Above the Law

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]

Another Firm, Another Nonequity Partner Tier — See Also

Will A&O Shearman Be The Next Big Name To Adopt The Tier?: Sure looks like it!

One Hell Of A Campaign: George Conway is running on impeaching Trump.

New To The Game And True To It: Judge gives Susman Godfrey and a young associate, Dylan Salzman, respect for knocking it out of the park.

DLA Piper Faces Discrimination Suit From Fired Palestinian Lawyer: She was fired 26 days after disclosing she was Palestinian.

A ‘Hurricane’ Of Legal Fees: Jury finds Ye liable in copyright infringement sampling case.

On This Week Of Thinking Like A Lawyer: Alito didn’t even bother to fact check his arguments and we talk layoffs.

Not Sure In-House Counsel Are Really Up On That Whole ‘Compliance’ Thing

It's not 'a little bit pregnant,' but it's not great.

CLOC Opening Keynote: What If You Could Automate Everything?

What to leave out of the automated tasks goes to the heart of what’s bedeviling legal in general and legal ops in particular. Or should be.

At 40, I Just Finished My 10th Marathon, So I Challenge JD Vance, 41, To Get Off The Couch And Run His First

A 26.2-mile marathon is a mere 17,292 couches placed end to end.

They Stole My Identity To Run An Executive Job Scam. Here’s What Every Professional Needs To Know.

Job scamming is a multimillion-dollar 'industry.'

Less Chair, More Chill: John Quinn Set To Discover The Joys Of Not Being In Charge At Quinn Emanuel

The former executive chair at the firm will be free to travel -- and still do work, of course.

George Conway’s Campaign Platform, In Full: Trump Is Hitler In The Bunker And Must Be Impeached Before He Destroys The Country

George Conway on a podcast doing George Conway things.

Copyright Infringement At Album Release Party Costs Kanye ~$200K

Big chune, big costs.

DLA Piper Sued For Discrimination After Firing Palestinian Lawyer

The firm cites an undisclosed criminal matter... that doesn't exist.

A Federal Judge Praises Susman Godfrey For Letting A Young Associate Cook

Judge Jon Tigar's 'Good for you, really' was directed at the firm -- but the implicit audience was every other Biglaw shop.

Stealth Layoffs And Sam Alito On Tilt

Also a major insider trading case strikes Biglaw.

How Checkbox’s ‘Legal Front Door’ Can Transform Your Workflow

Leveraging agentic AI to triage, prioritize, and automate the law department inbox.

Global Biglaw Giant May Be The Next Firm To Embrace Nonequity Partners

As more elite firms embrace nonequity partnership tiers, A&O Shearman may be preparing to follow suit.

Law School Advice In The Age Of Information Overload

What used to be a desert of information is now a tidal wave of AI slop and YouTube videos.