Betsy DeVos

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.14.18

* Paul Manafort pleading guilty. Because... witch hunt or something. [CNN] * Brett Kavanaugh could "halt or reverse our progress toward gay equality." Is this all it takes to get an op-ed in a mega circulation paper these days? Just say obvious stuff? I've really been overthinking this. [USA Today] * Betsy DeVos reversing campus rape rules to make Baylor great again. [Law.com] * Bill Brewer bounced from NRA case because it was absolutely the right thing to do. [Washington Post] * A close look at three law-abiding people who are about to be converted to "illegal" humans by this administration. [Courthouse News Service] * Tish James will be New York's next Attorney General and all she had to do to win was promise not to use the powers of the Attorney General. [Law360]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.12.18

* Proskauer tells the EEOC that there's nothing "sinister" about employers demanding that sexual harassment victims sign away their legal rights to be railroaded through employer-chosen kangaroo courts and then forcibly silenced. Welcome to 2018. [National Law Journal] * In emoluments news, Judge Peter Messitte asked the Justice Department if, based on their chosen defense, "Wouldn't that be bribery?" which he seemed to think would be a bad thing as if the Supreme Court hadn't legalized bribery in McDonnell. [US News] * Chris Christie is starting his own law firm and somehow Rudy Giuliani has already managed to lie about that. [NJ.com] * Betsy DeVos succeeded in keeping fraud victims indebted to the government. She was also ordered to stop pursuing collection actions against the victims, but she still gets to destroy their credit ratings, which is still a great day for kleptocracy. [Courthouse News Service] * Nelson Mullins merging with Broad and Cassel as part of the growing trend of super-regional firms designed to keep the Am Law elite at bay. [Daily Report] * In a lesson on putting carts ahead of horses, the former general counsel for Portland, Oregon's public school district was just admitted to the bar... after the state bar lodged ethics violations against him for serving in that role without a law license in the state. [Portland Tribune]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.30.17

* Former President Barack Obama has been called for jury duty in November, and unlike most Americans, he's not looking for a way to get out of serving. [ABC Chicago] * The pivot you're looking for is in another castle: Now that a grand jury's approved the first charges in the Russian collusion investigation and someone's about to be taken into custody, President Trump took to Twitter to demand that Hillary Clinton be investigated. [New York Times] * Paul Manafort is turning himself in. Surprise! (Is this really a surprise?) [CNN] * Like it or not, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is planning to be around for the long haul. Don't count on this "flaming feminist litigator" retiring any time soon. [The Hill] * Justice Don Willett of the Texas Supreme Court, the state's Tweeter Laureate, hasn't tweeted a single time since he was nominated to the Fifth Circuit. How long will this god-awful silence from everyone's favorite Twitter judge last? [Texas Lawyer] * So long, borrower-defense rule? Betsy DeVos is thinking about only partially forgiving loans for students who were defrauded by for-profit schools. [AP]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.13.17

* The Supreme Court, without any dissents, has allowed the Trump administration's refugee ban to stand while the case proceeds, temporarily staying a Ninth Circuit ruling to the contrary. As my colleague Elie Mystal wondered yesterday, "Why is Kennedy stepping on the Ninth Circuit here? Why do any of them want this?" [New York Times] * Not that recommending prosecutions is part of her job, but White House press secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders thinks that the Justice Department might want to prosecute former FBI director James Comey because his leaks "were improper and likely could have been illegal." [Washington Post] * "It's going to be death by a thousand cuts if people keep leaving at this rate." Ropes & Gray seems to be leaking partners like a sieve. In fact, 19 partners have parted ways with the firm since this past January. Not to worry, because according to management this is fine. [Legal Week] * Lynne Hermle, a partner in the labor and employment practice group at Orrick, thinks that in-house counsel need to adopt their own versions of the Mansfield Rule when hiring and staffing their trial teams. Why not have a woman lead your trial team? Juries tend to listen to them. [Business Insider] * Rob Ranco, a Texas personal injury attorney who landed himself on the front page of Breitbart last week after tweeting that he'd "be ok if #BetsyDevos was sexually assaulted," resigned from his firm, agreeing with his managing partner that he'd crossed "a line that simply cannot be uncrossed." [Law.com]

By Staci Zaretsky