Academy Awards

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.05.18

* No donation is too small, and no donor is too young: Former Senate candidate and former judge Roy Moore is begging his supporters via Facebook for cash for his legal defense fund because his "resources have been depleted" and he's "struggled to make ends meet." [Washington Post] * The Trump administration wants to stop federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions, and the Justice Department is using the travel ban case to ask the Supreme Court to "reject the deeply misguided practice." Will SCOTUS put these "so-called judges" in their place? [Associated Press] * Remember Claud "Tex" McIver, the Biglaw partner who shot his wife in the back and killed her, allegedly blamed the incident on a Black Lives Matter protest? Jury selection for his murder trial begins today. [Daily Report Online] * No, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn't advising LeadInvest, a company promoting cryptocurrency investments in Texas, and neither are former U.S. Solicitors General Theodore Olson, Seth Waxman, and Paul Clement. The Texas State Securities Board sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the company remove photos of the justice and the lawyers from its site. [National Law Journal] * And the Oscar for Best Lawyer goes to... John Quinn of Quinn Emanuel has served as outside counsel to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1986, and he attends every show with the ABC contract in his pocket in case a legal issue pops up. [Corporate Counsel] * Is it time to bring back the lists and rankings commemorating the "hotties of law"? Vivia Chen has a hot take, and thinks that in this puritanical era, it's high time that we stop pretending lawyers are asexual. So long as both men and women are included on the lists, what's the harm? Right now, a lot. [American Lawyer]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 01.15.16

Ed. note: Above the Law will not be publishing on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We’ll be back on Tuesday. Have a good weekend! * Only a few weeks before law school classes were to start, Alicia Vikander's acting career took off. Now she has an Academy Award nomination, so I guess that was a good call. [KPCC] * Fans and/or opponents of Making a Murderer are have a hard time with nuance and the concept of "reasonable doubt." [Gawker] * As a native New Yorker, and decent human being on planet earth, let me just say to Ted Cruz: F*ck you. [New York Daily News] * Spoiler alert: law school internships are still a terrible idea. [Lawyers, Guns and Money] * "[P]roof that that the holidays are finally over: avalanche of legal tech this week," via Monica Bay. [CodeX] * A law school parody from Australia -- I guess law school nonsense is a universal language. [Australian Lawyer] * A showdown is a brewing! 2016 is going to be a big year for reproductive freedom. [Pacific Standard] * When would Supergirl be responsible for damages? [Legal Geeks]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.20.15

* It looks like some pretty big changes are going to be coming down the pipeline at Washington & Lee University School of Law. From faculty and staff layoffs to payouts from its endowment, this generally doesn't look pretty. We'll have more on this news later today. [Lawyers, Guns & Money] * The 87th Academy Awards ceremony is this weekend, and you know what that means: IP lawyers are doing their damndest to protect the Oscars brand. Can you imagine the sheer number of cease and desist letters that have been going out? [National Law Journal] * Congratulations to Marci Eisenstein, who was recently elected to become the first woman to serve as managing partner of Schiff Hardin in the firm's 150-year history. FYI, the firm's most recent partner classes have been 2/3 women for the past three years. [Am Law Daily] * New Jersey Governor and would-be Republican presidential candidate Chris Christie made five firms really happy in 2014 thanks to all of the legal work he handed to them. Gibson Dunn, for example, earned $7.9 million from the Bridgegate affair. [Courier-Post] * Which state will be the next to legalize recreational marijuana? It may be Vermont, where Senate Bill 95 would allow those 21 and older to possess, use, and sell pot. Just think, you can save the environment and get high while you do it! [Huffington Post]

By Staci Zaretsky
Art

Morning Docket: 02.27.12

* It’s hard to get a mortgage if you have a lot of student debt, even if you make a lot of money. Who needs a house anyway? Your advanced degree will keep you warm. [BusinessWeek] * A civil trial over BP’s Gulf Oil spill was supposed to start today, but it was postponed at the last minute. Is it just me or does it smell like settlement in here? [New York Times] * As if anyone needed another reason to never take a Carnival Cruise… [CNN] * The Catholic Church just couldn’t handle sharing its ignominious spotlight with Penn State any longer. Attorneys allege that the late Cardinal Anthony Bevilacqua, former Archbishop of Philadelphia, destroyed a list of 35 active priests accused of child sexual abuse. [Washington Post] * Some movie with no sound, color, explosions, or giant robots won a bunch of Academy Awards last night. I can’t say I care too much. Here’s a rundown of some classic cine con lawyers instead. [ABA Journal] * Advice for art collectors: CHECK YOU PROVENANCE. [New York Times] * Michael Rothenberg, executive director of New York Lawyers for the Public Interest, RIP. [New York Law Journal]

By Christopher Danzig
9th Circuit

A Movie Recommendation from Chief Judge Kozinski

Were you disappointed by James Franco and Anne Hathaway as Oscars hosts? If so, you weren’t alone. PopEater described their hosting efforts, especially Franco’s, as “a disaster.” The New York Times declared the proceedings to be “downright painful” at points. Next year, the Academy Awards should go in a different direction. Enough pandering to the […]

By David Lat
Money

Size Matters: I See London, I See France

Ed. note: This is the latest installment of Size Matters, one of Above the Law’s new columns for small-firm lawyers. As has become my tradition, Sunday night I watched the Academy Awards while drinking an Oscar-themed martini. While watching the three-and-a-half-hour award show, I was reminded of a few life lessons that I have learned […]

By Valerie Katz