Above the Law

Morning Docket: 09.15.25

* Lawyer accused of hallucinated cites in case about getting law license back. [ABA Journal]

* FTC sees collapse of CFPB as a new opportunity to oversee the fleecing of Americans. [Bloomberg Law News]

* EU allowing Microsoft to remove Teams from its product bundle to avoid antitrust issues, opening the door to your European colleagues having a teleconference tool that works. [Law360]

* Judge extends block on government randomly deporting kids in the middle of the night. [Reuters]

* SEC wants to keep its case against Musk in D.C., which makes you think: he did all that and still didn’t get Trump to drop the SEC case? [National Law Journal]

* The financial press can’t get enough Harvey stories. [Financial Times]

Amy Coney Barrett Sure Gets Around — See Generally

Amy Coney Barrett Immediately Starts Hedging On Dictatorship Fanfic: Justice Barrett shut down Trump's third term talk... until Fox asked her if she was sure and then she remembered to start hemming and hawing.

Colbert Should Moonlight As Sotomayor’s Burner Account: The justice gives her colleagues the benefit of the doubt in public. Stephen Colbert reads between the lines of the dissent.

Biglaw Associates Shocked To Discover Firm Still On Word Perfect: Maybe not that bad, but midlevels report the technology at their firms have them feeling like they're a solid decade behind.

SCOTUS Shadow Docket Continues Calvinball Streak: The Court knifes Humphrey’s Executor, proving precedent is only sacred when it props up Republicans.

Teachers Sue Over Blocked Loan Forgiveness, Because Chalk Doesn’t Pay The Mortgage: The American Federation of Teachers takes the fight to court.

Go In-House Early, Retire Before Your Friends Make Counsel: Confirming what everyone suspected: going in-house is the smartest move in legal life.

Amy Coney Barrett Ruminates On AI, Accidentally Summons HAL 9000: The justice shares her deep thoughts on artificial intelligence, which mostly reveal she hasn’t met Clippy.

What A Lawyer Paycheck Can Afford... By City: Let's look at some real estate listings in the supposedly "best bang for your buck" legal markets.

Training Young Lawyers In The Age Of AI Is Still Mostly Hazing: Beneath the mystery and rhetoric, firms are still teaching associates by throwing them into traffic and hoping they don’t die.

Founding Partner Passes — See Also

Greenberg Traurig’s Larry Hoffman Has Passed Away: We extend our condolences to his family, friends, and the firm.

A Picture Is Worth A Thousand Billable Hours: Here’s a showing of the biggest associate bang for buck for housing.

Activists Use AI To Identify Ice Agents: Masks won’t hide you for too long.

Training Lawyers In The Age Of AI: Stephen Embry grapples with what’s to be done.

Debunked Podcast: Turmoil At The CDC, Epic’s AI Strategy

The latest episode of the Debunked podcast explores an ongoing debate questioning the role of payers in healthcare transactions. It also highlights turmoil at the CDC.

How Intentional Networking Can Grow Your Legal Practice

Timeless strategies that turn introductions into real opportunities, on this episode of the 'Be That Lawyer' podcast.

Attorneys Should Take Long Times Off Between Jobs

'Vacation.' Yes, you've heard of it. Don't deny it.

Training Young Lawyers In The Age Of AI: A Riddle Wrapped In A Mystery Inside An Enigma

Firms need to work harder on mentorship programs. Lawyers need more hands-on training that can’t be done exclusively with AI.

Stat(s) Of The Week: Cause Or Coincidence?

A look at headcount changes at law firms targeted by Trump.

Activists Are Using AI To ‘Identify’ ICE Officers And That’s Definitely Not Good News

From the here's-the-whirlwind-you-guys-sowed dept.

Morning Docket: 09.12.25

* “Firms that aren’t willing or able to compete with the highest-paying players are instead competing on flexibility.” Which is, frankly, the right business strategy. [Law.com]

* A lawyer for the Korean workers rounded up by ICE — throwing the whole U.S.-South Korean economic alliance in turmoil — says they all had legal visas at the time. Because of course that’s how this turns out. [AP]

* Nadine Menendez gets 4.5 years in political bribery case. The Supreme Court has spent years trying to say bribery isn’t a thing, so let’s see there’s hope for her yet! [Law360]

* Steve Vladeck breaks down the Kavanaugh concurrence in the ICE decision and it’s… curious. [One First]

* Looks like the Feds are still trying to go after former Biglaw associate Paul Bryant even after the grand jury passed on an indictment. [ABA Journal]

* Trump attempt to block migrant children from Head Start programs they qualify for slapped down by federal judge. [Reuters]

* “Lower-court judges are defying precedent and even openly criticizing Supreme Court justices” Except, you know, shadow docket opinions are NOT precedent and the open criticism is “please take the time to write opinions to keep right-wing cranks from phoning in violent threats to our homes.” Other than that, the Wall Street Journal op-ed page is making great choices. [WSJ]

Being Predictable Can Be Scary — See Also

Justice Barrett Shares Concerns About Lawyers Using AI To Prep For Oral Argument: Can’t blame the software for predicting obvious questions.

Nothing Says Competency Like Lawsuits: Kash Patel gets the FBI sued.

Rookies Can Learn From Rooks: Here’s what chess has to teach us about lawyering.

Kanye West Deposition Incoming: This is going to be a great read.

Passionate About Human Rights?: These schools should be on your radar!

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