Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.20.26

* Former member of Watergate prosecution team explains how Trump's January 6 slush fund exposes DOJ lawyers to fraud charges down the road. Not if they all get pardons first... [Bloomberg Law News]

* James Comey realizes he's probably one of the only people actually due some money from this "anti-weaponization" fund, which is both true and honestly hilarious. [The Hill]

* Reed O'Connor "enjoins" hospital from complying with federal judge ruling from their own state. In a normal world, that would be a swift impeachment and removal from the bench, but it's the full Caligula era now. [Slate]

* Todd Blanche seems to be lying under oath, which honestly tracks. [The New Republic]

* NYC lateral hiring at 3-year high. [New York Law Journal]

* Alex Murdaugh now suing the clerk whose actions led to his murder convictions getting overturned. [ABA Journal]

* Boies Schiller and Dentons defeat RICO suit brought by former client. [Reuters]

* Quinn Emanuel sanctioned... more. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 05.19.26

* Department of Justice announces it has settled Trump's lawsuit against the IRS and the judge acknowledged that she has no grounds to block the settlement. Now $1.8 billion in taxpayer funds will go into a non-reviewable fund to compensate January 6 rioters. [NBC News]

* Top Treasury lawyer abruptly quits after announcement of rioter slush fund. [WSJ]

* Interview with Legal Aid attorney present as baby born during arraignment denies account of woman's lawyer, and says mother was restrained the whole time. [Hell Gate]

* Wrongfully convicted defendants in Pennsylvania have to fight their own lawyers for chance at freedom. [Inquirer]

* Elon loses lawsuit trying to tear down OpenAI. [Corporate Counsel]

* Constipation drug illegally blocked up by antitrust violation. Jury finding sets market on path to regularity. [Reuters]

* Some chemicals may be forever, but EPA regulations against them aren't as Trump administration lifting rules against poisons. [Law360]

* Are Harvey and Legora on borrowed time? [Law.com International]

* Partner advertised mentoring sessions on TikTok. [Legal Cheek]

Morning Docket: 05.18.26

* California moving closer to adopting NextGen UBE, coming full circle back to the same dumb arrangement that ran them into the red the first time. [ABA Journal]

* Former CFTC leaders worry the agency can't handle regulating crypto and prediction markets, but they're missing the trick: taking jurisdiction over those industries and then doing nothing is easy! [Bloomberg Law News]

* Supreme Court rejects Virginia's bid to use a Trump administration argument to overturn their own state supreme court's comically reasoned decision. [NY Times]

* Proposed class action accuses Amazon of foregoing tariff refunds to make Trump happy. [Law360]

* Applicants who don't go to ABA-accredited law schools are less likely to pass bar exam, more likely to be disciplined. Well, it's a good thing a bunch of states are making high-profile breaks from the ABA, huh? [Law.com]

* Harvey Weinstein rape trial ends in mistrial. [Reuters]

* DOJ eyes AI to analyze price-fixing and collusion, hopefully allowing antitrust officials identify companies to settle with in exchange for a Trump Organization kickback. [Corporate Counsel]

Morning Docket: 05.15.26

* Elon Musk leaves country despite judge in OpenAI trial warning him that he wasn't excused. [Independent]

* Clients don't mind lawyers working from home, blowing up a key law firm excuse for aggressive back to office drives. [Roll on Friday]

* Supreme Court allows mifepristone telesales to continue -- suddenly Alito and Thomas are very angry about the shadow docket. [NBC News]

* Ethics lawyer calls out "fundamental threat" to profession in DOJ effort to sue D.C. Bar into refusing to enforce ethical rules against government lawyers [National Law Journal]

* Judge blocks Texas immigration law noting that "it is implausible to imagine" every state having its own immigration law. [Texas Tribune]

* Wilson Sonsini handing out big bucks to encourage pro bono work. [American Lawyer]

* Supreme Court says courts continue to have power over cases they've sent to arbitration. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 05.14.26

* The DOJ takes the fight against law firms that refused to bow to Trump's intimidation campaign to the appellate court. [National Law Journal]

* Federal judge has concerns over SEC's sweetheart Elon Musk settlement. [Reuters]

* DOJ sues D.C. Bar for seeking professional discipline against Trump allied lawyers. There's a reason... they understand bar discipline is coming for them all and they want to get a head start in intimidating licensing authorities to stay out of it. [NY Times]

* Private equity firms are unhappy with lawyer rates. Boo hoo. [Financial Times]

* Anthropic bid to become the legal industry's AI front door and now it's up to the rest of the tech industry to figure out how to react. [Legaltech News]

* Judge McElroy absolutely lets the DOJ have it in attempt to subpoena hospital records of trans patients. [Boston Globe]

Morning Docket: 05.13.26

* Claude launches legal industry blitz, announcing connectors across the legal tech industry. [LawSites]

* Former DLA Piper associate sues firm alleging she was fired after revealing her Palestinian heritage. [American Lawyer]

* SEC junks rule barring defendants from denying settled allegations -- a rule that exists because keeping market fraudsters from lying to their investors is kind of a big deal. [National Law Journal]

* Sam Altman tells jury he believes he's trustworthy. Which is also what ChatGPT says and we know how that turns out. [Law360]

* Interim NDNY US Attorney committed professional misconduct according to disciplinary authorities. [ABA Journal]

* Biden fighting back against DOJ plan to release tapes of meetings with biographer. [Politico]

* Judge Liman getting very tired of this Lively-Baldoni case. [Page Six]

Morning Docket: 05.12.26

* Supreme Court lifts order barring Alabama from redistricting away Black voting power, three years after rejecting the same proposed redistricting. [Washington Post]

* ABA Committee recommends dropping law school diversity rules in order to protect accreditation status from Trump administration. [Reuters]

* Ye argues that his use of another person's song was "test drive" and not infringement. Pretty sure that's not in the hornbook. [Law360]

* Trump continues to pay his personal lawyers in federal appointments as opposed to cash. [National Law Journal]

* Virginia asks U.S. Supreme Court to overturn state supreme court decision. Which is crazy because the Supreme Court doesn't rule on exclusive state constitutional issues... unless it's Bush v. Gore. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Federal judge applauds Susman Godfrey for trusting young associate with high stakes copyright argument. [Litigation Daily]

* Lawyer spends evenings as extra on hit soap opera. [CBS]

Morning Docket: 05.11.26

* Legal shared in this month's decent job report. But if recent history is any guide, expect a downward adjustment in a couple months. [Law360]

* David Lat talks to Neal Katyal about the flak the lawyer's faced since his TED Talk. [Original Jurisdiction]

* Lawyers getting worried about proliferation of AI notetakers. [NY Times]

* Alleged Correspondents' Dinner attacker seeks recusal of DOJ leaders who've spent the last several days publicly talking about being fact witnesses. [ABA Journal]

* Law students enrolling early to get around federal loan changes. [Reuters]

* DOJ investigating prosecutor for "preferential treatment" of undocumented migrants, which just means "not automatically sending them to black site prisons for jaywalking." [National Law Journal]

* Second hundred firms more cautious with their AI spend. [American Lawyer]

Morning Docket: 05.08.26

* The grand jury that investigated Trump’s alleged interference in the 2020 election heard from more than 60 witnesses. The transcripts are now available. [Lawfare]

* A dive into how John Roberts growing up in a whites-only neighborhood brought us to Callais. [Slate]

* Former Willkie Farr lawyer became the key cooperator in insider trading case. [Reuters]

* Todd Blanche tells CBS News that he doesn't know anything about Jim Comey getting indicted over "Sea Shellgate" and blames the whole thing on local prosecutors and that "I don't even know their names." Apparently the "we spent 9 months investigating this at the highest levels" line from the week before wasn't testing well. [CBS News]

* Trump loses new, revised tariffs case. Surely he will respond with dignity and grace. [AP News]

* The UCLA Federalist Society event that became a right-wing "campus free speech crisis" story was... not at all what how it was portrayed on social media. Shocking! [Dorf on Law]

* Kash Patel reportedly ordering polygraphs of more than two dozen current and former close staff in desperate effort to identify those talking to the press about drinking escapades... that he claimed never happened anyway. [MSNow]

Morning Docket: 05.07.26

* Alleged Epstein suicide note finally unsealed. [Law360]

* FBI raid office of Virginia state senator who masterminded redistricting ballot initiative citing vague corruption claims. [NY Times]

* At the exact same time, the DOJ agreed to return or destroy all evidence it collected from Rep. Andy Ogles -- before the FBI was allowed to review it -- in long-running corruption investigation that includes stealing over $20,000 in money he raised for a stillborn child's burial that he seems to have just kept. [News 5]

* John Roberts worries that Americans see the conservative majority as "political actors" just because they have no consistent stances other than ruling in favor of Republicans. [NBC News]

* Plaintiff in wild JP Morgan scandal brings on lawyer who repped Epstein victims. [NY Post]

* Law firm turns to AI avatars to teach soft skills. [Legaltech News]

* Insider trading ring run out of top law firms busted. [Financial Times]

Morning Docket: 05.06.26

* Kim Kardashian seems to be giving up on bar exam dreams -- which is good because she's already doing more consequential legal work as a non-lawyer than she would ever do as a licensed attorney. [Yahoo]

* Jury told that Elon Musk wanted $80 billion in OpenAI funds to build a city on Mars. [Reuters]

* DHS instructed DOJ lawyer to hide murder warrant from judge so the Trump administration could publicly attack her when she released a detained immigrant with no apparent record. And the judge is very, very mad. [Politico]

* EEOC sues NY Times for not promoting a white guy. [NY Times]

* New lawsuit says Zuckerberg personally directed copyright infringement to train AI. Does plausible deniability mean nothing to these people? [The Recorder]

* Alabama allows graduates of non-ABA accredited to take the bar in continuing right-wing backlash against educational standards. [Law.com]

* Apple reaches settlement over iPhone hype claims. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 05.05.26

* It Ends With... Settlement. Lively and Baldoni reach terms ahead of trial. [NY Times]

* Supreme Court issues exception to standard procedure and orders that Louisiana racial gerrymander take effect immediately. [Reuters]

* Consumer antitrust challenge brought against Paramount's acquisition of Warner Bros. In case you were wondering why Republicans spent the weekend in an all-out assault against antitrust law. [The Recorder]

* Gamestop considers buying Ebay though no one is quite sure how they have the money. [Law360]

* Trump countersues billionaire (that he pardoned!) for defamation over Justin Sun's claim that the Trump crypto business is engaged in extortion. Looking forward to Trump posing the defense "it's not extortion, we're just grossly incompetent." [Yahoo]

* How do second hundred firms keep up with ever-increasing partner payouts among the most elite? [American Lawyer]

* Thomson Reuters sued for state privacy law violations. [ABA Journal]

Morning Docket: 05.04.26

* Todd Blanche hands Jim Comey selective prosecution gift, explaining on TV that the DOJ won't prosecute other "86" speakers. [ABC News]

* 8647 prosecutor who botched legal theory in indictment is so obsessed with earning Trump's favor that he dresses up like him. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Lawyer fined for passing out drunk in court. [Legal Cheek]

* Gorsuch complains about Supreme Court leaks citing the need for the justices to have "candid conversations," so they can "​find those places where we can reach agreement." Which would be more persuasive if the leaks we're seeing were anything but slightly more formal versions of "LOL, suck it!" [Reuters]

* Biglaw attorneys increasingly taking serious allegations to social media over HR. A product of law firm equity partnership becoming increasingly closed off? [American Lawyer]

* Spirit Airlines failed over the weekend amid skyrocketing fuel costs, but did succeed in making every Twitter user into an antitrust expert. [Law360]

* FTC encouraging states to cut ties with the ABA as law school accreditor. [Law.com]

Morning Docket: 05.01.26

* Lawyer will stand trial over dog breeding facility break-in. Forget Fort Knox, try breaking into a place that's just wall to wall watchdogs. [ABA Journal]

* Gavin Newsom's defamation suit against Fox News survives another hurdle as court rules the complaint plausibly alleges that the cable channel knew it was lying when it made false statements about the governor. [Law360]

* Committee advances non-qualified judicial nominee because of course they did. [Reuters]

* Fidelity and Vanguard cast their lots with Trump administration and cut off donations to the Southern Poverty Law Center. [NY Times]

* Lawyers argue that Kennedy Center could end up like the East Wing without intervention. [NPR]

* Judge in India adopts novel approach to vexatious litigants... delay their hearings until they're long dead. [Roll on Friday]

* Former judges discuss the grave abuse of the presidential pardon power. [Law.com]

Morning Docket: 04.30.26

* Elon Musk gets into argument with OpenAI's lawyer during cross. So things are going great over there. [Law360]

* Jeopardy! law student finally leaves show after hauling in $880K. [ABA Journal]

* Emory Law expels student plaguing classmates. [Daily Report]

* The majority of the Supreme Court proved they don't need to eliminate the Voting Rights Act to obliterate the Voting Rights Act. [One First]

* Former Latham partner joined Paramount Skydance and made more in three months than any other chief legal officer made all year. [Corporate Counsel]

* Trump administration continues its quid pro quo with judges, handing a federal judicial nomination to state judge who ruled in Trump's favor in frivolous Pulitzer case. [Reuters]