Above the Law

How Appealing Weekly Roundup

The week in appellate news.

Morning Docket: 09.11.26

* Weil corporate chair bolts for Cravath. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Sam Bankman-Fried asks Supreme Court for help getting out of jail. [Law360]

* Harvard moves up recruiting timeline to allow interviewing in 1L September. [Harvard Crimson]

* Joseph diGenova resigns from role probing Trump's enemies, acknowledging that, after years flogging conspiracy theories, there really isn't any evidence backing it up. [Reuters]

* David Lat interviews Google GC Halimah DeLaine on legal AI. [Original Jurisdiction]

* Court refuses to prosecute deep fake political ad, claiming the parody was too "ridiculous" to be real. It is certainly ridiculous, but anyone deluding themselves into thinking it's not believable needs to watch some of Ken Paxton's actual political ads. [Volokh Conspiracy]

* City files lawsuit to bar federal shock troops from polling places. One of those headlines that would have set off the "black helicopter, new world order" conspiracy theorists 20 years ago, but now those people are on the government's side. [Courthouse News Service]

* In the same vein, a new lawsuit focuses on government surveillance and harassment of civilian observers. [NPR]

* Harvey raises more money, because what's another half billion among friends? [ABA Journal]

Even This Supreme Court Wouldn’t Bail Out The Missouri GOP — See Also

Show Me State Got Shown: The U.S. Supreme Court yet again told Missouri Republicans that they need to stop trying to make their illegal map happen.

Say Howdy To The New Biggest Firm In Texas: The richest firm in America takes the crown in the Lone Star State.

So Rigged You Wouldn't Even Notice: The DOJ claims Berkeley's admissions impermissibly favor Black students even though the school only has a handful of Black students.

What Hatch Act?: Todd Blanche spoke about the Justice Department's work at a Republican midterm rally last night, which is illegal but nobody cares anymore.

Morning Docket: 09.10.26

* Missouri lawmakers threaten to impeach state supreme court if they hold secretary of state in contempt for using redrawn maps that violate state constitution. [KCTV]

Meanwhile, the whole thing is back at the U.S. Supreme Court -- which already blessed the Missouri supreme court decision -- after Republican judges on the Eighth Circuit approved district judge's collateral attack on state decision. [One First]

* Todd Blanche speaks at Republican midterm rally in an obvious Hatch Act violation. But the administration says it was fine because it was cleared by the DOJ's ethics people... as a reminder, the DOJ fired its ethics people last year. [The Hill]

* Senator Roger Marshall relentlessly sued his patients as an OB/GYN up to the point where new mothers were led away from their children in handcuffs. But, you know, Republicans are about family. [NY Times]

* The Trump White House has been blatantly ripping off video game trademarks for the last couple weeks. Most sat back and took it, but Tetris threatened to actually enforce its legal rights and Trump instantly backed down. [BBC]

* A deep dive into the mail-in ballot fight at the Supreme Court. [Just Security]

* Convicted sex traffickers hired Alan Dershowitz to help pursue "executive clemency" according to financial documents, [NY Times]

* Producers of The Pitt ask court to shut down Michael Crichton estate's lawsuit over similarities to ER based on... well, Noah Wyle working in an hospital. [Courthouse News Service]

* Ohio AG sues the J. Peterman company. The fallout from the urban sombrero continues. [Cincinnati Inquirer]

* A small and solo response to bar association AI policies built for Biglaw. [ABA Journal]

Missouri Map Madness — See Also

Trump Judges Blow Off Justices: The U.S. Supreme Court refused to impose Missouri's illegal gerrymander. Trump-appointed district judge decided to go ahead and do it anyway.

The Top LL.M. Programs: Did your school’s specialty law degree program make the list?

Lawyer's Lucky Inattention To Detail: A now-former lawyer was convicted of trying to kill his ex-wife, and he would've succeeded if not for thankfully failing to check the safety.

Welcome To The Simulation: Law schools will have to take on more and more practical education in coming years. This law school is ahead of the curve, implementing an AI deposition simulator to train future lawyers.

Chambers Payday: Working for the court doesn't mean waiting on that sweet Biglaw cash, ethics watchdog decides.

Morning Docket: 09.09.26

* Supreme Court refuses to overturn state supreme court ruling over Missouri's maps. Federal district judge -- sitting alone, as opposed to the three-judge panels required for this -- decides to go ahead and impose the opposite result anyway. [Guardian]

* Ogletree opening new office with poached Littler team. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

* Mail-in balloting order an assault on federalism. [Volokh Conspiracy]

* Court tosses $125 million award over magistrate judge's undisclosed tight personal ties to lawyer, crediting argument that party wouldn't have agreed to let the magistrate judge decide the matter had it known. [JD Journal]

* ABA accreditors vote to repeal diversity standard now that the government doesn't care about ABA accreditation anymore. [Inside Higher Ed]

* Administration asks Supreme Court to salvage its effort to haphazardly purge voter rolls based on suspected immigration status. [NOTUS]

* Appeals panel bars IRS from handing private tax records over to ICE, calling government's argument "weak sauce." [The New Republic]

Is This *The* Worst In-House Job? — See Also

In-House Counsel Woes: Imagine being Jurassic Park's general counsel.

They Left Biglaw To Build Something New. Now They're Paying For It: In the best possible way.

It's Never Too Soon To Start Working On Business Development: Take this important advice from the CEO of an elite boutique.

He's Not A Regular Dean, He's A Cool Dean: Elon Law's Class of 2025 hit a 91.96% first-time bar pass rate, and Zak Kramer paid the tab in ink.

Have You Considered Reading?: Law professors melting down about AI-generated text and the need for more AI detection bots, but maybe there's a simpler, not-entirely-stupid solution?

Avoiding The AI Efficiency Trap: What Biglaw Needs To Get Right 

Join our expert panel on Sept. 9 to hear key takeaways from ILTACON 2026 — and the implications for the law firm business model.

Morning Docket: 09.08.26

* Federal judge addresses still available online even though we passed a law to shield those. [ABA Journal]

* New York's best dressed lawyers. [Business Insider]

* Trump's effort to use Post Office to disrupt voting reminds of Andrew Jackson censoring abolitionist mail. [Slate]

* Lawyer cites AI hallucinations to defend himself at disciplinary hearing. [Legal Cheek]

* White House announces pending ban on Bombardier jets... even though the Canadian company builds jets in Kansas. [Reuters]

* Country wrecker Kyrsten Sinema facing home wrecker lawsuit. [The Hill]

* Hacking group broke into Florida records, released Epstein's driving record. [Hackread]

* Quinn Emanuel disqualified in defamation case. [Law360]

* Senior official arrested for selling green cards. Official administration policy continues offering H-1B visas for $100,000. [Newsweek]

* A look at Seyfarth's SEYscraper research tool. [Fast Company]

Check That Email Address Field Before Hitting Send On Those Judge Insults — See Generally

Can't Blame AI For This Email Disaster: The NCAA handed its Rhode Island case over to Foley & Lardner after its Holland & Knight lawyers were caught suggesting the judge was "dumb" and referring to the plaintiff as “poop man.” It came out because they cc'd opposing counsel.

Whose Bankruptcy Is It Anyway: Lewis Rice’s bankruptcy practice leader is out after unsecured creditors alleged he spent seven months representing the debtors’ owner rather than the estates paying the bills.

Thrice Bitten: A Georgia federal judge sanctioned Skadden and Kirkland $2 million for withholding evidence in a False Claims Act case, directing the money to ethics and professionalism instruction at the state’s law schools.

Managed Servitude Organization: Private equity’s pitch for law firm MSO deals now includes parking equity partners in the non-lawyer entity so the firm can bind them with the non-competes that ethics rules would otherwise forbid. That seems... not great.

A Ballroom Of One’s Own: The Supreme Court stayed an injunction against Trump’s East Wing demolition on the theory that nobody has standing to challenge it, which means the next president is welcome -- AND ENCOURAGED! -- to point the bulldozers at One First Street citing the same opinion.

Square Feet Don’t Lie: Legal sector office leasing climbed 17% year-over-year to nearly 12.2 million square feet in the first half of 2026, which is not a thing firms do for a workforce they expect to replace with AI.

Whoop, There It Is: Texas A&M posted a 97.7% modified employment score for the Classes of 2023 through 2025, topping a list on which UC Irvine logged the biggest improvement of anyone.

In Memoriam: Erin Piacenti, a 2021 Fordham Law graduate and a vice president at Bank of America, was killed in what police describe as an unprovoked knife attack in Times Square.

You Can Bill $2,000 An Hour And Still Flunk The Discovery Rules — See Also

Turns Out 'I Forgot' Isn't A Great Discovery Strategy: Just ask Skadden and Kirkland.

She Don't Lie/She Don't Lie/Cocaine: Missouri legislative candidate arrested for trying to plant cocaine on primary opponent.

The Most Forgiving Judge In The World: Chief Judge Pryor, already under fire for lenient approach to misconduct claims against Judge Eleanor Ross, swiftly dismissed misconduct claims against Judge Roy Altman.

Please Mr. Postman: Donald Trump is trying to get the Supreme Court to bless his effort to blow up mail-in voting.

How Appealing Weekly Roundup

The week in appellate news.

Morning Docket: 09.03.26

* Skadden and Kirkland fined $2 million after judge deemed firms engaged in “a widespread, long-running cover-up.” [Atlanta Journal-Constitution]

* Clients of Pogust Goodhead and Quinn Emanuel say they're dropping their firms, but the firms argue that they can't be replaced. [Roll on Friday]

* Louisiana judge rules that LSU can play NFL players. Conference takes school to federal court. [ESPN]

* Bar exam scores on MBE dropped this July. [ABA Journal]

* ICE officer federally charged in shooting. Either the administration wants a distraction or those prosecutors aren't long for their jobs. [NPR]

* Missouri Supreme Court rejects Trump supported gerrymander, ruling that it must be approved by the electorate. [CNN]

* Multiple jurisdictions of court records exposed as Thomson Reuters C-Track got hacked. [Hacker News]

* New Orleans case over staged car accidents ends in fraud conviction for lawyer, mistrial on murder charges. [NOLA]

* Class actions firm claims Paul Hastings, K&L Gates, Clifford Chance, Quinn Emanuel, and others deserve smaller shares of the fees from the Blue Cross case. [Reuters]

It’s Time To Stand Up For Judges — See Also

New Report Begs Lawyers To Defend Judges -- Ask The Florida Bar How That's Going: A new study wants the profession to step up for a judiciary under siege, a nice idea, if the bar could be bothered.

You Want To Do What Now?: There are a lot of arguments for private equity investment in law firms. Using it as a way to workaround to avoid Rule 5.6 is probably not a great one to brag about.

Trump DOJ Gets It Right: They may be taking this stand for horrible, almost certainly corrupt reasons, but the administration is right that AI training is probably fair use.

Watch That CC Field: Lawyers replaced after cc'ing the other side while casually mocking plaintiff and calling the judge "dumb."

Do Your Job: California is sick and tired of lawyers filing AI slop.