Barbara Bernier

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.06.18

* Simpson Thacher isn't increasing associate salaries to the $190K scale (yet), but it is partnering with Columbia Business School to launch a new associate training program. We bet your incoming associates are "STBReady" ... for higher salaries. Click here to see all the firms that have raised salaries thus far . [New York Law Journal] * President Trump is appealing the decision that says he can't block people on Twitter based on their political views to the Second Circuit (because of course he is). He already had to unblock the seven plaintiffs in the case, and he likely wasn't very happy about it because of glorious follow-up tweets like this. [BuzzFeed] * After reportedly being rejected by several candidates for the associate attorney general position -- one that would oversee the Mueller investigation if Rod Rosenstein were to suddenly depart -- the Trump Administration is giving up on trying to fill the job for the moment, and focusing on other vacancies. [Wall Street Journal] * In the wake of allegations of sexual harassment against former Ninth Circuit Judge Alex Kozinski, the federal judiciary's working group on sexual harassment has released 24 recommendations, specifying three areas that need change to make circuit courts an "exemplary workplace." [Big Law Business] * The American Bar Association wants out of this whistleblower suit, ASAP. ABA officials claim that former Charlotte Law professor Barbara Bernier only added the law school regulatory group to her suit against the defunct law school and its owner, InfiLaw, as a "last-ditch effort" to keep her action kicking in court. [Law.com]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.09.18

* No collusion! Michael Cohen's shell company -- the same one used to pay hush money to Stormy Daniels -- received more than $1 million in payments from a company that's been linked to a Russian oligarch with close ties to Vladimir Putin. The same oligarch was sanctioned by the Trump administration for election interference. Special counsel Robert Mueller is on it. [New York Times; CNN] * If President Trump does sit down for an interview with the special counsel, he could make history if he decides to plead the Fifth Amendment. No American president has ever used the Fifth Amendment to avoid self-incrimination while still in office. [TIME] * Is your law school following the new law clerk hiring plan? It better be, if your graduates want a chance to clerk with Justice Elena Kagan. The former law school dean says she'll "take into account" in her own clerkship hiring whether law schools and lower court judges have complied with the plan. [National Law Journal] * A former professor and an alumnus from Charlotte Law School have added the American Bar Association to their suit against the defunct for-profit school, claiming in an amended complaint that the ABA negligently certified the school and "failed to act as a reasonable accreditor" -- which makes sense. [Law360 (sub. req.)] * A 15-member panel comprised of Florida State University faculty, staff, students, and alumni want the name of their law school building to be changed. It's currently named after former Florida Chief Justice B.K. Roberts, who worked to keep the University of Florida's law school segregated. [News 4 JAX] * Sorry, Tommy and Kiko, but you're going to have to stay in your cages. The New York Court of Appeals refused to hear a habeus appeal on behalf of the chimpanzees, allowing a ruling that they are not legal persons and therefore have no legal rights to stand. At least the concurring opinion was a little less dour. [Reuters]

By Staci Zaretsky