Alston & Bird

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.17.17

* The Gorsuch hearings are set for March 20th. Now what should senators ask him? [National Law Journal] * Seriously, what should senators ask him? [SCOTUSBlog] * The CFPB is getting battered and bruised, but the D.C. Circuit may give it a fighting chance. [Law.com] * Pepper Hamilton had a high profile year working the Baylor matter, but PPP is down 28 percent. They lose any more and they'll have to change their name to Peper Hamilton. [Legal Intelligencer] * Alston & Bird, meanwhile, saw a revenue boost. [Daily Report] * Judge finds probable cause in criminal complaint against Chris Christie. Don't worry, New Jersey prosecutors are too scared of traffic problems in their towns to do anything about it. [Law360] * Florida has been busy. First the Docs v. Glocks ruling and now an abortion ruling. [Orlando Sentinel] * My God. They can't even pass background checks. [Politico] * The top 10 law novels of the last 10 years. I wonder if She-Hulk made the list? (Spoiler: she does.) [ABA Journal]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.31.17

* Here's a roundup of the legal challenges against Trump's foray into immigration policy. [Vice News] * Oh and while we're at it, here's a couple more. [New York Times] * The SEC has brought fraud charges over an $81 million Hamilton Ponzi scheme. It was an ambitious scheme, but if convicted, the defendants will have to... take a break. *Groan* [Courthouse News Service] * Harvard Law Review elects it's first female black president. [WBUR] * Insider trading defendant John Afriyie earned a guilty verdict in less than three hours of deliberation. Sources say the jury would have been in faster, but they kept sticking on the fact that Afriyie had skipped bail and tried to hide out in New Jersey. Only a truly insane man would go to New Jersey willingly. [Law360] * Alston & Bird wins malpractice appeal. [New York Law Journal] * Remember Pokémon Go? Well the lawsuits are still out there. [The Recorder]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.29.16

* “This is, since the recession, the most robust job growth we’ve seen." Nearly all students who worked at Biglaw firms this past summer as associates received offers of full-time employment. Offer rates haven't been this high in more than a decade. [National Law Journal] * Mommy, wow! I'm a big kid now! Affluenza teen Ethan Couch was finally deported from Mexico and booked into a juvenile detention center. Today, we'll see if he'll be moved to a big-boy jail, and in February, we'll see if his case is moved to the grown-up court system. [Associated Press] * Sorry, Hillary Clinton, but President Obama has no desire to be on SCOTUS. According to White House press secretary Josh Earnest, while Obama “would have plenty of ideas for how he would do a job like that,” he "may have other things to do." [The Hill] * It's so hard to get execution drugs that Mississippi Attorney General Jim Hood is asking state legislators for alternative methods for carrying out death sentences, like death by firing squad, electrocution, and hanging. Seems reasonable? [Reuters] * Arizona is so eager to kill people it hired Alston & Bird to go up against the Food and Drug Administration in the state's quest to obtain the release of a shipment of execution drugs that it had imported to the country from India this summer. [BuzzFeed News]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.10.15

* Moonlighting for Biglaw partners: golf caddy? This Alston & Bird partner spent the week caddying for Gunn Yang at the 2015 Masters Tournament. Oh, to watch a partner be subservient and lug someone else's junk around all day. [Am Law Daily] * Chief Justice Shirley Abrahamson of the Wisconsin Supreme Court is suing each of her judicial colleagues over a constitutional amendment that could get her demoted from her seat of power. Maybe this judicial diva is a "total bitch" after all. [New York Times] * If you plan to run for president of this country and hope to discuss reform of the criminal justice system while you're shaking hands and kissing babies on the campaign trail, you better be prepared to answer each and every one of these questions. [Washington Post] * "I want to see in an application that ... Law School is a default option for you.” At least one elite law school "actively preference[s]" work experience after college. Get a job. It'll probably be easier now than after you graduate from law school. [Harvard Crimson] * Aside from absurd tuition rates and deceptive employment statistics, here's one more absolutely vital thing that members of the legal profession should consider tossing out during their spring cleaning sessions: the third year of law school. [Washington Post]

By Staci Zaretsky
Alston & Bird

Morning Docket: 12.23.13

* Judge Richard Leon’s decision in the NSA surveillance case is ripe for review by the D.C. Circuit, and given the court’s new make-up, we could see a very interesting result. Oh, to be an NSA agent listening in on those calls. [National Law Journal] * With seven business days left until 2014, law firms all around the country are still desperately trying to get paid. Lawyers are working hard for the money — 83.5 cents to the dollar — so you better treat them right. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)] * Who you gonna call? Your local bankruptcy attorney. Alston & Bird, currently housed in Heller’s old digs in Silicon Valley, will head to a new office whose former occupants include Dewey, and Howrey, and Brobeck, oh my! [Am Law Daily] * Four were arrested in the tragic murder of attorney Dustin Friedland, and each is being held on $2 million bond. One of the alleged assailants has a history of putting guns to other people’s heads. [NJ Star-Ledger] * “I think it would be wise for the NCAA to settle this now.” Thanks to the Ed O’Bannon lawsuit, the world of college sports will be forever changed, so all those video games you’ve got are now antiques. [CNBC] * Tom Cruise settled his defamation lawsuit against a tabloid publisher over claims that he’d abandoned his daughter during the pendency of his divorce proceedings. Xenu is pleased by this announcement. [CNN]

By Staci Zaretsky