Brexit

A Changing London Landscape for U.S. JDs

Why the shift, and what role did Brexit play?

The Upside Of Brexit? More Transactional Work

Well, it's something.

Morning Docket: 08.30.19

* Brexit is going to be a real problem for law firms. [Law.com] * Former paralegal sues firm alleging it "fosters a 'party culture' rife with drug use and sexual harassment." [Philly Voice] * Law firms are feasting on the Sears bankruptcy. [NY Post] * 2020 could be a monster year for Biglaw fundraising. [American Lawyer] * What happens to intellectual property when artificial intelligence starts inventing things? [The Recorder] * Even the Second Circuit doesn't want to fly Spirit. [Law360] * SEC targets investment fund that allegedly preyed upon brain-damaged NFL players to enrich themselves. Team owners, meanwhile, face no repercussions. [Daily Business Review] * The DOJ makes secret laws? Super. [Politico]

Morning Docket: 08.19.19

* In his final days, accused sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein surrounded himself with lawyers in a private meeting room for up to 12 hours a day, emptying vending machines, if only to escape his cramped, vermin-infested cell. [New York Times] * The Trump Justice Department wants the Supreme Court to deny civil rights protections for transgender employees, but the EEOC doesn't agree and its general counsel refused to sign the DOJ's brief to the high court. [National Law Journal] * Per a leaked Brexit document, U.K. officials are trying to avoid a "catastrophic collapse in the nation's infrastructure" (e.g., food, fuel, and medicine shortages; port gridlocks; and civil unrest) if Britain is unable to leave the EU with a deal. [NPR] * Will other Biglaw firms with similar parental leave policies face scrutiny in the wake of the reverse discrimination lawsuit filed against Jones Day? We'll have to wait and see if this reproduces additional legal claims. [American Lawyer] * Milbank just scored a major lateral coup after scooping up some talented IP litigators from Irell & Manella, including David Gindler, the firm’s managing partner. Gindler was Irell's third managing partner in just a few years. [Big Law Business]

Morning Docket: 08.01.19

* An argument for ditching the billable hour for the sake of mental health. [Law.com] * Eighth Circuit okays suppressing Native American votes in North Dakota. [Courthouse News Service] * Masturbating on the D.C. Metro is legal? That actually doesn't shock me. [Washington Examiner] * Charlotte is probably America's hottest legal market right now, which is a sentence no one expected ten years ago. [American Lawyer] * Facebook beat back case claiming that the platform aided in Hamas attacks. Expect a lot of nonsensical blathering about Section 230 in Congress today. [Law360] * California passes major legislation to protect sex workers. The bill's sponsor is named Wiener which shouldn't make me laugh as much as it is. [Rolling Stone] * A no deal Brexit is a disaster for young lawyers. [Legal Cheek]

Morning Docket: 07.09.19

* Another firm opens an office in mainland Europe in the midst of England trying to garotte its own economy. [Law.com] * The census case is in new hands because after trying to make a real case and losing they realized there were some Jones Day flunkys hanging around so just hand it over to them. [National Law Journal] * Opioid case moves forward. [Courthouse News Service] * Stripping prosecutors of power to own the libs. [Inquirer] * Since it's a purely symbolic gesture with no impact on the day-to-day lives of New Yorkers and might land him a headline, Andrew Cuomo did a thing. [Politico] * Law schools have screwed up. [Forbes] * The few competent Trump judicial nominees finally move forward. [Law.com]

Morning Docket: 05.30.19

* Cravath closing in on an office move, potentially returning the firm to civilization after years on 8th Avenue. [New York Law Journal] * The moral of the story is: if you're going to pretend to be a lawyer, have a name that's easy to spell. [KMOV] * The blockchain and cryptocurrency industries are begging for some regulatory guidance but what they're getting instead is about as empty and worthless as a cryptocurrency. [Corporate Counsel] * Kirkland hires a new "director of well-being." That seems like a great gesture but if that person can't initiate core changes to the law firm model this doesn't seem like much of a solution. Thankfully, Kirkland employees are already pretty satisfied. [American Lawyer] * The intellectual property tussle over Iron Man's suit continues. [Law360] * Across the pond, Boris Johnson is facing prosecution over his Brexit shenanigans. Here's an explainer. [Legal Cheek] * Julian Assange too sick for court. [NBC News]

Morning Docket: 04.01.19

* According to a recent poll conducted by NBC News and the Wall Street Journal, most Americans — 40 percent — don’t think President Trump was cleared of wrongdoing by the Mueller probe (“[W]hile this report does not conclude that the President committed a crime, it also does not exonerate him.”). It’s somewhat comforting that most Americans can read. [NBC News] * “What are you, Oprah now? I mean, what am I, on a couch and you are a psychiatrist? I think it's a really inappropriate question." Kellyanne Conway didn’t approve of a question about her marriage to Wachtell partner and Trump critic George Conway on live TV. [USA Today] * It seems like everyone will be a loser in this sad Brexit affair — everyone except for the lawyers, that is. UK Biglaw firms report that almost every practice area is “thriving” and they’re seeing the best financial results in a decade. [New York Times] * Georgia bar examinees who were told they failed the exam when they actually passed it lost their suit against the company that calculated their scores. They apparently missed a contracts issue in their suit. Thank god that wasn’t on the bar exam... [Big Law Business] * Congratulations to Zuzana Caputova, the liberal lawyer oft referred to as “Slovakia’s Erin Brockovich,” who was just elected as the first female president in the country’s history. [CNBC]

Morning Docket: 03.13.19

* Chairman Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) of the House Intelligence Committee is none too pleased with the Justice Department at the moment. Apparently two unnamed senior officials said the DOJ might refuse to share special counsel Robert Mueller's report with Congress, a claim Schiff called "absolutely insupportable." [ABC News] * Last week, Paul Manafort was sentenced to under four years in jail by Judge T.S. Ellis III (just a little less than the 19 to 24 years called for in the sentencing guidelines), and today, Judge Amy Berman Jackson could sentence him to up to 10 years behind bars. [The Hill] * Michael Avenatti and Stormy Daniels have officially "broken up" (i.e., their attorney/client relationship has ended), and their announcement was obviously made on Twitter. Clark Brewster will now serve as her personal lawyer. [Daily Beast] * In case you missed it, the federal judiciary announced a major change to how it will respond to allegations of sexual misconduct. Per Chief Judge Merrick Garland of the D.C. Circuit, it is now "misconduct not to report misconduct." [Big Law Business] * "[I]f this deal is not passed, then Brexit could be lost." Unconvinced, British lawmakers have once again rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's Brexit plan to leave the European Union. Will this be the end of Brexit? [USA Today] * Women lawyers continue to push for lactation rooms in courthouses across the country, and now, the ABA House of Delegates has passed a resolution to make sure all courts create proper facilities for mothers who need to pump or nurse. [Law.com] * Elon Musk claims that the Securities and Exchange Commission is trying to unconstitutionally censor him and "trample on" his First Amendment rights. This is all over a tweet on Twitter, mind you. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)]

Morning Docket: 01.08.19

* Judge Dabney Friedrich proves every stereotype about joyless judges by throwing a fit over Reed Smith's practice of writing actually engaging briefs, prompting the firm to muse whether or not the judge is trying to get the firm's almost certainly Putin-allied client to fire him right when we were about to learn the truth of the nude selfies. [Courthouse News Service] * Federal judiciary trying desperately to keep the lights on one week later than initially reported. [National Law Journal] * The big winner of Brexit? Ireland's lawyers who firms are stockpiling in advance of Britain's departure. [International] * Rajat Gupta's conviction upheld by the Second Circuit. [Very Seinfeld voice] Newman! [Law360] * Supreme Court declines to enter the Skakel murder case because try as they might, they couldn't find anything about the case that would result in disenfranchising poor people. [Boston Herald] * In a total shock, sexual harassment claims went up as soon as America stopped immediately dismissing sexual harassment claims out of hand. Amazing! [Corporate Counsel] * Roger Stone continues to wait in torturous limbo for a decision on whether or not he'll be indicted while burning through cash on lawyers. Yeah... that's how this process works. Welcome to white-collar crime. [ABC News]

Morning Docket: 11.01.18

* Supreme Court looks to further cripple class actions by killing off cases that chasten corporate misconduct but can't feasibly reimburse every individual victim. So, if you're planning to injure a bunch of people, make sure to do it in a small and difficult to track manner! [National Law Journal] * Brexit comes to Biglaw as Kirkland moves its European hub to Paris. [International] * Biglaw associate suing USA Gymnastics for all the reasons USA Gymnastics is getting sued these days. [American Lawyer] * Tribes are suing North Dakota over its naked effort to disenfranchise Native Americans. [National Law Journal] * Shocking absolutely no one, the EEOC finds that the #MeToo movement has not resulted in a surge in false allegations. [Law.com] * This lawsuit against Spirit Airlines uses a lot of fast food analogies but misses the most apt: flying Spirit Airlines is like willfully going to the dirtiest Sbarro you can find and being shocked. [Law360] * The legal battle over Selendy & Gay's billings following the departure from Quinn Emanuel pits contractual obligations against legal ethics. [New York Law Journal]

Morning Docket: 10.22.18

* Remember how Trump promised that he'd "fight for" the transgender community while he was campaigning? Perhaps he meant that he'd fight to erase them. The Trump administration is reportedly considering defining sex under Title IX "based on immutable biological traits identifiable by or before birth." [New York Times] * Democratic senators in Washington are refusing to return their blue slips for Perkins Coie partner Eric Miller, a Ninth Circuit nominee, and Senate Judiciary Chairman Chuck Grassley is pissed. Slow your roll, Chuck. I thought we didn't care about blue slips anymore? [The Recorder] * About half of lawyers in the United Kingdom say they're not ready to deal with Brexit. That's okay. The United Kingdom isn't ready to deal with Brexit either -- and 40 percent of lawyers think their Biglaw firms will try to escape the UK because of it. [Am Law International] * In case you missed it, Paul Manafort showed up at the Eastern District of Virginia on Friday afternoon in a wheelchair, citing health concerns as his attorney requested an expedited sentencing date. Manafort seems to have gotten what he wanted, and will be sentenced there on February 8. [National Law Journal] * During his inauguration speech, the University of Virginia's new president, James Ryan -- a UVA Law graduate who once worked as a UVA law professor -- pledged that tuition would be free for students whose families earned less than $80,000 a year. We wonder if that applies to law school tuition as well. [WTTF Fox 5]

Morning Docket: 09.06.18

* Could this be the year that law firms break out of their cycle of tepid growth? [American Lawyer] * In ordinary times, Roy Moore's laughable lawsuit against Sacha Baron Cohen would be bigger news. We do not live in ordinary times. [Law360] * One would have thought "independence" would be "having a lifetime job with no oversight and an impossibly onerous removal process." But, "independence" really means "only answering hypotheticals that don't raise potentially serious questions about a guy's fig leaf of a judicial philosophy." This is why it's so important to be a textualist! [Courthouse News Service] * It makes for a nice, vapid buzzword, but there actually is an "I" in "Team of Nine." [National Law Journal] * A federal judge has banned the Texas "bury your zygote" law. Don't worry Texas, your boy Brett's will make sure you don't have to worry about this ever again. [NPR] * Shocking no one, lawyers think Brexit was a bad idea. [Legalweek] * Oh, and we're going to "open up libel laws" now. [CBS]

Morning Docket: 07.16.18

* A White House spokeswoman claims that Judge Brett Kavanaugh "had never heard any allegations of sexual misconduct or sexual harassment" made against Judge Alex Kozinski prior to last year when everyone else found out, and an extern who worked in Kozinski's chambers while Kavanaugh clerked is backing him up. [Washington Times] * The art of the deal don't: United Kingdom Prime Minister Theresa May says that President Trump told her she should sue the European Union instead of negotiating when it comes to Brexit options. There's no real cause of action, so she says that won't be happening -- not like that's something that has ever stopped Trump before. [Vox] * President Trump leaned heavily on Biglaw partners for his latest nominations to the federal judicary. Perkins Coie, K&L Gates, and Barnes & Thornburg could soon see representation on the Ninth Circuit, the Western District of Washington, the Western District of Pennsylvania, and the Northern District of Indiana. [The Recorder] * After months of debate, a panel has finally recommended that Florida State rename the law school building via legislative action. It currently recognizes former Florida Supreme Court Chief Justice B.K. Roberts., a " staunch segregationist" who once tried to deny a black student's admission to U. Florida's law school. [Tallahassee Democrat] * "For better or worse, I have become an agent for hope for those that are opposing this president." Michael Avenatti is famous for being President Trump's biggest critic, but he's "using that platform for good." In addition to Stormy Daniels, he now represents parents whose children were separated from them at the border. [AP]

Lawyers Gearing Up To Hit UK With Corporate Sovereignty Claims Totalling Billions Of Dollars Over Brexit

A Brexit wrinkle could pay off big for lawyers.