Above the Law

Is This *The* Worst In-House Job? — See Also

In-House Counsel Woes: Imagine being Jurassic Park’s general counsel.

They Left Biglaw To Build Something New. Now They’re Paying For It: In the best possible way.

It’s Never Too Soon To Start Working On Business Development: Take this important advice from the CEO of an elite boutique.

He’s Not A Regular Dean, He’s A Cool Dean: Elon Law’s Class of 2025 hit a 91.96% first-time bar pass rate, and Zak Kramer paid the tab in ink.

Have You Considered Reading?: Law professors melting down about AI-generated text and the need for more AI detection bots, but maybe there’s a simpler, not-entirely-stupid solution?

ILTACON News Round-Up Part 4, The Business Of Law: Litera, Aderant, Oddr, TRĒ AI, Intapp

Last week’s ILTACON brought what may have been the busiest news cycle for this conference, with a torrent of product announcements.

B2B Agents Will Need Their Own Contracting Playbooks

Preparing playbooks for agents may finally force companies to improve playbooks for everyone.

Avoiding The AI Efficiency Trap: What Biglaw Needs To Get Right 

Join our expert panel on Sept. 9 to hear key takeaways from ILTACON 2026 — and the implications for the law firm business model.

Alex Su Named President Of Latitude As Flex Legal Staffing Market Booms

No one is sure of the right staffing strategy in an AI world, opening a door for flex providers.

A Five-Month-Old Firm Just Matched The Milbank Scale

The memo reads like a love letter to associates who joined the new firm.

Oracle Health Execs Subpoenaed After VA Contract Costs Nearly Triple

The House VA Committee voted 19-0 to subpoena Oracle Health executives Larry Ellison and Mike Sicilia after learning the VA's EHR contract ballooned from $10 billion to $27 billion — despite Oracle's promise to Congress that it would absorb any costs beyond the original cap.

Morning Docket: 09.08.26

* Federal judge addresses still available online even though we passed a law to shield those. [ABA Journal]

* New York’s best dressed lawyers. [Business Insider]

* Trump’s effort to use Post Office to disrupt voting reminds of Andrew Jackson censoring abolitionist mail. [Slate]

* Lawyer cites AI hallucinations to defend himself at disciplinary hearing. [Legal Cheek]

* White House announces pending ban on Bombardier jets… even though the Canadian company builds jets in Kansas. [Reuters]

* Country wrecker Kyrsten Sinema facing home wrecker lawsuit. [The Hill]

* Hacking group broke into Florida records, released Epstein’s driving record. [Hackread]

* Quinn Emanuel disqualified in defamation case. [Law360]

* Senior official arrested for selling green cards. Official administration policy continues offering H-1B visas for $100,000. [Newsweek]

* A look at Seyfarth’s SEYscraper research tool. [Fast Company]

Check That Email Address Field Before Hitting Send On Those Judge Insults — See Generally

Can’t Blame AI For This Email Disaster: The NCAA handed its Rhode Island case over to Foley & Lardner after its Holland & Knight lawyers were caught suggesting the judge was “dumb” and referring to the plaintiff as “poop man.” It came out because they cc’d opposing counsel.

Whose Bankruptcy Is It Anyway: Lewis Rice’s bankruptcy practice leader is out after unsecured creditors alleged he spent seven months representing the debtors’ owner rather than the estates paying the bills.

Thrice Bitten: A Georgia federal judge sanctioned Skadden and Kirkland $2 million for withholding evidence in a False Claims Act case, directing the money to ethics and professionalism instruction at the state’s law schools.

Managed Servitude Organization: Private equity’s pitch for law firm MSO deals now includes parking equity partners in the non-lawyer entity so the firm can bind them with the non-competes that ethics rules would otherwise forbid. That seems… not great.

A Ballroom Of One’s Own: The Supreme Court stayed an injunction against Trump’s East Wing demolition on the theory that nobody has standing to challenge it, which means the next president is welcome — AND ENCOURAGED! — to point the bulldozers at One First Street citing the same opinion.

Square Feet Don’t Lie: Legal sector office leasing climbed 17% year-over-year to nearly 12.2 million square feet in the first half of 2026, which is not a thing firms do for a workforce they expect to replace with AI.

Whoop, There It Is: Texas A&M posted a 97.7% modified employment score for the Classes of 2023 through 2025, topping a list on which UC Irvine logged the biggest improvement of anyone.

In Memoriam: Erin Piacenti, a 2021 Fordham Law graduate and a vice president at Bank of America, was killed in what police describe as an unprovoked knife attack in Times Square.

You Can Bill $2,000 An Hour And Still Flunk The Discovery Rules — See Also

Turns Out 'I Forgot' Isn't A Great Discovery Strategy: Just ask Skadden and Kirkland.

She Don't Lie/She Don't Lie/Cocaine: Missouri legislative candidate arrested for trying to plant cocaine on primary opponent.

The Most Forgiving Judge In The World: Chief Judge Pryor, already under fire for lenient approach to misconduct claims against Judge Eleanor Ross, swiftly dismissed misconduct claims against Judge Roy Altman.

Please Mr. Postman: Donald Trump is trying to get the Supreme Court to bless his effort to blow up mail-in voting.

A Former President Returned To The Supreme Court To Argue A Case

One of the last great services of his life.

How Appealing Weekly Roundup

The week in appellate news.

Chief Judge Pryor Tosses Judge Altman ‘Terror Scarf’ Complaint, Showing Off Bipartisan Leniency Toward Misconduct Claims

After downplaying misconduct claims against Judge Eleanor Ross, complaint against Judge Roy Altman gets thrown out.

What It’s Really Like To Be General Counsel

Legal expertise is table stakes, not a differentiator. Here's what you need to set yourself apart.

Lindsay Clancy’s Lawyer Tells Us How He Really Feels About His Case

The importance of candor.