Barbara Jones

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.20.18

* It turns out that Don McGahn, the White House counsel, has been cooperating "extensively" with Robert Mueller's obstruction investigation. He's apparently been sharing "detailed accounts" for his own legal security because he thought President Trump might be trying to set him as the fall guy. [New York Times] * Judge T.S. Ellis says that he's received threats while overseeing Paul Manafort's trial and that he is now under the protection of U.S. Marshals. He's refused to release the names of the jurors out of a genuine concern for their safety. [USA Today] * Federal prosecutors are reportedly preparing charges related to bank and tax fraud for Michael Cohen. He allegedly misrepresented his assets to obtain loans and failed to properly report income from his taxi medallions. Yikes! [CNN] * Speaking of Cohen, Bracewell partner Barbara Jones has concluded her privilege review of the more than 3.2 million documents seized from Michael Cohen, and found that about 7,150 were actually privileged -- a fraction of what was taken, and a fraction of what Cohen's legal team claimed was privileged. [New York Law Journal] * "I will regret every day of my life, the day I met Martin Shkreli." Despite his lawyers' request for no jail time, Evan Greebel, the former Biglaw partner who once worked with the pharma bro, has been sentenced to 18 months in prison. [American Lawyer] * Esperanza Franco, a 2015 graduate of Penn Law's LL.M. program and 2017 graduate of Arizona's J.D. program, has been defending immigrants from deportation, but she may soon face deportation herself thanks to a series of visa errors. You can donate here to help her stay in the country. [Philadelphia Inquirer]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.10.18

* As they say, you can't buy class, but you can insure against it. There's actually a thing called disgrace insurance for celebrities behaving badly. [Law.com] * Barbara Jones has completed her privilege review of the Michael Cohen materials. In a shock to absolutely no one, only about half of the material designated as privileged was really privileged. [Courthouse News Service] * Michael Avenatti is really considering a presidential run and is making the requisite Iowa tour to prove it. [Bloomberg] * With E&Y getting into the legal game, will the clients follow. [Corporate Counsel] * Checking in on Christopher Garvey's retaliation case against Morgan Stanley. [National Law Journal] * Get ready for litigation! California has a law requiring pharmaceutical companies provide advanced notice before jacking up prices. Eli Lilly has decided to just spike the price on insulin with no warning anyway. [LA Times]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.22.18

* Paul Manafort loses evidence motion. He should embrace that feeling of loss. [Courthouse News Service] * CNBC criticizes the Cohen case Special Master, Judge Barbara Jones, for charging $330K for document review. This is, of course, an entirely reasonable fee for a case of this import but CNBC has clearly let their bias flag fly. [CNBC] * While America focuses, fairly, on children suffering institutional child abuse, please take a second to remember that cops straight up killed a teenager running from a traffic stop. One could say, "why was he running?" but I've seen the video of Philando Castile's death -- staying peacefully in a car isn't necessarily safe anymore. [CBS News] * The new awareness of widespread sexual harassment in the workplace may have another positive side effect: women are advancing to partnership faster than before. [American Lawyer] * Dumb people are up in arms that the ACLU might shift its resources away from random Nazis toward other projects that don't have hordes of self-styled rebel lawyers and downright crypto-fascist attorneys ready to defend them pro bono. This video, however, is exactly why the ACLU is right to reorient itself to focus on more pressing challenges. [io9] * Trump proposes merging the Education Department with the Department of Labor. Do you know how hard he had to work to make this not his dumbest idea of the week? We're going to have to build the Starship Trump just so America doesn't focus on this nonsense. [NPR] * NY's Mayor is doing more to protect unfairly targeted immigrants than almost anyone in America and his policy has a glaring, awful hole in its provision of legal aid. [NY Daily News]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 05.30.18

* Guess which Biglaw firm has decided to bring back on-campus recruiting for its summer associate program? Here's a hint: You're going to need a pair of flip flops. We'll have more on this later today. [American Lawyer] * With an estimated $11 million annual salary, Sandra Goldstein, who recently left Cravath for Kirkland & Ellis, may be the highest paid female partner in all of Biglaw. You go, girl! [The Careerist] * Speaking of female Biglaw partners, Bracewell partner Barbara Jones's $700 per hour rate as special master in the review of materials seized from Michael Cohen's office has added up to a pretty YUGE bill for just one week's worth of work: $47,390. [New York Law Journal] * The Justice Department approved a merger between Bayer and Monsanto, but only after the companies agreed to dump $9 billion in business assets. "Today’s news makes it clear that our antimonopoly laws are completely worthless," said one farm group that's just thrilled by the news. [Washington Post] * Eduardo M. Peñalver, the first Latino dean of an Ivy League law school, has been reappointed to a second five-year term as dean of Cornell Law after achieving quite a few milestones for employment and bar pass rates at the school. [Cornell Chronicle] * Briana Williams, a single mother who requested an epidural while she was in labor so her contractions wouldn't interfere with her completion of a final exam, recently graduated from Harvard Law School. Much respect from one law mama to another. Congratulations and best of luck in all that you do! [Yahoo!]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.27.18

* Barbara Jones, a former federal judge who now serves as a partner at Bracewell (a firm where Rudy Giuliani was once a name partner), has been appointed as a special master in Michael Cohen’s case to decide which materials that were seized from his office are protected by attorney-client privilege and which materials can be reviewed by prosecutors. [New York Post] * This just got really interesting: The anonymous Proskauer partner who is suing the firm in a $50 million gender bias case has come forward and revealed her name. Jane Doe is better known as Connie Bertram, head of the firm’s labor and employment practice in D.C. and co-head of the firm’s whistleblowing and retaliation group. [American Lawyer] * Veteran Supreme Court advocate Lisa Blatt of Arnold & Porter received a rare honor at the high court earlier this week during oral arguments in Trump v. Hawaii when Justice Stephen Breyer mentioned her as the author of an amicus brief. This almost never happens. Congratulations on a job well done! [National Law Journal] * The Stanford Law Class of 1998 has the special sauce for producing female deans at top law schools. Kimberly Yuracko of Northwestern, Kerry Abrams of Duke, and Gillian Lester of Columbia all graduated in the same year. [The Recorder] * Cooley Law School is back in compliance with ABA accreditation standards. Apparently the school is now admitting candidates who appear capable of finishing law school and gaining admission to a state bar (even though recent bar exam pass-rate statistics seem to strongly disagree with that assessment). [ABA Journal]

By Staci Zaretsky