University of Illinois College of Law

* Apparently, the actor who played C-3PO in the Star Wars films dropped out of law school to pursue an acting career. This was probably the correct career choice. [Business Insider]

* A Manhattan attorney is alleging that his former law partner blackmailed him to stay quiet about his purported affairs. [New York Post]

* Kevin Spacey has settled a sexual assault lawsuit that had been filed against the actor. [Hollywood Reporter]

* Attorneys for Robert Durst agree that he wrote a note informing authorities about the location of the body of his friend. [Fox Business]

* A University of Illinois law professor accused of sexual harassment will not be returning to teaching duties next semester. [Chicago Tribune]

* What will happen if SCOTUS were to overturn Roe v. Wade? For one, abortion wouldn’t automatically become illegal across America — that would be up to each individual state. In fact, some states have “trigger laws” ready to go to ban abortion if Roe is ever overturned. Hopefully this won’t happen any time soon, or ever. [BuzzFeed]

* The University of Illinois at Chicago is moving forward with its planned merger with John Marshall Law School to to establish the UI Chicago John Marshall College of Law. Dean Vikram Amar of Illinois Law wants to make very sure that everyone knows this is “not a joint enterprise in any way.” [News-Gazette; Chicago Tribune]

* Bless their hearts, but it looks like Winstead won’t be taking Troutman Sanders to the rodeo after all. According to inside sources, this Texas-sized merger was simply not meant to be due to billing rates and preferred clientele. [Texas Lawyer]

* All rise for new royalty at Dechert, for Sheila L. Birnbaum, the “Queen of Torts” is here! Her Majesty left Quinn Emanuel and brought 28 other lawyers and staff with her to form a product liability and mass torts team at the firm. [Big Law Business]

* The White House has named Steven Dillingham as its nominee to direct the U.S. Census Bureau. In case you weren’t aware, Dillingham has a law degree from the University of South Carolina. No word yet on whether he’s still practicing. [NPR]

* Nurkhan Zhumabekov, a lawyer in Kazakhstan, is suing the Russian-Kazakh television channel First Channel-Eurasia for allegedly “insulting Kazakhs.” Nobody tell this guy about Borat, OK? [Radio Free Europe]

* The too perfect name of the litigants in Loving v. Virginia is finally getting its due. Loving, a new film about the case that legalized interracial marriage, looks primed to garner some Oscar buzz. [Hollywood Reporter]

* Illinois Law graduates were a no-show at graduation; Jane Genova wonders why. [Law and More]

* Poorly written laws and regulations are part of why the Supreme Court has to get involved in the immigration case of U.S. v. Texas, as Laura Murray-Tjan explains. [Huffington Post]

* Is there a way to save access to personal email accounts at work without compromising a law firm’s security? [Authentic8]

* Laverne Cox has been cast in CBS’s new legal drama, Doubt, along with Katherine Heigl and Steven Pasquale. [Jezebel]

* Radiohead isn’t being a “Paranoid Android,” they may be getting sued. [Radio.com]

* “Mamas, don’t let your babies grow up to be cowboys potheads.” Country singer-songwriter and OG stoner Willie Nelson says marijuana will be legal in all 50 states within the next decade. Who knows, maybe his cannabis-crazed dreams will come true. [San Antonio Express-News]

* Where do lonely hearts go? To court. This ex-Illinois Law student was accused of stalking a classmate and barred setting foot on campus for a two-year time period. A new trial was ordered, and now he may be able to graduate. Yay? [National Law Journal]

* Law firms of all sizes are merging at a record pace, but that doesn’t mean that it’s going to continue like this ad infinitum. Eventually, all of the fun is going to stop, and it’ll likely because there isn’t any more profitability to be had for these firms. Womp. [Am Law Daily]

* Corporate legal departments are pushing for more diversity among their ranks, with companies like Xerox leading the way. NAPABA is hopeful that we’ll see 20 Asian-American lawyers as general counsel of Fortune 500 companies by 2020. [WSJ Law Blog]

* For a man who wanted to “get rich or die tryin,” things don’t seem to be working out so well: Bankrupt rapper 50 Cent was busy denying ownership of many of his luxury items in court this week. He says he rents, borrows, and leases most of his bling. [Associated Press]

* Vikram Amar, the incoming dean of the University of Illinois College of Law, says that he demanded a pay cut before taking the job to help make legal education more affordable for students. The piddling amount of money he’ll be sacrificing will absolutely infuriate you. [WSJ Law Blog]

* When law firms break up and partners attack, it can sometimes be pretty entertaining (and a little sad, all at the same time). In this case, former partners have accused each other of being mentally unstable and going online shopping for hours instead of practicing law. [Daily Business Review]

* In case you don’t remember the law school lawsuits about deceptive employment stats, some of them are still alive and kicking. One of the last surviving suits against Widener Law was recently denied class certification. [New Jersey Law Journal via ABA Journal]

* Per Altman Weil MergerLine, 2015 is on pace to be a record year for law firm mergers. Statements like this have been made since the recession, but this time, it’s the highest number of mergers recorded in the company’s history. [Crain’s Cleveland Business]

* According to the latest data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the legal sector lost 800 jobs in June. That’s not exactly a comforting thought for those of you who are studying for the bar exam and don’t have a job lined up yet. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

* When it comes to billing rates, starting at the junior level, female law firm partners are still lagging behind their male counterparts by an average of 10 percent less. Boo. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]

* Just in time for the graduation of one of the largest law school classes in history, the Bureau of Labor Statistics says the legal sector is shedding jobs. That sucks. Sorry Class of 2014. [Am Law Daily]

* Law school deans are dropping like flies. Since last week, at least three have announced their intention to leave their positions. We know of one more that we may discuss later. [National Law Journal]

* If you want to work as an attorney, your odds are better if you go to a Top 50 law school. Seventy-five percent of Top 50 grads are working as lawyers, compared to 50% of all others. [WSJ Law Blog (sub. req.)]

* The verdict is in on the latest Apple v. Samsung patent case, and Apple is probably pretty miffed it was awarded only $120M this time, since lawyers for the company requested billions in damages. [Reuters]

* Laura LaPlante, a 3L who was set to graduate from U. Chicago Law on June 16, RIP. [Chicago Tribune]