Biogenesis

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.23.15

* Will it ever be easier to meet the challenge of proving you've got an undue hardship so you can discharge your law school student loan debts in bankruptcy? Your fate may rest in the hands of this indebted Florida Coastal Law grad and his petition for certiorari at the Supreme Court. [US Law Week Blog / Bloomberg] * Hate crimes still happen, even at this prestigious law school: Amid increased racial turbulence on campus, the Harvard University Police Department is now investigating the defacing of black law professors' portraits as a hate crime. [ABC News] * UVA Law recently joined the minority of law schools that have women serving as dean. Pop your collars with pride, because legal historian Risa Goluboff will take over as the school's first female dean this July. Congratulations! [Richmond Times-Dispatch] * Gordon Rees has settled its lawsuit against Alex Rodriguez over the baseball player's outstanding legal bills, totaling more than $380,000. The terms of the deal haven't been disclosed, but we have a feeling that the firm hit it out of the park. [NBC New York] * Try before you buy or a bid to increase tourism? Alaska is making bold moves now that it's legalized marijuana for recreational use. It'll be the first state to allow the social use of the drug "in public," i.e., inside pot dispensaries that have yet to open. [Cannabist]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.17.15

* “The top is eroding and the bottom is growing." Even as class sizes get smaller and tuition gets lower, the law school brain drain continues. America's best and brightest won't be fooled into studying law when the job market is still so unstable, but others have been. [Bloomberg] * Attorneys for California's sex workers have filed suit to overturn the state's ban on prostitution, claiming that "[t]he rights of adults to engage in consensual, private sexual activity (even for compensation) is a fundamental liberty interest." Yeah, okay. [AP] * “The simple story is that $160,000 as a starting salary at large law firms is less prevalent than it was immediately prior to the recession." You can scream "NY TO 190K!" all you want, but starting salaries have remained flat. Sowwy. [DealBook / New York Times] * U.S. Attorney Preet Bharara of the Southern District of New York has involved himself in an "escalating war of words" with members of the federal judiciary that he may come to regret. Will this “petulant rooster" be able to kiss and make up? [New York Times] * Per a recently filed lawsuit, Alex Rodriguez of the Yankees still hasn't paid a single law firm for their representation in the Biogenesis case. He allegedly owes Gordon & Rees $380,059 in unpaid fees. Come on, A-Rod. You've got the cash. [New York Daily News] * Infamous plaintiffs' attorney Steven Donziger of the $9.5 billion Chevron / Ecuador kerfuffle decided that if he can't win his case in a court of law, he might as well try to win it in the court of public opinion. Check out his side of the story. [Law360 (sub. req.)]

By Staci Zaretsky