Teased Law Firm Merger Fizzles
Law firms Brexit each other.
Morning Docket: 11.02.17
* The Hamilton Ponzi scheme ends in a guilty plea. Well, he had his shot. [New York Law Journal] * You know who is really worried about the Paul Manafort case? Every lawyer who acts as a lobbyist and thinks, "uh oh... this criminal complaint reads a lot like my billable hour diaries." [National Law Journal] * Charleston School of Law didn't have a very good bar exam. [Post and Courier] * Womble completes its merger with Bond Dickinson. [American Lawyer] * NLRB General Counsel Richard Griffin's term has ended. So gear up for the new Lochner-era! [Law360] * Game-changing litigation moves. Probably not game-changing... game-adjusting. [Litigation Daily]
What Even Is AI ‘Competence’? It Depends.
Takeaways from a Legalweek panel on evolving malpractice risks.
Morning Docket: 11.01.17
* "Nothing about recent events or any of these actions of the special counsel has altered the president’s determination to support the special counsel and fully cooperate and that is where we are," said White House lawyer Ty Cobb, twirling his mustache as he presumably wondered how to extricate himself from this situation. [Big Law Business] * An Akin Gump partner who initially refused to testify before the grand jury in Paul Manafort's case was ordered to do so under the "crime fraud" exception to attorney-client privilege. She's (understandably) not responding to media requests for comment at this time. She's already said her fair share. [National Law Journal] * The American Bar Association's Standing Committee on the Federal Judiciary gave Eighth Circuit nominee Leonard Steven Grasz, who happens to be a Husch Blackwell partner, a "not qualified" rating because its members were concerned he wouldn't be able to follow precedent due to his "passionately-held social agenda." [ABA Journal] * Foley & Lardner is in merger talks with Gardere Wynne Sewell. Last we heard, the firm was in merger talks with New York boutique Friedman Kaplan Seiler & Adelman. While the firm claims that a final decision on the merger hasn't been made yet, they've already set up a new website. That's probably just a coincidence. [Am Law Daily] * Speaking of mergers, the one between Womble Carlyle and Bond Dickinson is now official, and the combined firm, Womble Bond Dickinson, is now one of the world's 100 largest. More than 1,000 lawyers work for the new firm across 24 offices in the U.S. and U.K. As with most mergers, some layoffs could be ahead. [Chronicle Live]
Morning Docket: 06.05.17
* The Supreme Court has a few options when it comes to President Trump's travel ban. The justices can grant or deny certiorari to hear the case, or grant or deny a stay on lower court rulings blocking various aspects of the ban. Either way, this case could become moot before it's ever heard. [New York Times] * Meanwhile, the man who's the worst client in the universe lashed out at Justice Department lawyers this morning in a series of Tweets, demanding that the travel ban be referred to as a travel ban instead of the "watered down, politically correct version they submitted to [SCOTUS]." Congrats on undermining your case! [New York Times] * Get your popcorn ready, because according to two senior administration officials, President Trump will reportedly not be invoking executive privilege to block former FBI director James Comey from testifying before the Senate Intelligence Committee later this week in the ongoing Russia probe. [The Hill] * During a speaking engagement at Harvard, the Supreme Court's freshman, Justice Neil Gorsuch, recounted the time he met Sandy, the dean of Oxford's naked sex doll, who was dressed in only a boa. Although she could be counted on for answers, Gorsuch said she didn't provide him with any. [Washington Post] * Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg will soon be the star of her very own fitness book. Co-authored by her longtime trainer Bryant Johnson and illustrator Patrick Welsh, "The RBG Workout: How She Stays Strong ... and You Can Too!" (affiliate link) will be out the first week of October Term 2017. [Associated Press] * Womble Carlyle is entering into a transatlantic merger with British firm Bond Dickinson to become Womble Bond Dickinson. The combined firm will have about 1,080 lawyers across 23 offices, with revenues exceeding $410 million. A spokesperson claims the tie-up will not result in layoffs. [News & Observer]
Morning Docket: 06.16.16
* In keeping with our new morning ritual, we recap the firms that announced salary raises yesterday. We had Schulte Roth & Zabel, Robbins Russell, Arnold & Porter, Kramer Levin, Hughes Hubbard, McDermott, and Cadwalader. [Above the Law / 2016 Salary Increase] * Womble Carlyle is forming a "strategic alliance" with U.K. firm Bond Dickinson. If mergers are law firm marriages, then think of this as the law firm f**k buddy arrangement. [Legal Week / Daily Report] * This law school thinks the future of law is taking money to educate non-lawyers. [Newsworks] * Here, read Law360 describe how Law360 settled with the NYAG's office. It's very meta. [Law360] * Harvard Law grad suing NY State Board of Law Examiners for failing to accommodate her disability and causing her to twice fail the exam. [ABA Journal] * Amid criticism, Shannon Liss-Riordan agrees to cut her fee in half for negotiating a class action settlement with Uber on behalf of the drivers. Apparently she was 2x surge priced the day she secured the deal. * X marks the sanction: Attorney disciplined for hiding sunken treasure records. [Courthouse News Service]