A.B. Culvahouse

* Republicans’ control over the Senate grew after the midterm elections, but Democrats managed to take the House. Here are six interesting reasons why that means President Donald Trump could be in “huge legal trouble” now. [Law & Crime]

* Florida voters approved an amendment to their state constitution to restore felons’ voting rights, which will now be automatically restored after prison time is completed and restitution paid. That’s at least 1.4 million more voters! [Orlando Sentinel]

* Remember Kim Davis, the Kentucky county clerk who was jailed after she refused to sign marriage licenses for same-sex couples? Last night, she lost her reelection campaign to Elwood Caudill Jr., a Democratic challenger. [Lexington Herald Leader]

* In case you missed it, President Donald Trump chose former White House counsel and current O’Melveny of counsel A.B. Culvahouse to go Down Under to put another shrimp on the barbie serve as U.S. ambassador to Australia. [National Law Journal]

* A California appellate court has paved the way for former Winston & Strawn partner Constance Ramos to get out of an “unconscionable” arbitration agreement with the firm. This may be the first Biglaw gender bias case to make it to trial. [The Recorder]

* Sorry, but you can’t deduct the cost of your law degree on your taxes because it qualified you for a new trade or business. The U.S. Tax Court says that even with a shiny new J.D. in your possession, you’ve only enhanced your current skills. [Law360]

* Grab ’em by the public interest: Per a new Gallup survey, pre-law students don’t care about Biglaw money; no, they say the top reason to go to law school is to “pursue a career in politics, government, or other public service.” [Idaho Business Review]

* A group of crypto investors has filed suit against rapper T.I., alleging that they could not have whatever they like because he tricked them into backing FLiK Token. The Rubberband Man’s lawyer says, “Tip is truly disheartened by the lawsuit.” [Complex]

* Donald Trump is expected to announce his choice for Vice President at the Republican National Convention in July, and he’s turned to former longtime O’Melveny chair A.B. Culvahouse Jr. to vet his potential running mates. The last VP Culvahouse vetted was Sarah Palin, and look how well that turned out. [Big Law Business]

* Uh-oh… Revenue may be up, but demand is way down, and there’s no longer enough work to go around. According to a recent report from Altman Weil, “[f]jrms are having trouble keeping their lawyers utilized.” Will layoffs follow thanks to Biglaw’s overcapacity problems? We’ll have more on this later today. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

* Back in March, 53% of Americans polled said the Senate should vote on whether to confirm SCOTUS nominee Chief Judge Merrick Garland now, instead of waiting for the next president. Last week, only 48% of Americans polled felt the same. Quick! Somebody get Taylor Swift to endorse this man to hold the public’s interest! [New York Times]

* In the meantime, Senate Democrats held a mock confirmation hearing for the would-be SCOTUS justice this week, but Judge Garland didn’t attend. It’s too bad, because at this point in the game, thanks to the political wrangling that’s been going on, it may have been his only chance to attend a hearing held in his honor. [The Guardian]

* From the “abortion of taxpayer dollars” file: Oklahoma legislators passed a bill that would make abortion a felony punishable by up to three years in prison. Per the Center for Reproductive Rights, the proposed law is “harmful, discriminatory, clearly unconstitutional, and insulting to Oklahoma women and their families.” [Reuters]

Could you stand up to the vetting process to become a SCOTUS nominee?

How are things - including, but not limited to, associate bonuses - looking at O'Melveny & Myers?

The big news from yesterday morning was bad news for the staff at O'Melveny & Myers. News started leaking out Monday night that the firm would be laying off 75 support staffers. Approximately half the of the laid off O'Melveny staffers will be cut outright. The other half will have the opportunity to be relocated to scenic West Virginia....

O'Melveny & Myers has announced its next chairman, who will take over from A.B. Culvahouse Jr. Who is he, and how was he selected?

It is getting hard to sugarcoat the situation at O’Melveny & Myers. We have been covering their extensive partner departures over the last few weeks. The news from earlier this week continues that trend. Allen & Overy is opening a second U.S. office with, you guessed it, O’Melveny partners (specifically, financial regulatory partners Barbara Stettner […]

We have recently covered a number of notable partner departures from O’Melveny & Myers. While some of the losses were “not undesired,” as one source put it, others were bad news for OMM. But, in fairness to the firm, there is good news coming out of O’Melveny these days as well. Let’s discuss some of […]

We recently reported that at least 22 partners have left O’Melveny & Myers in 2011 thus far. That number continues to grow. Earlier this week, two more partners announced their imminent departures from OMM: Ilan Nissan, former firmwide co-chair of the firm’s M&A and private equity practice, and Christian Nugent, also an M&A partner. Like […]

Last month, we broke the news of seven key corporate partners leaving O’Melveny & Myers to join Paul Weiss. Shortly thereafter, we learned that two other prominent partners were leaving O’Melveny to join Weil Gotshal. Of course, partners come and partners go at large law firms — but some of these nine were major rainmakers […]

First Latham, then Orrick, now O’Melveny. Yesterday, we mentioned that layoffs could be coming to O’Melveny & Myers. Today, the rains came. A firm-wide email just went out announcing that 200 people would be let go. The cuts amount to about ten percent of attorneys and ten percent of staff: It is against this backdrop […]

Arthur Culvahouse, chairman of O’Melveny & Myers, was in charge of vetting Sarah Palin and has been taking some heat. But Culvahouse has more to worry about than the National Enquirer. Culvahouse is locked in a high-stakes political battle to keep his chairmanship at O’Melveny. O’Melveny’s policy committee, which recommends the chairperson subject to ratification […]