Dylann Roof (Photo by Grace Beahm-Pool/Getty Images)
* After hearing powerful testimony from victims’ relatives, a federal jury sentenced Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof to death. [BuzzFeed]
* Dahlia Lithwick on yesterday’s Jeff Sessions hearing: the nominee “will be handily confirmed,” and Democrats “are rightly very, very afraid.” [Slate]
PI Firms Don’t Need More Tools. They Need Fewer.
Every new tool a PI firm buys solves one problem and connects nothing. The real fix isn't another purchase — it's keeping the whole case in one place, from accident to resolution. Here's how.
* An interesting puzzle for the Supreme Court: free speech and credit card fees. [New York Times via How Appealing]
* Also from Howard Bashman, also about free speech: Gibson Dunn partner Miguel Estrada “warns City of Philadelphia that his hourly rate is very expensive.” [How Appealing]
* More about Morrison & Foerster snagging former Justice Department national security chief John Carlin — the latest in a series of high-profile hires of former government lawyers, including Kathryn Thomson and Jessie Liu. [Law.com]
Why Bigger Legal Budgets Buy Less Relief Than Ever
Introducing Axiom’s 2027 In-House Legal Budget Report. Read on to see the details.
* Some good news out of the Charlotte School of Law: students might be getting their spring semester loan proceeds after all. [ABA Journal]
* Speaking of money, Volkswagen is going to pay a lot of it — perhaps $4.3 billion in fines — to resolve the federal criminal investigation into its cheating on vehicle emissions tests. [New York Times]
David Lat is the founder and managing editor of Above the Law and the author of Supreme Ambitions: A Novel. He previously worked as a federal prosecutor in Newark, New Jersey; a litigation associate at Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz; and a law clerk to Judge Diarmuid F. O’Scannlain of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit. You can connect with David on Twitter (@DavidLat), LinkedIn, and Facebook, and you can reach him by email at [email protected].