7th Circuit

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.26.18

* Michael Cohen's lawyers say just a little over 12K of their client's files are privileged. That's out of 4 million... and still seems high. [Law360] * If you thought the Westworld videogame felt suspiciously like Fallout Shelter, so did the makers of Fallout. [BBC] * Online retailers are confused in the post-Wayfair world. They've built algorithms that can guess what you want to purchase before you think of it, but they're totally baffled about tacking 6 percent on a sale heading to Kentucky. [Corporate Counsel] * Professor Tim Wu thinks yesterday's Amex decision has devastated antitrust law. There's no argument that this was the Court's intent, but it strikes me that the decision prevented the market from rapidly devolving into a Visa/MasterCard duopoly -- since they already have a near stranglehold on the market -- so it's hard to consider this anticompetitive in result even if it is in reasoning. [NY Times] * The economic dumpster fire that is Kansas will have to cough up more money to fund schools according to their Supreme Court, based on the state's constitutional obligation to equitably fund education. Don't worry, the Trump administration sees Kansas as a model for the country! [Courthouse News Service] * Age discrimination could blow up soon if the Seventh Circuit expands protection to job applicants. It's a pressing issue for an aging generation just now realizing that they've spent 30 years voting for the government to pilfer their retirement. [National Law Journal] * Lawyer indicted on charges of stealing $150K from clients. [NY Post]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.13.18

* Trump tabs Skadden partner Michael Scudder for Seventh Circuit seat. Here's some quotes from James Comey praising Scudder, so we know the Deep State must be happy. [National Law Journal] * Yes, it's accurate to say that the specific job of sheriff has an "Anglo-American heritage." And, yes, given that it's entirely unnecessary to do so -- when terms like "common law" exist -- the fact that someone would use that phrasing is indicative of racial bias. In fact, if anyone drops "heritage" when talking about white people it's probably a bad sign. [Washington Post] * All 56 Attorneys General are asking Congress to end forced arbitration in sexual harassment cases. Florida's Pam Bondi stepped out of her usual ethical cloud to say, "decades of private arbitration proceedings regarding sexual harassment have had the unintended consequence of protecting serial violators." You can go ahead and delete "regarding sexual harassment" and only improve the accuracy there. [Daily Business Review] * DLA Piper has a new senior partner, which I believe grants him the official title of "Pied Piper." [International] * ABA looking to make online education easier. [Inside Higher Ed] * Jones Day continues to have the top law firm brand according to the annual Acritas survey of clients. [American Lawyer] * One of the tourists killed in the Grand Canyon helicopter crash this weekend was a lawyer. [American Lawyer]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.06.17

* The Trump administration asks the Supreme Court to toss the travel ban case on mootness grounds -- and to scrub the lower-court rulings against it from the books. [How Appealing] * Meanwhile, the District of Columbia won't take the fight over its concealed-carry law to SCOTUS, fearing that the Court might just make the situation worse if called to rule on gun rights. [Washington Post] * At age 86, Marty Lipton of Wachtell Lipton is still in the mix, issuing influential client memos on important issues of corporate law. [Big Law Business] * Does the emperor have no clothes robes? Zoran (Zoki) Tasic, a former Seventh Circuit staff attorney, calls out Judge Richard Posner over alleged errors in the judge's new book (affiliate link) about the treatment of pro se litigants. [How Appealing] * Support staff at Hogan Lovells seem to love the firm's buyout offers; the firm's voluntary-retirement program attracted even more interest than expected. (Expect more on this later.) [Law.com] * What does the future hold for the Obama administration's proposed changes to overtime rules? Senators seek guidance from Cheryl Stanton, the former Alito clerk and Ogletree Deakins partner who enjoyed smooth sailing at her recent confirmation hearings to serve as head of the Labor Department's Wage and Hour Division. [Bloomberg BNA] * In other news about the fate of Obama-era regulations, it looks like the Trump administration will be rolling back the federal requirement for employers to include birth control coverage in their health insurance plans, expanding exemptions for religious objectors. [New York Times]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.05.17

* As we continue to reel from Judge Posner's retirement, here are some of his best quips. Unfortunately lists like these will always miss something. Like my personal favorite: “Yeah, but, you know, the problem with the balancing test is there’s nothing on your side of the balance!” [National Law Journal] * The high price of becoming a partner. [American Lawyer] * Top Kasowitz Benson partner jumps ship... could this be more fallout from the ill-fated attempt to defend Trump? [New York Law Journal] * The government's been in a slump at the Supreme Court. [Empirical SCOTUS] * A deep dive into the Chadbourne discrimination suit. [Bloomberg Businessweek] * If you've not followed the phenomenon of running payday lending from tribal lands, here's an in depth look at a $2B lawsuit over the practice. [Law360] * Some predictions about the upcoming law school application cycle. Here's another one... a bunch of people will end up in debt for no good reason. [US News]

By Joe Patrice