Andrea Constand

  • Morning Docket: 12.06.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 12.06.16

    * Please clap: Jeb! Bush has been tapped by Buchanan Ingersoll, a firm that employs almost 500 lawyers across 18 offices, to act as a “strategic consultant.” Bush will not be lobbying for the firm, but believes that “putting [his] knowledge and experience together with Buchanan’s professional acumen will help Buchanan’s clients grow and prosper.” [Big Law Business]

    * Greg Gegenheimer, a white, male lawyer, has filed suit against the State Bar of Texas, accusing the organization of using an unconstitutional racial classification that discriminates against its white members. The Bar requires that at least four of its governing board members be racial minorities or women, and Gegenheimer wants to be considered for one of the minority seats that will soon be vacant. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * “We need to learn to adapt so we can make the most of this talent. Any good leader needs to understand and figure out how to be relevant and resonate with their workforce.” Andrew Glincher, CEO of Nixon Peabody, thinks that Biglaw firms need to commit to collaboration and teamwork in order to succeed in the new economy, and to do that, they need to learn how to work better with their millennial lawyers. [Forbes]

    * Bill Cosby will not be able to keep prosecutors from using his questionable 2005 civil suit testimony against him during his criminal sexual assault trial. Specifically, in exchange for being “promised” that he would not be prosecuted, Cosby testified that he gave women Quaaludes before engaging in allegedly consensual sexual acts with them. A judge recently ruled that no such written promise was ever made with Cosby. [Reuters]

    * “Good people don’t smoke marijuana.” If Senator Jeff Sessions is confirmed as attorney general, then years of work to normalize the use of medical and recreational marijuana could be quickly cached. As our very own marijuana law columnist has discussed, Sessions could interfere with the rights of millions who voted to legalize medical and recreational forms of the drug and arrest growers, retailers, and users. [POLITICO]

  • Morning Docket: 11.02.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 11.02.16

    * Not only has the Illinois Supreme Court ruled that Rhonda Crawford, the former law clerk who was fired from her position and later indicted after she allegedly impersonated a judge while running unopposed for an elected position as a judge, can’t take office if she wins the election, but the court has also suspended her from practicing law until further notice. A date for her trial has not yet been set. [Associated Press]

    * Some law schools are still falling short when it comes to being truthful about their graduates’ employment outcomes. During a recent audit of of 10 randomly selected law schools’ jobs data, half of them missed compliance benchmarks for documentation that was supposed to be kept on file. On the bright side, none of the errors seemed to be instances of “gross misreporting” or “attempts to manipulate.” [Inside Higher Ed]

    * “Will Brad Smith feel he can get a fair shake in front of the Washington Supreme Court? If the answer is no, then did he create the situation is a fair question.” Not only have Microsoft’s co-founders Bill Gates and Paul Allen contributed to political action committees to oust Washington Supreme Court Justice Charles Wiggins, but the company’s chief legal officer has joined in the fun now, too. [Big Law Business]

    * Bill Cosby’s lawyers are trying to prevent jurors from hearing incriminating deposition testimony the comedian gave in 2005 in a civil suit related to sexual assault allegations made by Andrea Constand. They claim that a former prosecutor promised never to bring their client to trial over those allegations: “This was a sitting district attorney saying, ‘I’m not going to prosecute your client, ever.'” Do you think they’ll be successful? [Reuters]

    * “We feel betrayed in a lot of ways, because we were promised. We were promised that the school would be open, we were promised we would have a place to learn, and that was all yanked away from us.” Indiana Tech Law School students are speaking out in the wake of their dreams being crushed by the school’s sudden closure, and they are not happy about it — especially those of them with outstanding education loans. [WFYI]

  • Morning Docket: 09.07.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 09.07.16

    * Bill Cosby will face trial in June for allegedly drugging and sexually assaulting a Pennsylvania woman, and now his lawyers claim her attorney, Gloria Allred, trampled upon his civil rights in a “campaign … buil[t] on racial bias and prejudice that can pollute the court of public opinion.” [NBC News]

    * As we mentioned yesterday, Peter Kalis — the man who’s served as chair of K&L Gates for about two decades — will not seek re-election to his post, and everyone is wondering who will succeed him. According to a recently departed partner, “[t]hey don’t have enough groomed for top-level management.” Uh oh! We’ll have more on this. [Law.com]

    * Yet another Biglaw firm is losing a longtime managing partner. Mark Silow of Fox Rothschild will step down from his position in April 2017, after 13 years in leadership. He’ll be replaced by Mark Morris as managing partner, but will transition to becoming the firm’s chair, retaining a seat on its executive committee. [Big Law Business]

    * Sullivan & Cromwell is stepping up its digital security practice with a major hire. Earlier this week, the firm announced that Nicole Friedlander, who previously worked as co-chief of the complex frauds and online crime unit for the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the Southern District of New York, would join the firm as special counsel. [DealBook / New York Times]

    * Not only is New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman breathing antitrust accusations down EpiPen-maker Mylan Pharmaceutical’s neck, but now a proposed class-action lawsuit has been filed against the company with allegations that its “unconscionable … price gouging” violated Ohio’s consumer protection laws. [Reuters]

  • Morning Docket: 07.08.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 07.08.16

    * “Our goal will be to be as transparent as possible about our results, while complying with our various legal obligations.” The Justice Department may have chosen not to bring charges against presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Hillary Clinton, but that didn’t stop the State Department from reopening its investigation into her email scandal just one day later. [Associated Press]

    * Has the Roberts Court turned liberal? Not really, says Linda Greenhouse. Considering that “today’s conservative justices are a good deal more conservative than the liberal justices are liberal,” the results of the high court’s last two blockbuster cases were really about righting wrongs that flew in the face of existing laws. [New York Times]

    * This month, Risa Goluboff, the first woman to ever serve at the helm of UVA Law, began her stint as dean, and a great number of the burning questions that she was asked in this interview relate to work/life balance. Perhaps the next time another man is named dean at a law school, he’ll have to answer similar questions. [Big Law Business]

    * A judge has ruled that Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial may proceed over the objections of his lawyers, who were apparently upset they weren’t able to cross-examine Andrea Constand, the comedian’s accuser, during a preliminary hearing earlier this year. “It’s our position we’re not going to re-traumatize victims,” said a prosecutor. [NBC News]

    * Arthur Olick, bankruptcy pioneer and Anderson Kill partner, RIP. [WSJ Law Blog]

  • Morning Docket: 05.25.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 05.25.16

    * Sorry to ruin your childhood, but a Pennsylvania judge found that there is enough evidence for Bill Cosby to stand trial for his felony assault charge in the Andrea Constand case. Cosby has waived his right to a formal arraignment, and could face up to 10 years in prison if he’s convicted. Cosby has been free on $1 million bail since December. [Associated Press]

    * “You need to have order in a courtroom. And there needs to be proper decorum with attorneys.” A Las Vegas Justice of the Peace ordered that a deputy public defender be handcuffed for interrupting him as she tried to represent a client. A tipster has referred to this judge as “demented.” We may have more on this. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

    * According to inside sources, Hunton & Williams is in advanced merger talks with Addelshaw Goddard, a London-based firm. These talks have reportedly been going on for months, and Addelshaw partners supposedly met last night to discuss the tie-up. If successful, the combined firm would have more than 1,300 lawyers. [Big Law Business]

    * Silicon Valley staple Fenwick & West is opening up an office outpost in New York City. The firm’s clients in Manhattan include BuzzFeed, FanDuel, Blackrock, Citi, and JPMorgan. Associates will be working around the clock in the city that never sleeps — with a roster like that, they won’t be getting shuteye anytime soon. [WSJ Law Blog]

    * AG Loretta Lynch announced yesterday afternoon that the Justice Department would be seeking the death penalty against Dylann Roof, the suspect alleged to have gone on a shooting spree in a Charleston church last summer, killing nine and wounding numerous others. It’s said Roof hoped to incite a race war as a result of the massacre. [USA Today]

    * Carl Buchholz, managing partner of DLA Piper’s Philadelphia office, RIP. [Philadelphia Business Journal]

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  • Morning Docket: 02.04.16
    Morning Docket

    Morning Docket: 02.04.16

    * Although he’s only seen commercials for the show, O.J. Simpson is none too pleased with the way The People v. O.J. Simpson: American Crime Story portrayed his lawyer, Johnnie Cochran. The Juice thinks Cochran is being “unfairly depicted as ruthless and overly ambitious.” [Washington Post]

    * A Pennsylvania judge has ruled that the sexual assault case against Bill Cosby can move forward and include the comedian’s 2005 deposition testimony, despite the fact that he only sat for that deposition because he was promised by a district attorney that he wouldn’t be prosecuted. [CNN]

    * While Dentons may have been written off dismissively about two years ago, since then, the Biglaw firm has “grown faster than any law firm ever,” and now people are starting to wonder whether the megafirm will be able to live up to all of the hype. [Legal Business]

    * Perhaps we need to start a Blue Ghetto series for our male readers? A former editorial director at Yahoo! has filed a wrongful termination suit against the company, with claims that he was discriminated against by his superiors because he was a man. [Fox News]

    * Under the guidance of his new lawyer, Benjamin Brafman, Martin Shkreli has adopted an intelligent new legal strategy: shutting his incredibly punchable mouth before it gets him into even more trouble. Let’s see how long this lasts. [DealBook / New York Times]