Andrew Schmuhl

* Alecia Schmuhl, the lawyer accused of teaming up with her husband and plotting to kill the managing partner of the law firm she was fired from, has taken a deal in her case and could serve anywhere from 10 to 45 years in prison under the terms of her plea agreement. She’ll be sentenced by the middle of January 2017. [Washington Post]

* Two heads are better than one, especially when it comes to taking over a Biglaw titan’s position as chairman at K&L Gates. Longtime chairman Peter Kalis will step down at the end of February, and come March, James Segerdahl will serve as the firm’s global managing partner, while Michael Caccese will serve as chairman of the firm’s management committee. We’ll have more on this later today. [Big Law Business]

* A big old welcome back to Biglaw: Brackett Denniston III, who has served as general counsel at GE for more than two decades, is throwing in the in-house towel to get back to the daily grind of law firm life. He recently rejoined Goodwin Procter — a firm where he previously worked for about 15 years — as senior counsel, and while there, he hopes to work on “hard cases” and mentor some of the firm’s younger lawyers. [WSJ Law Blog]

* What do the Redskins and the Slants have in common, aside from names that some may consider offensive? As it turns out, the football team and the rock band are fighting the same fight before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. They both claim the First Amendment bars the USPTO from refusing to register their “disparaging” marks, and the Supreme Court may soon grant cert on either one of their cases. [Associated Press]

* If you’re planning to apply to law school during this admissions cycle despite the state of the job market for entry-level attorneys, then you may want to follow this 10-week timeline for submitting your applications. Don’t forget that the goal here is to get ahead of the game, take advantage of rolling admissions, and submit all of your materials before those pesky December LSAT test-takers. [U.S. News & World Report]

* If you’ve been too busy billing, this is the roster of salary movement news from yesterday: Fried Frank, Jenner & Block, Covington, Boies Schiller, Mayer Brown, DLA Piper, and Goodwin Procter. If you’re ever worried that you’ve missed any of our coverage om pay raises, you can check out our omnibus 2016 salary chart where we collect all of these stories. [2016 Salary Increase / Above the Law]

* Quit worrying, law students: Per the managing partner of litigation powerhouse Keker & Van Nest, the firm’s billing rates won’t be “dramatically changed” after its adoption of the $180K Cravath salary scale, and it won’t be harder to get a job there because the raises “[won’t] have any influence” on the firm’s hiring plan. [Big Law Business]

* Shook Hardy & Bacon is the latest Biglaw firm to welcome a woman to the highest managing role it has to offer. Madeline McDonough, a 26-year veteran of the firm, will join the small — but growing — clan of female lawyers who serve as the managing partners or chairs of some of the nation’s largest law firms. Congrats! [WSJ Law Blog]

* Andrew Schmuhl, the lawyer accused of slitting the throat of a law firm managing partner, was convicted on all of the charges he faced in the attack. This likely does not bode well for his wife, attorney Alecia Schmuhl, who will stand trial this fall and who is said to have been the mastermind behind the brutal assault. [Washington Post]

* For the first time ever, the ABA is conducting random audits of law school employment statistics from the class of 2015. Ten schools have been randomly selected for audits, along with 382 randomly selected students from 156 schools. Which schools do you hope are audited? We’re sure we could name a few. ::coughInfiLawcough:: [ABA Journal]

* A judge has ruled that Andrew Schmuhl, the attorney accused of torturing and nearly killing the managing partner of the law firm his wife was fired from, will not be allowed to use an involuntary intoxication defense at trial. We may have more on this later today. [Washington Post]

* Congratulations to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg! A newly discovered species of praying mantis with a decorative neck plate, the Ilomantis ginsburgae, has been named after Her Honor thanks to her “commitment to women’s rights and gender equality… and her appreciation of the jabot.” This is an honor that is truly fitting for the Notorious R.B.G. [New York Magazine]

* Partners continue to head for the exits at Kenyon & Kenyon. This time, the chair of the IP firm’s life sciences and chemical prosecution practice fled for Fox Rothschild, and he took two others with him. What’s going on as this firm, and did they decide finally decide to officially pull the plug on the summer program? Let us know. [Big Law Business]

* “There’s absolutely no showing of any federal violation. The citizens of California are smart enough to know what their rights are.” Sorry, Bernie bros, but because unaffiliated voters’ rights haven’t been harmed, voter registration will not be reopened ahead of next week’s primary in the Golden State. Best of luck in the polls. [Los Angeles Times]

* People are still raging against this JOP: The Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a group of defense lawyers 150 strong, have filed an ethics complaint against Judge Conrad Hafen, saying he showed a “complete disregard for the law” when he handcuffed a public defender as she tried to represent her client. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

* Boyce Martin Jr., chief judge emeritus of the Sixth Circuit, RIP. [Courier-Journal]

* “Next thing I know he knocks me over backwards, puts the pillow over me and he cuts my throat and stabs me.” Law firm partner Leo Fisher testified yesterday in the trial against Andrew Schmuhl, the lawyer accused of abducting and maliciously wounding him. We’ll have more on this horrifying testimony later. [Washington Post]

* In a move that’s sure to attract attention (and ire) from the Justice Department’s Antitrust Division, Bayer has offered to buy Monsanto for $62 billion. This may be the largest all-cash takeover in history, so we wonder which law firms will have the pleasure of reaping all the rewards that come with so huge of a deal representation. [Reuters]

* “Can citizens sue the government over climate change?” Great legal minds are divided over the answer to this question. Constitutional law scholar Erwin Chemerinsky says yes, but international law savant Eric Posner says no. Whatever you think is the right answer, it’s time we get more aggressive on this issue. [Room for Debate / New York Times]

* With Ted Olson quarterbacking Tom Brady’s request for an en banc hearing of his four-game Deflategate suspension before the Second Circuit, perhaps this case has a fighting chance. Patriots fans should be praying, because an en banc hearing could result in their QB’s suspension being stayed for the start of the season. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Victims of the Colorado Springs Planned Parenthood attack have filed suit against the clinic, claiming the shooting was both “predictable and preventable.” They say that given the past history of threats of violence against places where abortions are performed, patrons should’ve been alerted that they were at risk of injury or death. [Denver Post]

* “[He] exited the passenger seat wearing nothing but what appeared to be an adult diaper.” Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl, the husband-and-wife lawyers accused of torturing and nearly killing a law firm partner and his wife, are back in the news. Andrew’s trial began this week, and he’s utilizing an involuntary intoxication defense. [Washington Post]

* President Obama needn’t worry about what he’s going to do to keep busy after his presidency ends — job offers are already pouring in for him, including one from Bin Haider Advocates & Legal Consultants, a smaller firm in Dubai. But why go to the Middle East when he could easily become a partner at Sidley Austin? [Am Law Daily]

* “If I had my way, I would make pro bono a service requirement.” During the American Law Institute’s annual meeting, Justice Sonia Sotomayor said she thinks pro-bono work should be mandatory for lawyers, and that she “believe[s] in forced labor” when it comes to access to justice and closing the justice gap for the poor. [National Law Journal]

* Non-lawyers likely won’t be able to stake a claim in law firm ownership anytime soon since the ABA Commission on the Future of the Legal Profession failed to submit a formal proposal to the ABA House of Delegates before a deadline had passed. It’s just as well, as lawyers remain adamantly opposed to the proposition. [Big Law Business]

* IP lawyers better get ready to party like it’s 1999, because Minnesota lawmakers have introduced the broadly written Personal Rights in Names Can Endure Act, perhaps better known as the PRINCE Act, named for the recently deceased musician to establish a right of publicity for celebrities and their heirs within the state. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Remember Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl, the husband-and-wife lawyers who allegedly tortured and almost killed a law firm partner? Now Andrew may claim involuntary intoxication as one of his defenses. Damn you, NyQuil! Damn you, Benadryl! [NBC Washington]

* You may not agree with Ted Cruz’s politics, and you may not like Canada for some reason, but that doesn’t mean he’s ineligible to run for president just because he was born there. Like it or not, it appears constitutional law scholars more or less tend to agree on this point. [ABC News]

* Dentons isn’t finished collecting lawyers yet. The megafirm is kicking off 2016 with yet another acquisition, but this time it’s a lateral raid from British firm Matthew Arnold & Baldwin. Dentons will welcome a 45-lawyer banking and finance team. [Am Law Daily]

* That was quick! Jonathan Lippman recently turned in his robes after retiring from his post as chief judge of the New York Court of Appeals, and he’s already found a new job. He’ll join Latham & Watkins, where he’ll work in an of counsel role. [WSJ Law Blog]

* New York just launched its new medical marijuana law, which is likely the strictest of all such laws in the country. People aren’t fans: “[I]t seemed like the priority was to make it as limited as possible, instead of focusing on what is best for patients.” [Al Jazeera]

* Andrew and Alecia Schmuhl, the husband-and-wife lawyer duo accused of treating a law firm managing partner and his wife to a “torture session,” had a hearing this week where it was revealed that Andrew allegedly slit the managing partner’s throat. [Washington Post]

* ‘We’re asking you to choose life. Yes, even for the Boston Marathon bomber.” Jurors began deliberating in the death penalty phase of Dzhokhar Tsarnaev’s trial late yesterday afternoon. It’s worth noting that the last time someone was executed in Massachusetts was 70 years ago. [Boston Globe]

* “Explaining these persistent gender disparities in income … has proven to be much more difficult than simply identifying them.” Per a study conducted by Harvard Law, the wage gap for women in the law has been growing since 1975. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

* The deadly Amtrak derailment hit too close to home for attorneys in the Northeast who travel frequently on the Acela line. In fact, some of our best tips have come from Acela trips. Our thoughts are with those who were affected by the crash. [National Law Journal]

* A sexy little spat: Dov Charney, the ex-CEO of American Apparel, filed a $20M defamation suit against the company, claiming that despite what employees were told, he never agreed that he’d stay away from American Apparel for good. [Los Angeles Times]

* Morgan Lewis approves the Bingham deal, with 227 of the roughly 300 Bingham partners moving over as full partners. Morgan Lewis is calling it a “mass lateral move,” which is the nice way of telling the remaining 70+ partners (and whatever associates and staffers they don’t care to include) to enjoy early retirement. [American Lawyer; WSJ Law Blog]

* A follow up report on the horrific story of the lawyers accused of stabbing a managing partner and his wife. [Washington Post]

* Justice Scalia realizes that strict constructionists are just jerks. [The Onion]

* When the title of the story uses the phrase “super-drunk judge”… [Seattle Post-Intelligencer]

* Judge Posner took a detour into Jewish theology, apparently based on scholarly research from “Google” and “Wikipedia.” In his defense though, he thought he was citing the well-known Hebrew texts of “Elgoog” and “Aidepikiw.” [The Jewish Daily Forward]

* It may sound like a terrible horror movie, but “Darkhotel” is actually a campaign of cyberattacks against business executives logging in from their high-end hotels. [Internet, Information Technology & e-Discovery Blog]

* Um, Florida State may care so much about their (number 3) football team they gloss over criminal activity. And this article is NOT about Jameis Winston. [New York Times]

* Linda Greenhouse. Damn. “In decades of court-watching, I have struggled — sometimes it has seemed against all odds — to maintain the belief that the Supreme Court really is a court and not just a collection of politicians in robes. This past week, I’ve found myself struggling against the impulse to say two words: I surrender.” [New York Times]

* If you’re in L.A. tonight, check out the 6th Annual Justice Jam, celebrating “A Tradition of Advocacy” at 5:30 p.m. at La Plaza De Cultura y Artes. The event benefits Community Lawyers, Inc., an organization working to promote access to affordable legal services for low- and moderate-income individuals. [Community Lawyers, Inc.]