Above the Law

4 Things To Know About The Texas Lawsuit Against Epic

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton sued Epic, alleging the company monopolizes the EHR market and restricts access to medical information. Epic denied the claims.

Morning Docket: 12.15.25

* Lawyer demands IRS recognize pets as dependents. [Forbes]

* How many laws does Santa Clause break in one night. [Legal Cheek]

* Supreme Court lays groundwork for “except for agencies that effect our personal wealth” exception to the novel theory they expounded in the FTC oral argument. The “pets as dependents” argument seems positively well-founded by comparison. [Reuters]

* National Trust sues over Trump’s ballroom plans. [Law360]

* Deregulaion reaching pre-Depression status. [National Law Journal]

* Law professor sues Boeing alleging toxic fumes inhaled during flight. [ABA Journal]

* Australia faces first legal challenge to law banning children under 16 from social media. [NPR]

Tracking Biglaw Bonuses And War Crimes — See Generally

Bonus Tracker Season Officially Begins: Clear your calendars, mute your partners, and keep refreshing — the market has opinions and associates have spreadsheets.

Military’s New GenAI Knows A War Crime When It Sees One: Pete Hegseth’s new toy immediately doubleclicked on why you can’t double tap.

Federal Judge Who Allegedly Ignored Court Orders Now Allegedly Ignoring Court Ethics: Emil Bove remains consistent!

The Time For Persuasion Is Over: Justice Sotomayor had the administration by the throat, but opted to try to convince the majority to see reason when the nation is well past that point.

Global Biglaw Merger Discovers Divorce Is Also An Option: The once-trumpeted international tie-up is quietly preparing to go its separate ways, proving synergy is temporary but regret is forever.

Firm Beats Trump In Court, Loses To Office Attendance Policy: After defeating executive overreach, the firm turned inward and mandated more face time with the copy machine.

Professor Sues After Discovering Free Speech Has Conditions: Retaliation over comments about Charlie Kirk heads to federal court, where irony enjoys strong venue selection.

Since When Can Presidents Do That? — See Also

President Trump Pardons Election Denier For State Crimes: What part of Federalism is this?

See If You Can Catch All Of The Issues With Trump’s AI Executive Order: Who said issue spotters were just a law school thing!

Mega Merger Alert!: Winston & Strawn and Taylor Wessing are in tie-up talks.

At This Firm The Market Is The Floor!: Associates at Axinn are making bank!

Elon Thinks Any Regulation Is Censorship: That’s not at all what the fine for violating the Digital Services Act is doing.

Judge Mandates Breakfast Break During Immigration Hearing: ICE drove someone in custody 7 hours without feeding them.

Stat(s) Of The Week: New Study Reveals Gender Ambition Gap

An uneven playing field may make women less ambitious at work.

Lawyers Should Avoid Using Work Computers For Personal Tasks

Lawyers should act like everything they do on a work device will be reviewed by managers.

How Appealing Weekly Roundup

The week in appellate news.

Elon’s Crying Censorship Over An EU Fine That Has Nothing To Do With Censorship

Snowflake alert!

Trump Pardons MAGA Election Denier For State Crimes Because When You’re A Star, They Let You Do It

Well played, Chief Justice Roberts!

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If you are an attorney working in a small or midsize firm, we want to hear from you.

Brown Rudnick’s Global Life Sciences Practice Group Co-Leaders Outline The Opportunities Defining Today’s Market

These Biglaw partners have the scoop on the trends -- and trouble spots -- every market player should be preparing for in life sciences work.

Biglaw Voltron, Assemble! Winston & Strawn And Taylor Wessing Explore Combining Into One Even Bigger Firm

Biglaw is basically just collecting Pokémon now.

Firm That Shocked The Market On Salaries Unveils Bonuses With Massive Bumps Up To $240,000

Market bonuses are the merely the base for associates at the firm - - they have the potential to earn much more.

Morning Docket: 12.12.25

* DOJ flops in third effort to properly indict Tish James. Only two more and the DOJ gets a free sandwich! (A ham sandwich… obviously)[National Law Journal]

* Winston & Strawn talking merger with Taylor Wessing. [Law.com International]

* Court orders release of Abrego Garcia with blistering opinion noting, among other things, that the supposed 2019 removal order that this is all about… never existed! [NBC News]

* Lawyer hospitalized after being bodyslammed at courthouse. Don’t these people realize only ICE is allowed to arbitrarily beat people in courthouses? [ABA Journal]

* Trump issues executive order banning state AI regulation. Remember when these cared about states’ rights? [CNBC]

* The president also pardoned Tina Peters, who was convicted of state crimes rendering the pardon entirely useless. [The Hill]

* David Lat talks about data centers from the perspective of Biglaw lawyers working on the deals and — hopefully — getting paid before the bubble bursts. [Original Jurisdiction]

* “Lawyer serves up ‘council estate dinner’ of chicken dippers and Sunny D.” Look, it could be worse… it could’ve been the purple stuff. [Roll on Friday]

So Much Bonus Money! — See Also

Boutiques Are Sharing The Wealth: Perry Law, Pallas Partners, and Ross Aronstam & Moritz!

As Are Biglaw Firms!: Freshfields and Sullivan & Cromwell!

Latham Gets Honored As A Pro Bono Innovator: They somehow forgot to mention the pro bono payola.

Lawsuit Aims To Know What Work The Trump-Cowering Firms Are Up To: American Oversight wants answers.

Mind The Deadline!: Apply for the Startup Alley Competition at ABA Techshow!