Akin Gump Strauss Hauer & Feld LLP

Department of Justice

Morning Docket: 09.18.14

* In light of today’s vote on Scottish independence, here’s an article on the opportunities for the legal industry if Scotland breaks free. [Business For Scotland] * What are the biggest pet peeves of corporate counsel. Surprise, surprise, billing “surprises” makes the list. [ALM] * Attorney General Holder is offering bigger payouts to Wall Street whistleblowers. Start saving your emails low-level finance folks! [Legal Times] * Later today, Baker Hostetler’s John Moscow will try to convince Judge Griesa that he shouldn’t be disqualified for breaching the confidentiality of a prior client. [Law Blog / Wall Street Journal] * As if Bingham didn’t have enough trouble, Akin Gump swept in and poached a gaggle of lawyers in Europe. [Law360] * Skadden is really good at inversions. Elie would like to thank them for their work undermining American society. [The Am Law Daily] * Yale Law is teaching students basic financial literacy. While some are hailing this program, my question is: how are kids getting to 20-something without learning this stuff already? [Yale Daily News]

By Joe Patrice
Attorney Misconduct

Morning Docket: 06.18.14

* In a “historic day for our judiciary,” the Senate confirmed the first openly gay black male judge, and the 112th female federal judge appointed by Obama — more than any other president. Congrats! [AP] * “It looks like science fiction, but it’s real.” That’s probably what the good folks at Amazon are going to say after they take a look at Akin Gump’s bill for its drone delivery lobbying efforts. [Legal Times] * A 90-year-old judge removed himself from Michael Jordan’s big-money case against a grocery store chain, but dropped the gavel on the basketball star’s lawyers before leaving the bench. [Chicago Tribune] * This Ohio attorney was suspended after he sent some pretty dirty text messages to a 3L who was working in his office. He just wanted assistance on his pro boner representation. [National Law Journal] * Give this man some money: Jonathan Fleming, the New York man who was wrongly imprisoned for almost 25 years for a murder he didn’t commit, has filed a $162 million lawsuit against the city. [Reuters]

By Staci Zaretsky