Biglaw
Another Day, Another Transatlantic Biglaw Merger To Create A 1600-Lawyer Megafirm
It's been less than a week since the last one, so let's have another Biglaw merger.
* “The chief justice, in particular, doesn’t like the court to be a disruptive force,” but that might change this spring as the Supreme Court considers reversing at least three of its longstanding precedents. Trashing precedents could potentially become much easier now that Justice Gorsuch is here. [USA Today]
* Berwin Leighton Paisner and Bryan Cave partners are voting on their proposed transatlantic merger, and the results are expected by the end of the month. If the tie-up is approved, BCLP — the combined firm’s new name — will be a billion-dollar firm with 1,500 lawyers and 32 offices in 12 countries. [Law.com]
* Charles Harder, the lawyer who brought down Gawker and now represents Donald Trump and members of his family, is experiencing some growing pains at his firm thanks to his presidential representation. Name partner Douglas Mirell just quit because of his “pledge to protect the First Amendment.” [The Recorder]
* New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has filed a civil rights suit against the Weinstein Company and its founders, alleging that they “repeatedly and persistently treated female employees less well than male-employees through gender-based hostile workplace harassment, quid pro quo harassment, and discrimination.” [Variety]
* In an effort to increase diversity, LSAC will be awarding a total of $1.5 million to five law schools so they can hold Prelaw Undergraduate Scholars programs on their campuses. Akron, Alabama, Duke, Houston, and St. John’s will each receive these grants to convince college students to enroll. [Black Enterprise]
* Congratulations to Charleston Law’s National Tax Moot Court team, which just clinched its seventh championship title in a row. It’s nice to know that students were able to rise above the school’s designation as one of the “least selective law schools in the country” to create a tax law dynasty. [Post and Courier]
* Remember the former Ulta employee who accused the beauty retailer of reselling used products as new? Now a concerned customer has filed a proposed class-action lawsuit over the store’s “widespread and surreptitious practice” of allegedly repackaging and selling returned products. [Chicago Tribune]
* The Senate rejects the latest GOP effort to repeal the Affordable Care Act — with Senator John McCain casting the decisive “no” vote. [Washington Post]
* Riley Safer Holmes and Cancila continues its rapid expansion, adding 13 new lawyers — including eight from Bryan Cave, led by former managing partner Joseph McCoy. [Law360]
* More bad news for the LGBT community from the Trump administration: the Justice Department takes the position that Title VII doesn’t cover discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation. [How Appealing]
* Meanwhile, civil rights and LGBT groups get ready to file suit if President Trump’s plan to ban transgender people from the military becomes a reality (which is not yet the case). [National Law Journal]
* And these groups might just prevail — Michael Richter and Anna Pohl, chairs of the New York City Bar Association’s Military Affairs and LGBT Rights Committees, lay out the case for why the transgender ban is unconstitutional. [The Hill]
* Stephanie Francis Ward takes a long, hard look at the woes of Charlotte School of Law — and the rest of the beleaguered Infilaw consortium of law schools. [ABA Journal]
* Closing statements in the Martin Shkreli case paint very different pictures of the infamous “Pharma Bro.” [Law.com]
* Nuisance claims, or nuisance suits? Judge James Donato (N.D. Cal.) seems skeptical of a purported class-action case targeting Pokémon GO (which recently added Legendaries to the game). [The Recorder]
* Remember when Trump recaptured the news cycle from the string of blunders and Russian scandals that rocked his first month? That seems like just yesterday…. [Washington Post]
* What happens to lawyers after they publicly demean themselves appear on The Bachelor? [The Ringer]
* After a massive scandal, Wells Fargo is slashing executive pay in the name of accountability. Well, by “slashing,” they mean “the people who failed to pick up the fraud will still make millions,” but it’s the tokenistic thought that counts. [Corporate Counsel]
* JP Morgan replaced 360,000 hours of annual legal work with a robot that does the work in seconds. That sounds impressive, but when you control for Biglaw hour padding the software really replaced about 20 minutes of work. [Bloomberg Markets]
* Yahoo’s GC resigned over their cybersecurity kerfuffle. Most Americans greet the news by wondering, “wait, Yahoo is still around?” [NY Times]
* Salary increases may be nice, but it just intensifies senior skepticism over what young associates really bring to the table. [Law360]
* Gibson Dunn building its Houston office on with Latham laterals. [Texas Lawyer]
* Even with revenue down, Bryan Cave manages to get PPP up. [Am Law Daily]
* Because he’d like to stop “freeriding on the services of Bryan Cave,” Stephen DiCarmine, Dewey & LeBoeuf’s former executive director, told a judge that he’d like to dump Austin Campriello as his lawyer and represent himself in the retrial of his criminal case. DiCarmine, a current textile design student, was warned that this likely wasn’t a very wise choice on his part. [WSJ Law Blog]
* Kaye Scholer’s managing partner “wouldn’t comment on any speculation or rumor,” but word on the street is that his firm and Arnold & Porter may potentially be discussing a possible merger. Information related to this merger is really just a game of Biglaw telephone at this point. Let us know if you have any credible details. [Big Law Business]
* This seems like the plotline of a reality TV series: A trial date has been set for one of the three Trump University lawsuits, and if all goes according to plan for likely Republican nominee Donald Trump, it looks like we may have a president-elect taking the witness stand to testify about allegations related to fraud before his inauguration. [CBS News]
* Just in time for law school commencement ceremonies, the Bureau of Labor Statistics has some depressing news about employment statistics. In April, the legal services sector lost 1,500 jobs. Thus far, the only month in 2016 when jobs were added in the legal services sector was March. Well… this really isn’t very encouraging. [Am Law Daily]
* “It’s been one step forward, two steps back since [2009].” The job market for law school grads is still challenging, but due to the fact that class sizes are smaller now, job prospects may seem a bit brighter for some. Are things really looking up? This John Marshall Law grad — with a job! — thinks things are going to be fine. [Chicago Tribune]
Steven M. Baumer, Chief Executive Officer
University of Michigan, JD
