Robert Mueller
-
* Where does Justice Brett Kavanaugh fit along the ideological spectrum at the Supreme Court? Adam Feldman evaluates the evidence thus far. [Empirical SCOTUS]
* Speaking of SCOTUS, Frank Pasquale takes Neal Devins and Lawrence Baum’s new book, The Company They Keep: How Partisan Divisions Came to the Supreme Court (affiliate link), as a jumping-off point for exploring the political polarization of SCOTUS. [Balkinization]
* Texas v. Azar, the Obamacare case now pending before the Fifth Circuit, makes for unusual alliances — how often do you see Jonathan Adler, Nick Bagley, Abbe Gluck, and Ilya Somin on the same amicus brief? [Take Care]
* David Bernstein offers some thoughtful reflections — with which I happen to agree — on how some conservatives responded to the nominations of Neomi Rao and Jessie Liu. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* Joel Cohen has a question about Robert Mueller: “What did he know, and when did he know it?” [The Hill]
* And Cohen also has this interesting interview with Justice David Wecht of the Pennsylvania Supreme Court, about an important (and disturbing) subject: the recent rise in anti-Semitism, in America and abroad. [Tablet]
* If you share my interest in litigation finance, then you might be interested in this great new resource: a comprehensive digital library of documents relating to the litigation-funding industry. [Litigation Finance Journal]
* What trends and technology will shape the future of the legal profession? Jean O’Grady discusses highlights from a new report by Wolters Kluwer. [Dewey B Strategic]
-
* Even Jonathan Adler, no fan of Obamacare, can’t support the Justice Department’s shift of position in the ongoing Affordable Care Act litigation out of Texas. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]
* John Lauro continues to protect the reputation of his client Wendi Adelson, ex-wife of murdered law professor Dan Markel. [2paragraphs]
* Meanwhile, another player in the Dan Markel case — David Oscar Markus, counsel to Charlie Adelson — argues that Attorney General William Barr and Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein made the right call on obstruction of justice. [The Hill]
* Speaking of the Mueller investigation, Brianne Gorod points out that Congress has the power to ask the district court to release grand jury transcripts and related information from the case. [Take Care]
* Whether or not you agree with Senator Marco Rubio’s proposed constitutional amendment to fix the size of the U.S. Supreme Court at nine justices, it’s not a bad idea to think about possible ways to restructure SCOTUS — as Gordon Renneisen does here. [Law360]
* Meanwhile, as the Court grapples with the cross-shaped war memorial case this Term, Rick Garnett wonders: can a liberal state favor one religion over others? [First Things via PrawfsBlawg]
* Legal tech M&A activity continues apace, with vLex’s acquisition of Justis. [Artificial Lawyer]
-
-
* It’s the first day of the bar exam in a number of jurisdictions. These young lawyers have suggestions for your last month of freedom. [Young Lawyers Advisory Board]
* Jeff Sessions is withholding funding from local law enforcement. Just the latest example of Dummy the House Elf’s curious interpretation of being “tough on crime.” [NJ.com]
* Now Trump will meet with Mueller? Oh, he’ll talk to Mueller about anything but obstruction. So I guess they could discuss the weather. [Time]
* Stormy Daniels is getting a divorce. [NY Times]
* After a dicey back and forth with the ABA, NCCU has retained its accreditation. [News & Observer]
* The EU keeps fining American companies. American companies keep right on monopolizin’. [The Economist]
* Jonathan Turley goes all “get off my lawn” about Millennials and free speech. Magistrate Judge James Donohue points out that Millennials might appreciate free speech more if they had any reason to believe people like Turley weren’t trying to turn it into a pay-to-play right. [Courthouse News Service]
-
* Harvey Weinstein has turned himself in to the NYPD. [Vox]
* Happy GDPR Day! [Wall Street Journal]
* Emmet Flood attended the DOJ’s briefing for congressional leaders because defense attorneys are always allowed to attend internal conversations about law enforcement tactics in ongoing investigations. [Talking Points Memo]
* Elon Musk may want to put away the Twitter machine for a bit now that he’s stepped into possible labor law violations. [Engadget]
* The Samsung-Apple war continues with a jury awarding Apple $539 million for IP infringement. [Law360]
* Professor Steven Calabresi is arguing that Robert Mueller’s whole job is unconstitutional. We’ve really come a long way from conservatives hailing the appointment of a no-nonsense lifelong Republican, haven’t we? [The Hill]
* Also, Calabresi is completely wrong. [Legal Skills Prof Blog]
-
* The Incredible Shrinking Biglaw Partnership: Who’d have thought the idea of making more money by sharing it with fewer people would be so popular? [Law360]
* Mayer Brown has a new managing partner. [American Lawyer]
* In the Democratic Republic of Congo, the president just fired 256 judges for, by and large, not having law degrees. That’s so weird, over here our judging problem are all the unfit hacks with law degrees. [Al Jazeera]
* How do you expeditiously sort through millions of pages of documents in a wide-ranging criminal investigation? That’s a question Robert Mueller’s team has, and one that legal technology can actually answer. [Legaltech News]
* Merely threatening frivolous defamation claims can be big business. Charles Harder made $93,000 off Trump’s fear of Fire and Fury. [CNBC]
* Neil Gorsuch seems to understand diversity in practice better than his colleagues. [Slate]
* Sheppard Mullin sets up a new lateral-fueled Dallas office. [Texas Lawyer]
-
* John Dowd says the Trump legal team had a “terrific” relationship with Robert Mueller’s office. Yeah… that’s probably why you’ve been forced off the Trump legal team. [National Law Journal]
* Becoming beloved by GCs isn’t difficult. Just give them 100 percent of your time for 50 percent of the cost. And if you can’t handle that, here are some other tips. [Law360]
* Mayer Brown boasts mother and son partner duo. [American Lawyer]
* BDO has a new report entitled Inside E-Discovery & Beyond: Reimagining Digital Risk. I think the problem is too many lawyers haven’t begun imagining digital risk, let alone reimagining it. [BDO]
* Facebook would really, really like you to know that you have privacy settings available to you. [The Recorder]
* Senior DOJ attorney bolting for LGBT rights organization. That’s a lateral move I didn’t expect. [The Hill]
-
* In case you missed it, Linda Greenhouse of the New York Times has noticed a trend when it comes to Chief Justice Roberts and who he’s been aligning himself with at the Supreme Court. He may not yet be a moderate, but he seems to be shying away from “the reliably right-wing triumvirate” of Justices Thomas, Alito, and Gorsuch. [New York Times]
* “The document speaks for itself.” All three of former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates’s lawyers are withdrawing as counsel, and will only explain why in documents filed under seal. Only his Biglaw attorney who is known for his plea deals remains. Gates is under indictment in special counsel Robert Mueller’s Russia investigation. [POLITICO]
* According to the latest year-end report from the Wells Fargo Private Bank’s Legal Specialty Group, law firm revenue and profits were up in 2017, and demand had increased for legal services. As usual, the most profitable firms at the top of the market outperformed their smaller counterparts. [American Lawyer]
* Trump administration policies having to do with immigration, specifically the H-1B visa program for foreign workers, may force many Biglaw firms to move to their practices to the cloud sooner than they would have liked. In times of “political uncertainty” like these, Biglaw can’t rely on “offshore labor arbitrage” for IT outsourcing. [TechTarget]
* The GC of the American Red Cross has resigned following the publication of a report that he praised a former colleague who was the subject of an internal investigation and pushed out of the organization for alleged instances sexual misconduct. [Corporate Counsel]
* Disgusting: A Georgia lawyer who asked a witness to recant an eyewitness account of her son’s molestation has politely gave up his license to practice law after pleading guilty to felony witness tampering and attempting to suborn perjury. [Big Law Business]
-
* According to his friends, President Trump is reportedly planning to ask Attorney General Jeff Sessions to prosecute special counsel Robert Mueller and his team. Considering he’s done nothing wrong, it’s anyone’s guess as to what Mueller could possibly be prosecuted for, but that’s neither here nor there. [CNBC]
* For the first time in more than 80 years, the Senate has confirmed a circuit court judge with a missing blue slip. Yesterday, Judge David Stras of the Minnesota Supreme Court was confirmed to the Eighth Circuit, with a 56-42 vote that threw decades-old tradition to the wind. [The Hill]
* “It’s really important that lawyers in large firms know that they can sign up….” In the short time since the initiative was announced, more than 500 lawyers have signed up to take on cases for the Time’s Up legal defense fund, and they’ll be able to provide free consultations to victims of workplace sexual harassment. [Big Law Business]
* The robots are coming: Former payroll managers from Dechert claim in a federal age and gender bias suit that they were laid off because they were the oldest women employees in the department. The firm says that’s not the case, since it was cloud-based technology, not discrimination, that took their jobs. [Legal Intelligencer]
* A California appellate court has breathed new life into a proposed class action that accuses Tinder of charging older users more money to use the enhanced version of the app. The judge who wrote the opinion reversed the lower court using slang very familiar to dating app aficionados. We’ll have more on this later. [The Recorder]
-
* Grumpy cat should be a little less grumpy after winning $710,000 in a licensing case. [Courthouse News Service]
* Remember that judge who gave a Stanford swimmer 6 months for a rape conviction? Yeah, he’s poised to get kicked off the bench. [NY Daily News]
* Can you get a DUI in an autonomous vehicle? A lot of people aren’t familiar with State of Oregon v. The Autobots. [Versus Texas]
* Ty Cobb is a lot less eager to meet with Mueller under oath than his client. [New York]
* Apparently “AI” is now a verb. That’s… awful. [Legal Week]
* Your summer associate lunch plans have taken a hit — Le Bernardin sued over everything from shortchanging employees to sexual harassment. [Le Bernadin]
* Your work email is probably in the Dark Web. It’s also probably on your firm website, but that doesn’t sound as menacing. [National Law Journal]
* New York will only do business with ISPs that adhere to net neutrality in a move that many states are expected to copy. I’m sure the states rights-loving politicians who worked tirelessly to kill neutrality will hail this as a triumph of federalism. [New York Law Journal]
-
-
* Trump’s people want a new Special Counsel to investigate the Special Counsel over a potential conflict that has nothing to do with the first Special Counsel. Things are going well. [Huffington Post]
* Boutiques give out big bonuses and they can do it because handing out big bonuses is barely any skin off their noses. But, that won’t stop some Biglaw firms from trying to screw over their associates. [American Lawyer]
* Public companies, by and large, aren’t identifying cybersecurity as a risk on their SEC filings. That’s… likely a problem. [Corporate Counsel]
* It’s possible that Biglaw has come around on litigation finance. [Law360]
* Obama alums are flocking to elite law schools. I have a feeling that’s not going to happen with this administration’s refugees.
[National Law Journal]* Are we looking at a hot lateral market next year? [American Lawyer]
* With Star Wars about to drop, let’s check in on Kylo Ren’s insanity defense. [The Legal Geeks]
-
* President Donald Trump rejects reports that he’s considered firing special counsel Robert Mueller, while offering a less-than-ringing endorsement of his relationship with Attorney General Jeff Sessions: “It is what it is.” [New York Times]
* Former Trump campaign manager Paul Manafort, whose house was the subject of a predawn raid by the FBI, parts ways with WilmerHale and goes back to his former lawyers at Miller & Chevalier. [National Law Journal]
* Meanwhile, the Trump administration files its opening brief in the Supreme Court in the travel ban litigation. [How Appealing]
* Georgetown Law launches a new con-law center, the Institute for Constitutional Advocacy and Protection, led by star SCOTUS litigator Neal Katyal, former National Security Council official Joshua Geltzer, and former Justice Department official Mary McCord. [ABA Journal]
* Some Democratic senators claim that the White House isn’t consulting them enough about judicial nominations. [Politico]
* The hype may exceed the reality on alternative-fee arrangements — but not at pharma giant GlaxoSmithKline, which takes an aggressive and innovative approach to AFAs. [Am Law Daily]
* Settling the “pink slime” litigation cost Disney/ABC how much? [How Appealing]
* Also not cheap: the costs of bad-faith discovery spoliation. [Big Law Business]
-
alt.legal: The Age Of Congressional eDiscovery
It all makes for good wonky perusing, especially for lawyers, and it helps put into perspective the work of government.
-
* Congratulations to Howard Bashman and our sister site How Appealing on 15 great years! [How Appealing]
* Roger Ailes, RIP. [Instapundit]
* Fellowships for training law professors are now a thing — but are they a good thing, wonders Professor Paul Horwitz? [PrawfsBlawg]
* “Immigration, Freedom, and the Constitution” — reflections on these timely topics from Professor Ilya Somin. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]
* Professor Leah Litman breaks down Rod Rosenstein’s appointment of Robert Mueller as special counsel in the Trump/Russia investigation. [Take Care]
* Tips from cyberspace lawyer Andrew Rossow for victims of the recent “WannaCry” ransomware attack. [Huffington Post]