaw Shade — See Also

The One Thing Nobody Has Ever Called Cravath… ‘A Smaller Platform’: Until Weil, which just lost its corporate chair to the firm, gave it a shot.

Hear Me Out: Should we really care that a federal court opinion reads like Gen Z slang?

We Sure Could Use More Human Rights Lawyers These Days: So now is a great time to discuss the top schools for human rights law.

Say Bye-Bye To Another Trump Ally: Joe diGenova just resigned and stomped off in a huff.

How To Create Authority Pages That Beat Competitors On Google And ChatGPT

Your law firm’s ‘authority’ pages are there to showcase your expertise and establish your practice as a source of reliable information.

Lawyers Should Abandon Some Outdated Practices

Meaningless traditions can consume a surprising amount of resources.

The Future Of Legal AI Isn’t About AI

It's about understanding how legal work actually gets done.

When Clients Ask About AI, How Should Firms Respond?

Lessons from elementary school.

This Law Professor’s Mission Is Giving Voice To The Voiceless

Closing the legal accountability gap.

Judge Demands Answers From DOJ For Refusing To Dismiss Reflecting Pool Case With Prejudice

From the hi-we're-from-the-'how-high'-department dept

How Appealing Weekly Roundup

The week in appellate news.

Morning Docket: 09.11.26

* Weil corporate chair bolts for Cravath. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Sam Bankman-Fried asks Supreme Court for help getting out of jail. [Law360]

* Harvard moves up recruiting timeline to allow interviewing in 1L September. [Harvard Crimson]

* Joseph diGenova resigns from role probing Trump’s enemies, acknowledging that, after years flogging conspiracy theories, there really isn’t any evidence backing it up. [Reuters]

* David Lat interviews Google GC Halimah DeLaine on legal AI. [Original Jurisdiction]

* Court refuses to prosecute deep fake political ad, claiming the parody was too “ridiculous” to be real. It is certainly ridiculous, but anyone deluding themselves into thinking it’s not believable needs to watch some of Ken Paxton’s actual political ads. [Volokh Conspiracy]

* City files lawsuit to bar federal shock troops from polling places. One of those headlines that would have set off the “black helicopter, new world order” conspiracy theorists 20 years ago, but now those people are on the government’s side. [Courthouse News Service]

* In the same vein, a new lawsuit focuses on government surveillance and harassment of civilian observers. [NPR]

* Harvey raises more money, because what’s another half billion among friends? [ABA Journal]

Even This Supreme Court Wouldn’t Bail Out The Missouri GOP — See Also

Show Me State Got Shown: The U.S. Supreme Court yet again told Missouri Republicans that they need to stop trying to make their illegal map happen.

Say Howdy To The New Biggest Firm In Texas: The richest firm in America takes the crown in the Lone Star State.

So Rigged You Wouldn’t Even Notice: The DOJ claims Berkeley’s admissions impermissibly favor Black students even though the school only has a handful of Black students.

What Hatch Act?: Todd Blanche spoke about the Justice Department’s work at a Republican midterm rally last night, which is illegal but nobody cares anymore.

Once The Second-Biggest Firm In America, Then The First To Blow Up

It rewrote the rules of Biglaw, got rich, and became a cautionary tale for the ages.

Trump Is Considering A Pardon For Michael Cohen, The Lawyer Who Helped Convict Him

The president appreciates his former attorney’s very late change of tune.

Supreme Court To Missouri Republicans: Shut Up

Missouri Republicans tried to gerrymander their maps in violation of state law. The U.S. Supreme Court refused to be a party to it.

DOJ Says Berkeley Law Rigged Its Admissions To Favor Black Students. There Are 51 Of Them.

If the school is putting a thumb on the scale for Black applicants, it's doing a remarkably bad job of it.