Above the Law

‘Trump v. Trump’ Did Not Impress The Judge — See Also

Benchslapped By His Own Petard: Judge nixes Trump v. IRS settlement citing administration’s unitary executive nonsense.

Todd Blanche Loses Lindsey Graham: Contentious confirmation hearing set to begin this week will have to go ahead without Lindsey Graham after the senator died over the weekend (perhaps he’ll be dealing with Graham’s sister, who has been tapped to fill out his term).

Yale Law Lost The Top Spot In The 2026 U.S. News Rankings: And the school’s placement is even worse in this projected version of the 2027 ranking.

But Yale Law Students Still Hold Moral High Ground: Even if USNWR doesn’t celebrate the school, the students are out here standing up for the rule of law.

Curb Your Billable Hours: Latham partner nails speaking role on Larry David’s new show.

Carolyn Herzog On Why Legal Leaders Need Optimism, Not Certainty

The old legal instinct to pause, assess, and draw hard boundaries no longer works.

Arguments That Embarrass Only The Advocate

Thinking about issues is a good idea. Making silly arguments that reflect poorly on your intelligence is a less good idea.

Legal Ethics Roundup: Lawyer ‘Negligence’ For Not Using AI, Cameras At SCOTUS, Law School Laptop Ban & More

Your tour of all things related to lawyer and judicial ethics, with University of Houston law professor Renee Knake Jefferson.

Larry David Casts His Biglaw Lawyer In New Show

Latham partner Andrew Clubok appears as Senator Potter in Life, Larry, and the Pursuit of Unhappiness.

Overstock Loon Patrick Byrne Loses To Himself In Court, Must Pay Hunter Biden

RIP to a real one.

Surprise, Surprise: More Evidence That What You Say To Your Chatbot Isn’t Always Private

Those of us in the legal profession have a responsibility to sound the alarm about what our clients and the public as a whole put in chatbots

Marine Serre Enters Receivership, Seeks Investor

The Paris Commercial Tribunal granted its request for court protection.

Morning Docket: 07.13.26

* Lindsey Graham died over the weekend, removing a key Trump ally from the Judiciary Committee in advance of Todd Blanche’s already controversial nomination hearings. [PBS]

* Civil rights coalition calls for Senate to reject Blanche. [Ms]

* Audit reveals the broken California alternative bar exam process. [ABA Journal]

* Judges embark on whistlestop tour to explain the increasing threats against the judiciary. [Washington Post]

* DOJ opens investigation into UAW president. If only a working person could invest in Trump’s crypto business to get out of it. [WSJ]

* Rightful FTC Commissioner Rebecca Slaughter eviscerates Yale over settlement plans. [Yale Daily News]

* Apple sues OpenAI claiming trade secret theft. [Law360]

* After convincing the Supreme Court to rip up immigration law, the Trump administration went ahead and extended work permits for Haitian refugees upon realizing the economic chaos deportation would cause. [Reuters]

If At First You Fail Miserably At The Supreme Court, Try, Try Again — See Generally

Insanity Is Doing The Same Thing Twice And Expecting…: Trump wants the same Supreme Court that just rejected his birthright citizenship order to rehear the whole thing “immediately.” And he decided to insult them in the process.

Grievance Studies: A conservative watchdog group filed a bar complaint against Roberta Kaplan as Trump keeps trying to wriggle out of paying the nearly $5.8 million he owes E. Jean Carroll.

Redlined: Sullivan & Cromwell promised its partners it would stay out of Trump’s Carroll cases, then jumped in anyway, and now there’s a civil war.

The House Always Wins: A member of Congress wants John Roberts to explain what exactly stops justices and clerks from betting real money on Kalshi about cases that only they know the outcome of.

Time Served: Legacy Cadwalader timekeepers have until July 20 to re-audit six months of six-minute entries because the merged firm’s systems don’t talk to each other.

The Unexamined Laptop Is Not Worth Using: The University of Chicago is yanking laptops out of 1L classrooms and leaning back into the Socratic method as its answer to the AI era.

Hard To Get: Yale tops the list of law schools that reject the most applicants, with the twenty most selective schools admitting an average of just 11 percent.

Prestige Without Borders: Harvard edges out Yale and Stanford atop the Quacquarelli Symonds global law school rankings, because the rest of the world grades on a different curve than U.S. News.

Sullivan & Cromwell Has A Civil War On Its Hands — See Also

The Red Line Bob Giuffra Drew For Himself Didn’t Last: Sullivan & Cromwell said it would never touch the Carroll cases… Sullivan & Cromwell is now touching the Carroll cases.

Law School Laptop Ban: Chicago wants to get ahead of AI and decided banning laptops from classrooms was the way to do it.

What Is Biglaw Waiting For?: Just announce raises already. Associates are tired of this waiting game.

Trump’s Supreme Court Redo Requests: Twice in one week, Trump has suggested the Supreme Court give him another shot despite nothing having changed.

Small Law Success: Smaller law firms are doing better on collections, but AI isn’t saving them any time yet.

Biglaw Summer Associateships Are Hugely Important To Your Legal Career

The process of securing that job starts before law school even starts.

Stat(s) Of The Week: ‘Soft Skills’ Are All The Rage

But are young lawyers learning?

Some Practice Areas Are More Stressful Than Others

Lawyers who practice in some areas of the law are often made of tougher stuff than the rest of us.

The Death Of Organic Reach On Social: What Lawyers Can Do

Position your law firm as an approachable source of quality information, and showcase your legal expertise.