Above the Law

Why UHS Is Acquiring Talkspace For $835M

Universal Health Services plans to acquire Talkspace for $835 million to create a national behavioral health platform that integrates virtual therapy with in-person care.

Morning Docket: 03.12.26

* DLA Piper abandoning verein structure. [Law.com International]

* DOJ lawyer who called out immigration system and asked to be held in contempt is now running for Congress. [NY Times]

* Women law professors rise to top of most-cited faculty list. [Reuters]

* Man faces serious criminal penalties for shoving weights in fish. Competitors knew something was… fishy. [Outdoor Life]

* Quinn Emanuel gets contempt ruling overturned. [Law360]

* Democrats want to look into Brad Bondi’s string of successful outcomes with his sister’s DOJ. [Reuters]

* Powerful lawyers had years to prepare for the Epstein files… and didn’t. [Law.com International]

Tiny Hands, Big Attitude — See Also

Donnie Throws Temper Tantrum Over Losing Fight With Biglaw: Tough time to be a DOJ lawyer!

Y’all Call This Supreme?: The public doesn’t think too highly of our highest court.

DOJ Attorney Resigns To Protect His Colleagues: The whole office would have gotten sanctioned with him otherwise.

Lawyer Found Guilty Of Systemic Sexual Abuse Of Children: He was convicted of 27 felony counts related to the sexual abuse of minors and having CSAM.

Merger Talks Are Heating Up: Is your firm next on the list?

War Costs: You — the person reading this — spent about $300 funding the war in Iran so far.

Seven Essential Security Strategies For Law Firms And Legal Departments 

How your team can proactively build client and stakeholder confidence. 

Ed Martin Loses Mind, Catches Bar Complaint

Demanding to speak to the manager ... ex parte.

Biglaw’s Merger Market Is Heating Up — And More Firms Are Willing To Talk

After a blockbuster year for mergers, firm leaders say the phone is still ringing.

After Years Of ‘Hold My Beer’ Moments, Supreme Court Confidence Hits New Low

Public trust in the Court has been falling since Bush v. Gore. Now it’s worse than ever.

You, The Average American Taxpayer, Individually Spent $276.29 This Month To Fund The War Against Iran

And that's just for THIS month.

The Latest In Iran And An Update In The Anthropic Saga

This week on The Weekly Break Out, we talk Iran developments and the latest in the back-and-forth between Anthropic and the Pentagon.

Morning Docket: 03.11.26

* Ed Martin formally charged by D.C. disciplinary authorities. In case you were wondering why the DOJ is so adamant about banning local licensing authorities from investigating ethical breaches. [CNN]

* Journalists from Law360 join sibling publication writers in protesting parent company RELX signing a LexisNexis deal with ICE. Reuters journalists also asked about the various deals Thomson Reuters has with Homeland Security. [ABA Journal]

* Berkeley now has a month-long 1L course on dealing with early recruiting. Hey, offer it for the whole year! Just move Torts and Contracts to 2L… it’s not like the firms care about those grades anyway. [The Recorder]

* Judiciary plans to make electronic filing and records system upgrades a priority after hacking incident. With this decision to fast-track an overhaul we could be looking at a truly modern PACER in… I don’t know… 10 years or so. [Reuters]

* Judiciary sit down continued long-running discussion of lower court judges needing more security and the Chief Justice… not really doing anything about it. [Law360]

* NASDAQ changing its rules to bring on SpaceX, and historically, great things happen when the financial industry throws out all its standards to appease billionaires! [CNBC]

* Lawyer convicted of stalking legal blogger sentenced to community service and plans to appeal. [Legal Cheek]

Shadow Docket Sock Fest — See Also

Jackson And Kavanaugh Go Head To Head On The Shadow Docket: Special treatment or “short memories”? Read and find out!

Rutgers Law Sued Over Firing Former Dean: Alleging a discriminatory firing, he wants his job back and punitive damages.

Is Two Too Little?: Only two federal law clerks filed complaints under the Judicial Conduct and Disability Act. Progress or broken process?

Billion-Dollar Lessons From Medical Settlements: Here are some takeaways from the Moderna v. Arbutus battle.

Anthropic Lawyers Up With A Firm That Knows How To Fight

It pays to show the world you're ready to fight Donald Trump.

Super Settlement Spike

Setbacks, perhaps coupled with jury research that may have suggested that a huge verdict against Moderna was possible, clearly contributed.

A ‘Seat At The Table’ For Law Departments Isn’t Enough Anymore

Influence is just the starting point.