Angela Felecia Epps

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.04.17

* Harvard Law wants students to defer admission. Tuition deferral program still a no go apparently. [New York Times / Dealbook] * Trump signing executive order to let the IRS choose when to enforce the Johnson amendment. I'm old enough to remember when conservatives had a meltdown over exaggerated allegations of IRS selective enforcement. Now it's actually going to be legal and I doubt I'll hear anything about it. [CBS News] * Want to know how much a Sullivan & Cromwell partner takes home? Thankfully Donald Trump can tell us. [National Law Journal] * Alabama enacts law allowing adoption agencies to reject gay couples. Alabama has one of the worst economies in America, but this was the issue that they really needed to address. Roll Tide. [Alabama] * ABA President Linda Klein testifies on behalf of Legal Services Corporation. funding. Question: Is the ABA President job more or less difficult today? One could say "more" because she has to devote considerable energy to fighting a hostile government. Or you could say "less" because the most difficult argument she has to make is, "please don't be monsters." [ABA Journal] * FAMU fired its dean. [Orlando Sentinel] * New trend in litigation finance: buying portfolios of cases instead of investing in individual matters. We've reached the fund stage people! [Law.com] * Former Guinea mining minister convicted of taking bribes. How did they know? Perhaps they thought he was a Dickensian throwback when he kept saying "Guinea" all the time. [Law360]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.02.15

* Despite the fact that people seemed to have been losing their minds over court packing, according to Judge Sri Srinivasan of the D.C. Circuit, President Obama's appointment of four new judges on the powerful court had little to no impact on the outcome of cases. [POLITICO] * “Americans are actively being deprived of their rights.” In this excellent longread on arbitration, we learn it's the best for big companies, but for plaintiffs who are forced into it, it amounts to the "privatization of the justice system." [DealBook / New York Times] * Uh oh! Disgraced plaintiffs' lawyer Stan Chesley -- perhaps better known as the "Master of Disaster" -- had a warrant issued for his arrest last week after he failed to appear for a hearing related to his refusal to pay a $42 million judgment. [Louisville Courier Journal] * Florida A&M University College of Law has a brand new dean. We'd like to wish a warm welcome to Angela Felecia Epps, whose salary of $252,000 is likely more than any of the school's recent and barely employed graduates can hope to make. [Orlando Sentinel] * A 30-year-old New Jersey man has been sentenced to a 16-year prison term for aggravated arson after the fires he set last year damaged a local law firm (one that was representing him at the time) and the county prosecutor's office. [Associated Press]

By Staci Zaretsky