Australia

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.04.16

* At long last, the ABA has released the final version of its employment statistics for the law school class of 2015. Ten months after graduation, 59.2 percent of the class was employed in long-term, full-time jobs where bar passage was required, but there's been a sharp decline in the number of those jobs since 2014. We'll have more on this later. [WSJ Law Blog] * Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to get through this thing called probate: Earlier this week, Judge Kevin Eide appointed Bremer Trust National Association as the special administrator of music icon Prince's estate. Prince is said to have died without a will, but all of his presumptive heirs agreed to the appointment. [Big Law Business] * "[I]n all 50 states, gay couples are allowed to adopt kids, as it should be." Since Mississippi failed to timely appeal a ruling striking down its ban on same-sex adoption as unconstitutional, same-sex adoption is now permitted across America. Let's celebrate all of the children who will soon be welcomed into good, loving homes. [BuzzFeed News] * Australian law firm Slater & Gordon, the biggest firm Down Under and the world's first law firm to be publicly traded, narrowly avoided going under after a $700 million loss thanks to a deal with its bankers. Beware, stock market bidders, because the firm still remains a "high-risk investment" due to its "uncertainty." [Sydney Morning Herald] * The University of Tulsa John Rogers Hall College of Law is deciding whether or not it should change its name to remove a founder who had ties to the Ku Klux Klan. Law school administrators have already recommended that Rogers's name be removed, and after some discussion, trustees will vote on the proposal later today. [Associated Press]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.01.16

* Senior White House adviser Brian Deese has assembled a crack team to help President Obama choose a Supreme Court nominee who will be able to win confirmation before an angry Senate to replace Justice Scalia. Let's see which way the 2009 Yale Law School graduate steers this important project. [Reuters] * Australian law firm Slater & Gordon is feeling the pain of being the world's first publicly traded law firm after a $958.3 million first-half loss. The firm, which is now being referred to as a "corporate catastrophe," hopes to lay out a restructuring plan in the next few months amid the likelihood of multiple shareholder suits. [Herald Sun] * Texas State District Judge Julie Kocurek returned to court this week after a shooter opened fire on her in November 2015 in what police are now calling an assassination attempt. She lost a finger during the shooting, but says she feels "very lucky that is all [she] lost." Welcome back to the bench, Your Honor! [Austin American-Statesman] * Sorry, FBI, but a judge has ruled that Apple doesn't have to help the security service unlock an alleged New York drug dealer's iPhone. This isn't binding precedent for the tech company's San Bernardino case, but you can bet your ass its legal team will try to convince the judge handling the order at issue that it should be considered. [NBC News] * If you've been waitlisted at the lowest-ranked law school you applied to this admissions cycle, it doesn't mean you'll be rejected from every other school you applied to this admissions cycle -- it just means you may have to work a little bit harder on all of your letters of continued interest. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News & World Report] * Law firms aren't the only businesses that go through break-ups; the communications firms that represent these elite firms apparently have rocky relationships, too. Spencer Baretz and Cari Brunelle of Hellerman Baretz Communications have split to found their own firm, and they took the entire HBC team with them when they left. [Business Wire]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 01.15.16

Ed. note: Above the Law will not be publishing on Monday in observance of Martin Luther King, Jr. Day. We’ll be back on Tuesday. Have a good weekend! * Only a few weeks before law school classes were to start, Alicia Vikander's acting career took off. Now she has an Academy Award nomination, so I guess that was a good call. [KPCC] * Fans and/or opponents of Making a Murderer are have a hard time with nuance and the concept of "reasonable doubt." [Gawker] * As a native New Yorker, and decent human being on planet earth, let me just say to Ted Cruz: F*ck you. [New York Daily News] * Spoiler alert: law school internships are still a terrible idea. [Lawyers, Guns and Money] * "[P]roof that that the holidays are finally over: avalanche of legal tech this week," via Monica Bay. [CodeX] * A law school parody from Australia -- I guess law school nonsense is a universal language. [Australian Lawyer] * A showdown is a brewing! 2016 is going to be a big year for reproductive freedom. [Pacific Standard] * When would Supergirl be responsible for damages? [Legal Geeks]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.24.15

* It's a Christmas miracle! It may still be too early to tell, but it's beginning to look a lot like there's going to be an increase in law school applicants. Per LSAC, almost 3 percent more people have applied to law schools than last year at this time. [WSJ Law Blog] * This is why more firms don't hold IPOs: Slater & Gordon, the first firm to go public, may face two shareholder class-action suits -- one for allegedly misleading investors and the other for its terrible performance on the market. [Guardian] * As 2015 draws to a close, it's very obvious that Dentons had a "transformative" year as it gobbled up law firms left and right, and 2016 will be no different. The firm has its eyes set on Japan, Korea, Chile, Argentina, Peru, and Africa. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * A Bahamian hacker almost released a celebrity sex tape, naughty photos, and television and movie scripts for an obscene price, but not to worry, because U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara (S.D.N.Y.) was busy saving the world, one sex tape at a time. [New York Times] * UC Hastings College of Law has appointed an acting chancellor and dean in Frank Wu's wake. Let's welcome David L. Faigman to the world of law school administration. Hopefully he can ease the school out of its current bar exam passage funk. [UC Hastings] * Joe Jamail, richest lawyer in America, King of Torts and depos, RIP. [New York Times]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.18.15

* Both Kaye Scholer partner Evan Greebel (formerly of Katten Muchin) and Turing Pharmaceuticals CEO Martin Shkreli pleaded not guilty to securities fraud charges. Now, the world is left to weep because Skhreli's Wu-Tang album wasn't seized. [Reuters] * “You are not an American because you got sworn in on a Koran." The Hate Crimes Unit of the New York Police Department is investigating a series of threatening calls made to Judge Carolyn Walker-Diallo, Brooklyn's first Muslim judge. [WSJ Law Blog] * David Lola, the contract attorney who sued Skadden and Tower Legal for overtime pay with claims he wasn't practicing law, settled his claims for $75,000. But now we don't know if doc reviewers are entitled to overtime pay. :( [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * Slater & Gordon, the world's first publicly traded law firm, continues to watch as its stock price tumbles. The firm's shares are now worth A$0.89 after it decided to pull its earnings guidance, and they've lost 90 percent of their value since April. [The Guardian] * That's not how you're supposed to examine briefs: A Maryland court commissioner was charged with visual surveillance with prurient intent and misconduct in office after allegedly using his cellphone to take an upskirt photo of a courthouse employee. [AP]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.30.15

* While you were feasting upon turkey this Thanksgiving, Dentons -- otherwise known as the largest Biglaw behemoth in the world -- was busy gobbling up yet another law firm. The megafirm will combine with 33-lawyer OPF Partners out of Luxembourg. [WSJ Law Blog] * According to a survey from AlixPartners, over the past 12 months, GCs have reported more "bet the company" lawsuits compared to last year. Don't get too excited, though, because growth in litigation spend hasn't quite caught up yet. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] * You really can do anything with a law degree -- including things that have absolutely nothing to do with the law! Patrick Hobbs, dean emeritus of Seton Hall Law, has been tapped to become the athletics director at Rutgers University. [NJ Advance Media] * What would happen if one of the largest publicly traded plaintiffs firms in the world went under? Ever since its stock price plummeted by 52 percent, industry analysts have started to wonder whether Slater & Gordon is on the verge of collapse. [ABC News] * In the wake of the defacement of black faculty portraits and the administration's apparent "ongoing failure" to address racism on campus, Harvard Law alumni are being asked to stop making donations to the school until changes are made. [Boston Globe] * One of 92-year-old Sumner Redstone's exes filed a probate suit questioning his mental competence and ability to run Viacom and CBS. His attorney from entertainment law powerhouse Loeb & Loeb essentially called her client's ex a gold digger. [CNBC]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.03.15

* For the horde! If you thought Dentons was done gobbling up law firms to create its international legion of lawyers, then you were dead wrong. The firm will likely merge with 500-lawyer Australian firm Gadens and 200-lawyer Singaporean firm Rodyk & Davidson in 2016. [Reuters] * Thanks to this ruling, lawyers for model Janice Dickinson may depose Bill Cosby in the defamation case she filed against him after he denied raping her. Cosby's former lawyer, Martin Singer, who the comedian recently dumped for Quinn Emanuel, may be deposed as well. [Los Angeles Times] * If daylight saving time has been messing with your head, you'll feel better to know that even the Supreme Court was having trouble with the time. Both clocks in the SCOTUS courtroom were hours behind thanks to an electrical malfunction. [WSJ Law Blog] * Law school graduates have been having a rough time when it comes to bar passage in recent years, but Biglaw firms likely have nothing to worry about -- in fact, many partners didn't even know a problem like this was happening. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA] * "[T]he Harvard crest . . . should be a source of shame for the whole school." According to a student movement at Harvard Law that's been dubbed "Royall Must Fall," the school was endowed by a "brutal" slaveowner and yet still bears his family's seal. [Harvard Crimson]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.17.14

* Law school enrollment continues its death spiral for the fourth year in a row, with enrollment down about 28 percent since 2010. Some schools -- about 25 of them -- have reported enrollment dips of more than 20 percent. Celebrate good times, come on! [National Law Journal] * Beyoncé and Jay-Z, the queen and king of rap royalty, have been sued over a sample that was allegedly used in their hit song, "Drunk in Love." When asked for comment on the suit, our bae Bey kept it short and sweet: "Bow down, bitches." [A.V. Club] * Yoohoo, SCOTUS, pay attention to this one: The first federal judge has weighed in on President Obama's executive order on immigration, and in a four-page takedown, found it unconstitutional and “beyond prosecutorial discretion.” [WSJ Law Blog] * Katrina Dawson, an Australian lawyer who worked at Eight Selborne Chambers, was killed during the Sydney terrorist siege earlier this week. She reportedly died in an attempt to save a pregnant law firm colleague from a hail of gunfire. [Am Law Daily] * Lawyers and law students dressed in suits hosted a "die-in" in the pouring rain outside of a courthouse in downtown L.A. yesterday. Professor Priscilla Ocen of Loyola Law made some great points on a bullhorn. [L.A. Now / Los Angeles Times]

By Staci Zaretsky
Biglaw

Morning Docket: 09.26.14

* Solicitor General Don Verrilli may be a frontrunner to replace Eric Holder as attorney general, but the competition seems to be stiff. Kamala Harris, anyone? [USA Today] * FBI Director James Comey is annoyed by Apple and Google marketing their encryption prowess for privacy’s sake — it’ll “allow people to place themselves beyond the law.” [WSJ Law Blog] * White & Case just hopped aboard the onshore outsourcing train with its announcement that it would open a services center in Tampa, Florida. The move will create about 100 jobs, but we’d love to know how many it’s negating. [Tampa Bay Times] * Slater & Gordon, the world’s first publicly traded law firm, has been on an “acquisition spree” in England. Earlier this month, it picked up patent practice, and now it’s in talks with a litigation shop. [Am Law Daily] * “Law school is a major gamble,” and people are more informed, but that somehow isn’t stopping people from applying. This is a great article to read if you’re still considering going all in. [New York Observer]

By Staci Zaretsky