Donald Trump
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MAGA Lawyer Doesn’t Have A Computer, Has To Borrow One From The Government
Lawyers have a reputation for being luddites, but this is ridiculous
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* Trump’s businesses nuked by judge. Why does the woke mob keep doing this just because he’s committing “crimes”? [CNN]
* Amazon’s business practices run into Sherman Act. Bad week for Primes. [Reuters]
* JP Morgan spending $75 million to settle Jeffrey Epstein claims which is a totally normal thing banks do. [Law360]
* Boutique cashes in on Lewis Brisbois defection/catastrophe. [Bloomberg Law News]
* The tech driving legal gets pricier. [Legaltech News]
* What’s 400 gigs of confidential data among friends? [The Recorder]
* Bombs away. [LegalCheek]
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Shutdown Can’t Stop Trump Criminal Cases Because PACER Is A Ripoff… Seriously
It’s good to have a slush fund!
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* Depressed about how awful the Supreme Court is right now? Maybe it’s not the worst. I mean it’s still bad, but there’s room for hope. [Vox]
* AI is not an artist. Judge reject copyright for AI generated artwork. [Law360]
* Biden administration wants to be able to block you. The Solicitor General will argue to the Supreme Court that government officials that blocker social media users on their own personal accounts do not violate the First Amendment. [Law.com]
* So, this is how Hunter Biden’s plea deal fell apart. [Politico]
* Asa Hutchinson understands the 14th Amendment, think Donald Trump is likely disqualified from running for president. [The Hill]
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* Keep track of who’s who in the latest indictment. [Politico]
* Meanwhile, Abbe Lowell and Winston & Strawn have stepped up their collective role in the Hunter Biden case, arguing that the original plea agreement included binding government promises that didn’t evaporate just because the judge rejected the deal. [Law360]
* CFPB going after data brokers selling people’s personal data. Yet again, the government agency making the most direct, tangible impact for people is the one that still worries that every election might be its last. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Justice Department urges Supreme Court to deal with unconstitutional social media laws out of Texas and Florida. [Reuters]
* Has “flexibility” lost all meaning when it comes to law firm office scheduling? No. Just because some law firms try to engage in flexibility newspeak, doesn’t actually change its meaning. [American Lawyer]
* AI may not be ready to replace lawyers, but the California Innocence Project is leveraging the tool to assist in pursuit of justice. [ABA Journal]
* London Kirkland team headed to Paul Weiss resigned on a Sunday in a power move. [LegalCheek]
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* Harlan Crow got a tax break for designating his superyacht as a profit-seeking venture. Though it seems like its voyages were limited to shuttling around his buddies like BFF Clarence Thomas. [Pro Publica]
* California Supreme Court rules that U.S. Supreme Court can’t boss it around. [SF Chronicle]
* Trump’s legal team heads to Judge Cannon’s courtroom today to give us another peak at how wacky this case will be. [Reuters]
* AI is often touted for access to justice, but without care it might make things worse. [Financial Times]
* USC Law appoints first Black dean. [Law.com]
* College athletes can earn money now, which means they can be scammed now. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Criminal division of the Department of Justice losing its boss to private practice. [Law360]
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* Sam Alito… COME ON DOWN! You’re the next contestant on “ProPublica is absolutely going to find all your past judicial ethics issues.” It’s becoming a popular show this year. [ProPublica]
* Trump’s documents trial set for August 14… before all the whining motions begins. [Law360]
* Fund manager explains that the legal industry is in trouble because all of his rich buddies are using ChatGPT to write all their contracts. Oh, this is going to be very funny! [Yahoo Finance]
* John Eastman’s disbarment proceedings went about as well as you’d expect. [Washington Post]
* Interesting analysis of how the nature of the student impacts the success of online legal education. [Law.com]
* Arkansas ban on gender-affirming care struck down. [Reuters]
* America needs to embrace failure a little more. It would certainly help if corporations were more open to investing in the future instead of overreacting in the present to trim enough expense to save a penny before the end of the quarter. [O’Dwyer’s]
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* Lawyer accused of blowing millions of client money in Vegas will plead guilty. Guess she didn’t like her odds… [NY Post]
* Magistrate in Trump’s arraignment has an extensive history of quoting music lyrics in opinions. Maybe Siting on the Potty? [Pittsburgh Post-Gazette]
* Clients want to see more innovation out of law firms. Surely junking all their remote collaboration infrastructure and forcing everyone to sit in high overhead expense offices will do the trick! [American Lawyer]
* Judge blocks Microsoft’s acquisition of Activision until FTC completes its challenge. Quietly returns to chambers and fires up Call of Duty on a PS5. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Congress heard testimony about the phenomenon of scammers are using AI to fake kidnappings. While regulation is probably needed… doesn’t this just make real kidnappings less likely? I mean, Nigerian princes don’t even bother asking me to help them move their money anymore. [Courthouse News Service]
* E. Jean Carroll granted leave to amend complaint to include all the new defamation committed after she won the first lawsuit. [Reuters]
* Partner sues McDermott and a recruiter for failing to disclose conflicts the firm had with his book of business. Not sure why the recruiter would know if the firm intended to hide the ball on its own business, but hey. [Law360]
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In Miami, Press Asks For Cameras, Judge Confiscates Their Phones
Surely Judge Cannon will want everyone to see what she’s doing, LOL.
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* When you constantly admit to elements of a crime, it shouldn’t really be a surprise when you get indicted for that crime. [CNN]
* Julian Assange loses bid to avoid extradition to the United States. His camp says he has another appeal coming, but maybe he and Trump can soon reminisce about classified documents and Russian misinformation campaigns. [Reuters]
* Baker Botts eyes merger and five of its partners eye the leadership chair. It’s Game of Thrones except with more financial spreadsheets and less nudity. Presumably. [Bloomberg Law News]
* ChatGPTGate continued with a hearing and the two lawyers involved in citing the fake AI generated cases got a thorough tongue-lashing. [Law360]
* Speaking of AI, a radio host has sued ChatGPT for making up past criminal claims about him. This has been coming for awhile. [Business Insider]
* The FBI nabbed the guy involved in the allegations against Texas AG Ken Paxton, so that’s all crumbling apace. [Politico]
* ABA issues ruling on client intake. Look, they can’t all be earth-shattering the day after a president gets federally indicted. [American Lawyer]
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* Twilight of the screamer: Attorneys who cling to the toxic Biglaw management style are losing out. Which probably makes them mad. [American Lawyer]
* The Third Circuit is going ahead with its humane filing deadline proposal over vocal dissent. If they hate it so much, they’re free to file a complaint… during regular business hours. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Trump will not testify in the E. Jean Carroll trial. A bold move to rely on that cross. [Law360]
* Will artificial intelligence finally end the billable hour? Probably not. [The Recorder]
* Elon Musk doesn’t really have a plan B if a new lawsuit successfully shuts down SpaceX’s half-baked launchpad. [Reuters]
* An update on Harvey, the AI tool deployed by Allen & Overy. [Business Today]
* John Quinn opines on AI and intellectual property. [Forbes]
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* Leonard Leo used his Federalist Society contacts to secure $1.6 billion donation, which Politico suggests might “raise questions about its nonpartisan, non-political status.” Nope. We had no questions. [Politico]
* Joe Tacopina’s second day of cross-examination somehow managed to be worse according to Mitchell Epner. [Daily Beast]
* Though he may not be around for long, as eyes turn toward whether or not Joe Tacopina is conflicted out of the Donald Trump case because of past interactions with Stormy Daniels. What are the odds this is all heading toward some half-baked mistrial motion? I’m guessing around 1 in… 1. [Law360]
* All that Zooming and Teamsing (yet another reason Teams sucks — no good way to convert the product name into an activity) during the pandemic left the Justice Department a treasure trove of material. [Bloomberg Law News]
* Hollywood writers go on strike. Now you’re stuck with all the online journalists for your entertainment needs. [Reuters]
* Midsized law firms are embracing emerging companies practice while bigger firms grow more cautious. [American Lawyer]
* UK regulators investigating the abuse of NDAs. [LegalCheek]
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* Much like everyone else, law firms have no interest in paying Twitter. [LegalCheek]
* Lawyers think the profession has gotten less civil, but that’s just what those degenerate scumbags would say. [ABA Journal]
* A nice guide to the lawyers working with Jack Smith on Trump’s classified documents case. [ABC News]
* No sooner did we note in this here column that New York would rewrite the rules to make criminal defense work even harder than NYC’s prosecutors reversed their push for the change. They don’t have a vote, but it’s taken a lot of the effort. [NY Times]
* Eleventh Circuit issues 2-1 opinion that suppressing the rights of Black voters is acceptable, but only if you’re coy enough. [Reuters]
* DC Circuit won’t break up Meta’s Instagram and WhatsApp acquisitions. If only they could undo the whole “Meta” part of Facebook. [Law360]
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* NY prosecutors signal that Donald Trump is about to be indicted. It’s probably a misdemeanor for falsifying records to bribe Stormy Daniels into silence, but it’s something. [Huffington Post]
* Speaking of bribery, the trial of the Fox executives accused of bribing soccer officials results in split verdict. The only proper result for a case about a sport that drags on forever and ends in a draw. [Courthouse News Service]
* Alex Murdaugh is appealing his conviction based on… well, the filing doesn’t say but I’m sure those crazy kids will come up with something. [The Hill]
* Brett Favre’s lawyer says his defamation claims against commentators addressing the Mississippi welfare scandal are a “slam dunk.” Which is the wrong sport. [Awful Announcing]
* DoNotPay hit with class action lawsuit. Maybe the algorithm can defend them here! If the company is willing to bet a million on its ability to win a SCOTUS case, it can surely do this pro se. [CBS News]
* DOJ opposing efforts to keep judges from enhancing sentences for minor crime convictions based on allegations where the jury acquitted. See, this is a reason to be furious with Merrick Garland. [Reuters]
* Do you still use paper business cards? Should you upgrade to one of the objectively cooler options out there or are you too much of an American Psycho fan to give up paper? [Daily Business Review]
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Florida Federal Court Using Underwear Shop For Phone Storage Is Most Florida Thing Ever
Ostensibly this story is about the Trump hearing… but this detail is more interesting.
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Trump Doesn’t Want To Get Back On Twitter So Badly, He’s Appealing His Case To Get Back On Twitter
In April, Donald Trump insisted he had no interest whatsoever in getting back on Twitter (in response to questions about whether or not Elon Musk would allow him back, should he ever close his Twitter purchase). In May, Donald Trump lost his lawsuit trying to force Twitter to reinstate him. In June, Donald Trump (who again, insists he wouldn’t […]