Bridgegate

Morning Docket: 01.15.20

* President Trump is assembling a legal “Dream Team” to defend him in his impeachment trial. [NPR] * A California lawyer has trademarked a moniker used by Meghan Markle and Prince Harry. Quite the entrepreneur. [Fox Business]

By Jordan Rothman
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By Barbri
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.30.17

* North Carolina lawmakers say they've reached a deal to repeal the state's controversial bathroom bill. I wonder how those negotiations went: "Hey, this law is awful and is costing our state billions. Let's get rid of it." "Okay." I mean that's probably not how it went, but it's how it should have gone. [Reuters] * Five University of California law schools are sharing the wealth after an improper foreclosure verdict results in a big punitive damages award. The judge directed a portion of that money to go to the law schools -- $4 million each -- earmarked for consumer law education and direct legal services. [Law.com] * Hawaii successfully converted the TRO on the Trump administration's Muslim Ban 2.0 into a preliminary injunction. [Hogan Lovells] * Seattle is the first city to sue over the Trump administration's threats against sanctuary cities. [LA Times] * Bridgegate results in prison sentences. Bridget Kelly was sentenced to 18 months, and Bill Baroni got 2 years. [New York Times] * Doublespeak -- the environment edition. [Politico] * Is Sean Spicer is lying about whether the White House really wants former acting Attorney General Sally Yates to testify to Congress? [The Hill] * Judge Andrew Napolitano is back at Fox News, and back to conspiracy theories. [CNN]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.13.17

* The University of Houston Law Center and the South Texas College of Law Houston (formerly known as the Houston College of Law and the South Texas College of Law) still haven't been able to resolve their trademark tiff. A judge has encouraged both law schools to "keep at it" to avoid a trial. [Houston Chronicle] * Earlier this week, the House of Representatives passed the Regulatory Accountability Act of 2017, a bill ending Chevron deference -- perhaps the most important principal of administrative law. Apparently it will be much better for job creation and economic growth if judges ignore regulatory agencies' legal interpretations. [Law360 (sub. req.)] * Leslie Caldwell, the head of the Justice Department's criminal division, will be stepping down from her post today. She has no idea what's ahead of her aside from a trip to the Caribbean next week. As far as her prospective successor is concerned, she thinks accessing data on encrypted devices will be "problem No. 1 to address." [WSJ Law Blog] * A New Jersey judge has refused to dismiss a gubernatorial candidate's criminal complaint against Governor Chris Christie over the Bridgegate scandal, noting that a lower court judge "improperly denied counsel [to Christie] at a critical stage" of the case. If probable cause is found, Christie may face charges, just like his colleagues. [Reuters] * "Even if we could justify the need ... it is far from clear that the funding case could be made...." Given the turmoil at Charlotte Law, people are wondering whether it would be a good idea for UNC Charlotte to open a law school. Just because one law school may be closing, it doesn't mean that another needs to open in its place. [Charlotte Observer]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.24.16

* "Every woman lied when they came forward to hurt my campaign." Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump plans to sue all of the "liars" who have accused him of sexual assault within the last two weeks when the election is over. As an attorney representing one of Trump's accusers noted, a lawsuit would provide a "field day" to depose him under oath. [CNN] * The American Bar Association's Council of the Section of Legal Education and Admissions to the Bar has approved a tougher bar-passage rate standard that would require 75 percent of of a law school’s graduates who sit for the bar exam to pass it within two years. It's up to the ABA House of Delegates to decide if the stricter standard will ever be implemented. We'll have more on this later today. [ABA Journal] * "I don’t know why he would wait around for 200 days and then pull out at the very moment that it seemed likely that he was going to get confirmed." Will Judge Merrick Garland be confirmed to SCOTUS? With senators calling for lame-duck hearings if Hillary Clinton is elected and a bare-bones oral arguments calendar scheduled, it seems like even the justices are holding out hope for a full house in 2017. [Washington Post] * In a deal likely to invoke government scrutiny, AT&T has agreed to purchase Time Warner for $84.5 billion. Teams from Sullivan & Cromwell (transaction work) and Arnold & Porter (regulatory work) will be representing AT&T, while Cravath will be representing Time Warner. Faiza Saeed, Cravath's deputy presiding partner, will lead the team working on the deal from her firm. [DealBook / New York Times; Am Law Daily] * According to testimony from Bridget Kelly, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie's former deputy chief of staff, Christie allegedly knew about the Bridgegate lane closures a month before they occurred, not afterwards, as he's repeatedly claimed. Kelly, who says she thought the lane closures were for a traffic study, not a politically motivated scheme, is currently being tried in federal court over her role in the 2013 scandal. [Reuters]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 10.17.16

* Guess? has the edge in its latest trademark dispute with Gucci. [The Fashion Law] * President Obama is making the judiciary more diverse, and it is changing the courts. [Law360 (sub. req.)] * U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker benchslaps Florida over its voter ID laws. [Slate] * On the need for a safeguard against racism in the jury room. [Jost on Justice] * Has the Supreme Court not been getting enough air time in the 2016 election? [Huffington Post] * The defendants to testify in Bridgegate. [Law and More]

By Kathryn Rubino
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 10.13.16

* Workplace safety -- especially when it deals with beloved actor Harrison Ford -- is no laughing matter. And a Disney subsidiary is paying ~$2 million as a result. [io9] * A look at the oral argument in Peña-Rodriguez v. Colorado. [Slate] * This whole "publicly traded company" thing isn't working out so great for Slater & Gordon. [Law and More] * A new summons for Governor Chris Christie over Bridgegate. [Huffington Post] * Despite SCOTUS ruling, there haven't been many Hobby Lobby copycats. [Politico] * Copyright suit over the classic "Who's On First" routine stays dead. [Hollywood Reporter]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.11.16

* "Could a firm with a different business model suffer, potentially, if they don't match the $180,000? Maybe." Law firms may be competing for fewer students than in years prior thanks to decreased law school enrollment, but Biglaw's new starting salary scale doesn't seem to have made a big impact on the summer associate applicant pool -- at most schools, OCI participation has held steady or risen only slightly since last year. [Law.com] * “Are you listening? He just flat out lied. ... [I]t could be bad." In a text message that was included in a federal court filing earlier this week, a former aide to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie claimed that the governor lied when he told the media none of his staff knew about a plan to block George Washington Bridge traffic. Uh-oh! [New York Times] * "We'll tell the council that there's a giant need for affordable law schools like us, and we're going to meet that need." After learning it was unlikely his school would receive accreditation due to students' poor qualifications, Dean Royal Furgeson Jr. of UNT Dallas Law shrugged it off, saying the school would "get a fair hearing." [ABA Journal] * Robert Schulman, a former partner at Hunton & Williams, has been indicted for allegedly trading on insider information ahead of Pfizer's $3.6 billion purchase of King Pharmaceuticals, a client he represented in 2010 while at the firm. He, along with his investment adviser, will face up to 20 years in prison if convicted. [Big Law Business] * Yet another Biglaw firm has partnered with a financial company to assist its attorneys with their law school debt. Miller Canfield is working with Social Finance (SoFi) to provide loan refinancing options to the firm's associates to help "ease the financial burden" of their heavy six-figure debt loads. [Grand Rapids Business Journal] * "They're being terribly exploited." Lichten and Bright, a New York labor law firm, has contacted hundreds of UFC fighters in an effort to unionize them and help get them benefits that other sports unions share, like health insurance, pensions, and the ability to negotiate the terms of their contracts with the mixed martial arts giant. [MMA Junkie]

By Staci Zaretsky
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 06.14.16

* So, you lucky associate you, expect a bit of extra cash this summer? Here's how you should be spending it. [American Lawyer] * Chris Christie allegedly took document preservation tips from Dick Nixon. [WNYC] * DLA Piper looks to join the ranks of employing droids, announcing a new partnership with Kira Systems to produce an AI tool for conducting due diligence. [DLA Piper] * Oh, the stupid things law schools do. Like how a bunch of Touro 3Ls are ineligible to sit for the bar exam this summer... [Reboot Your Law Practice] * Bands from Google Legal, Kirkland & Ellis, Lieff Cabraser, Simpson Thacher, Kazan Law, and Morgan Lewis are competing in a Battle of the Bands at 1015 Folsom nightclub tomorrow night in San Francisco in support of The Family Violence Appellate Project. [Family Violence Appellate Project] * M&A is having a pretty good 2016. [Fortune] * "The Scrooge Effect" for Biglaw firms that refuse to give pay raises to their associates. [Law and More] * The previously lost Marx Brothers musical, "I'll Say She Is," is currently playing at the Connelly Theater in the East Village. And it stars, Kathy Biehl a practicing New Jersey and Texas lawyer. [I'll Say She Is]

By Kathryn Rubino