Threat actors continue to refine their strategies, and the financial incentives for cybercrime persist. However, the combination of stronger defenses, regulatory pressure, and industry collaboration is starting to shift the balance in favor of defenders.
* An open letter to Clarence Thomas. If we print it out and wrap it in luxury vacation tickets he just might read it. [The Nation]
* Supreme Court jumps in to stop Maine's state legislature from censuring its own members. Eager to hear the Originalist case for this one. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Meta tries to end its monopoly case mid-trial. Judge does not like this. [Law360]
* DOJ opens criminal probe into NYC mayoral candidate Andrew Cuomo over COVID testimony to Congress, which might be the weakest possible criminal case that could hypothetically be made against Andrew Cuomo. [CNN]
* Why is every story that begins, "Prominent South Carolina lawyer..." so good? [ABA Journal]
Juno has consistently secured the best private loan deals for students at the Top MBA programs since 2018—now they’re bringing that same offer to law students, at no cost. Students can check their personalized offers at juno.us/atl This article is for general information only and is not personal financial advice.
This episode of 'Adventures in Legal Tech' explores one PI lawyer's path to success — and what he'd like to see legal tech providers develop.
Regeneron Pharmaceuticals’ $256 million offer was chosen the winner of 23andMe’s bankruptcy auction. Drug research never became a big part of the genetic testing company’s business, but it is getting a new life by joining Regeneron Genetics Center, a Regeneron subsidiary that analyzes genetic data for drug R&D.
Breaking down the uses of AI for your law firm.
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* Tom Goldstein rips DOJ over "breathtaking" legal theories he says biased the grand jury. [Law360]
* Deep dive into the 240 prisoners sent to El Salvador reveals at least 50 came to the United States legally and never violated any immigration laws. [CATO Institute]
* Meanwhile, the lawyer representing many of those prisoners in El Salvador was just arrested and disappeared to a secret location over "embezzlement" claims from 10 years ago. [Guardian]
* Though the Supreme Court just authorized the Trump administration to revoke legal status for roughly 300,000 Venezuelans so it can invent immigration violations that didn't exist before. [NBC News]
* Article advances narrative that regardless of in-house counsel misgivings, corporations are not going to fire outside counsel over Trump deals. Apparently Microsoft and McDonald's didn't get interviewed. [Law.com International]
* Trump is getting tired of courts telling him what the law is... and soon he might just stop asking. [The Atlantic]
* Lawsuit to reclaim artist rights against Universal Music? Salt-N-Pepa decide to Push It! [Bloomberg Law News]
* OpenAI defeats defamation suit over false claims that ChatGPT conjured up about a radio personality. [Reuters]
What’s holding legal back? Read more to find out.
Your tour of all things related to lawyer and judicial ethics, with University of Houston law professor Renee Knake Jefferson.
WeightWatchers recently filed for bankruptcy. Part of the reason is because it couldn't adapt fast enough to a rapidly changing weight-loss environment spurred by the rising popularity of GLP-1s, experts said.
"Decrypting Crypto" is a go-to guide for understanding the technology and tools underlying Web3 and issues raised in the context of specific legal practice areas.
* The Times looks at Biglaw surrenders through the lens of the history of Above the Law itself. [NY Times]
* McDermott/Schulte merger will create one of the biggest New York presences of any firm (until the looming recession hits and provides a convenient opportunity to trim redundancies, of course). [American Lawyer]
* Wachtell and Latham decide that since everyone is happy with rent-seeking, monopolistic cable companies, it's time to make an even bigger one. [Law360]
* On Friday, the Supreme Court reaffirmed that, no, the government can't sell more people to prisons without due process. Alito and Thomas dissent... probably hoping for an awesome all-expense paid luxury vacation courtesy of the El Salvadoran government. [CNBC]
* Relatedly, Judge Xinnis sees the Trump administration inching ever closer to the contempt line in refusing to follow orders in Abrego Garcia case. Meanwhile, someone in the White House is saying, "Xinnis... sounds foreign to me." [Reuters]
* New York case asks if the algorithms tech companies use to steer radicalizing content to specific users have become products susceptible to the state product liability law. Essentially, does ranking and delivering content take it outside the Section 230 shield. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Karen Read gets documentary series. [ABA Journal]
Work From Home? That Was So 2024: Sidley only gave a week's notice before ordering folks back.
Above The Law In The New York Times: Normally this newsletter is about Above the Law stories of the week, but let's make an exception for this Times feature on ATL.
Hold These Shells Up To Your Ear And You Can Hear Kash Patel Being Insane: Former FBI Director's beach pic inspires administration conspiracy theorists to see Manchurian Clamshell scenario.
Young Lawyers Speaking Up; Law Firm Leaders Hit "Mute" And Turn Up Kid Rock: Lawyers, in particular minority lawyers, feel expendable as firms side with Trump.
Lawyers Of Arabia: Kirkland Chair Jon Ballis leveraged firm's collaboration with Donald Trump into a spot on the Saudi Arabia trip.
Diversity Initiatives? Never Heard Of 'Em: Firm removes diversity billing codes... and if it's not billable it's not happening.
Judicial Campaigning (Contains 0% Real Content): Broward County judge in trouble for campaigning on AI deepfake video.
What's Worse Than One Congressional Investigation? Two! Senator Whitehouse launches probe into the nine Biglaw firms that capitulated to Donald Trump.
This episode of 'Adventures in Legal Tech' explores the adoption trajectory, pitfalls, and interplay with human expertise.
The week in appellate news.
* There's an appetite at the Supreme Court to get rid of universal injunctions, but after brutal oral argument, birthright citizenship might not be the case where they pull the trigger. [Law360]
* Giving Jeanine Pirro a temporary appointment after riding Ed Martin's doomed interim run tests temporary appointment power that should give the district court the power to fill that job temporarily. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Biglaw efforts to surrender or fight hinged upon their willingness to act collectively. [Law.com]
* Latham caught in the AI hallucination trap. [Reuters]
* ICE misled a federal judge into issuing a warrant and this should be lesson eleventy billion that judges need to be a lot more suspicious of warrants casually dumped on their desks. [The Intercept]
* Now they've dragged Taylor Swift into the Blake Lively-Justin Baldoni debacle. [Newsweek]
* Following all the attention of the Conclave, the ABA Journal offers a brief guide to canon law. [ABA Journal]