Christine Blasey Ford

* Uh, no collusion? In a lawsuit over the TRUST Act, Trump’s lawyers have accused congressional Democrats and New York state officials of colluding to expose the president’s financial information. [New York Law Journal]

* “You may recognize some of this. I hope I’ve improved it a little bit since you’ve last seen it.” Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg welcomed Justice Neil Gorsuch to the Supreme Court by gifting to him the clerk manual that he was assigned to create for Justice Byron White while he was clerking, who later gave it to his successor, the Notorious RBG. [CNN]

* Was Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s testimony against now-Justice Brett Kavanaugh during his confirmation hearings politically motivated? Comments made by one of her lawyers reportedly seem to indicate that Ford spoke out to protect Roe. v. Wade. [Newsweek]

* “Being a lawyer is the most stressful yet boring job in the world. I’d never recommend it to anyone. Ever.” About half of attorneys working in U.K. Biglaw firms have experienced mental health issues like depression and stress due to their jobs. [Legal Week]

* “Can y’all play nice or do I have to attend these depositions?” A completely reasonable request from a judge after one of the lawyers on a case allegedly slapped another lawyer in the face before a prior deposition. [Texas Lawyer]

* Morrison & Foerster wants all of the employment records from the new firm of a former associate who’s anonymously for gender discrimination, claiming they’re relevant to her “negative reference” retaliation allegations. Sheesh… [Big Law Business]

* The 2020 Census case is officially moving forward as the DOJ attempts to “re-evaluate all available options,” and the judge on the case is allowing plaintiffs to focus on whether the Trump administration’s decision to add a citizenship question was “steeped in discriminatory motive.” [NBC News]

* And the lawyers who had been representing the administration in the case are being swapped out — which could mean that some of them were having legal or ethical concerns about their continued involvement. [Washington Post]

* “You know that woman is lying, don’t you?” According to a new book written by Mollie Hemingway and Carrie Severino, that’s what Melania Trump allegedly said to Donald Trump of Christine Blasey Ford’s Senate Judiciary Committee testimony against Justice Brett Kavanaugh. [New York Post]

* ““I do not regret my vote in the least,” says Senator Susan Collins in reference to her controversial vote to confirm Justice Brett Kavanaugh to the Supreme Court. She might regret it if that’s what gets her kicked out of her Senate seat… [The Hill]

* Billionaire playboy Jeffrey Epstein was arrested on Saturday and charged with one count of sex trafficking of minors and one count of conspiracy to engage in sex trafficking of minors, crimes which could could put him behind bars for up to 45 years. [New York Times]

* Reed Smith counsel Mark Goldstein imagined the worst case scenarios that could have happened after he told the legal world about his depression, but he was “heartened” by all of Biglaw’s progress in terms of lawyers’ mental health. [American Lawyer]

* Dr. Christine Blasey Ford says that she’s used some of the money in the GoFundMe account started by her supporters for security costs after her sexual assault testimony against then-Judge Brett Kavanaugh, but plans to donate the rest of the funds to trauma survivors. [Fox News]

* Of course Justice Department lawyers are going to appeal the ruling blocking the Trump administration’s new asylum restrictions and of course they want that ruling to be put on hold while the appeal is pending. Let’s keep teargassing kids while we’re at it. [CNN]

* Paul Manafort’s lawyers sure are acting strangely in the wake of new allegations from Robert Mueller. “You would expect them to be a little more bold and say, ‘This is untrue, he has cooperated,’” but that’s not what seems to be happening. [Daily Beast]

* “We’re very keen to do something in the U.S.” Hot off a three-way merger, U.K.-based CMS Cameron McKenna Nabarro Olswang is looking for yet another merger partner, but this time, the firm’s leaders are looking across the pond. [ International]

* Sorry if you were planning to lateral up the in-house food chain from a Biglaw firm, but according to this survey from the Association of Corporate Counsel, most GCs were born and bred in corporate law departments. [Corporate Counsel]

* When you’re better known for your love of beer than your love of anything else, here’s the TMZ headline you get after feeding those in need: “JUSTICE KAVANAUGH SERVING MEALS TO HOMELESS … Hold the Beer, Please.” [TMZ]

* And in other Kavanaugh news, a group of witches will be holding a ritualistic event to hex the newly confirmed justice. Their goal is “to make Kavanaugh suffer,” and they plan to cast a spell and use effigies, coffin nails, and graveyard dirt to get the job done. [USA Today]

* President Trump defended his mockery of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford, saying in his 60 Minutes interview that “if I had not made that speech, we would not have won.” When reminded that he was being a disgusting human being, he brushed it off, saying, “I’m not going to get into it, because we won. It doesn’t matter. We won.” [NBC News]

* Per President Trump, Senate majority leader Mitch McConnell is “the greatest leader in history” because he’s so awesome at pushing through conservative federal judges with lifetime appointments. “Keep sending them our way, and we’ll keep changing the court system forever,” McConnell said. Brooooo. [New York Times]

* How do we know Pat Cipollone is the next White House counsel? “I haven’t named the new White House counsel, but over a short period of time. Pat’s a great guy. I don’t want to say, but he’s a great guy. He’s a very talented and he’s a very good man, but I don’t want to say.” You’ve already said enough, Mr. President. [Washington Post]

* Oh boy, it looks like we’ve got a new person to lock up. People who attended Trump’s MAGA rally in Iowa last night broke out into chants of “lock her up!” after the president wondered whether Senator Dianne Feinstein leaked a letter containing Dr. Christine Blasey Ford’s allegations of sexual misconduct against Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. [The Hill]

* Just because Brett Kavanaugh was confirmed to the Supreme Court doesn’t mean that student organizers at Yale Law are giving up. Yale Law Students Demanding Better will be entering a “new phase of advocacy,” by getting politically involved, registering voters, and joining grassroots movements. [Yale Daily News]

* Elon Musk hired Williams & Connolly chairman Dane Butswinkas to help him with the hot securities mess he’s created. He may have settled his case with the SEC, but a judge still has to accept their agreement and his tweet calling the agency the “Shortseller Enrichment Commission” might not help him. [Big Law Business]

* Keila Ravelo, the former Biglaw partner who pleaded guilty to tax evasion and conspiracy to commit wire fraud charges last year, will be sentenced today in her $7.8 million scheme to cheat her firms and clients. The government is asking for six years behind bars and three years of supervised release. [New Jersey Law Journal]

* Women have been treated unfairly in the legal profession for far too long, and maybe that’s why the number of women-owned firms has been dramatically increasing. As a partner in your own firm, the compensation will be fair, promotions will be merit-based, and no one is going to sexually harass you. What’s not to like? [Law.com]

* “BREAKING: President Donald Trump repeatedly mocks Ford, who accused Kavanaugh of sexual assault.” When I got this alert on my phone last night, I couldn’t help myself but to blurt out, “F**k that guy.” That’s our president! Not sure why I expected more. [NBC News]

* According to Senator Mitch McConnell, the Senate will vote on Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh just as soon as the F.B.I. wraps up its investigation — which could be as early as sometime today. Gee, it’s almost as if they don’t care about what the results are. [New York Times]

* In the meantime, more than 500 law professors have signed onto two letters that will be presented to the Senate, each condemning Kavanaugh’s “lack of judicial temperament” and “lack of respect for our democratic institutions and women in positions of power in particular.” At least they’re trying. [Guardian]

* Sedgwick closed up shop sometime around the beginning of 2018, and the failed firm finally got around to filing for bankruptcy, and the court documents read like a Greek Biglaw tragedy. We have have more on this later. [Law360 (sub. req.)]

* Which Biglaw firm has the strongest brand? It’s not the firm with the highest revenue, and it’s not the firm with the largest headcount, but this firm has that certain je ne sais quoi that makes clients love their attorneys. [American Lawyer]

* President Trump asked the FBI to investigate the claims of Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Deborah Ramirez, the first two women to accuse would-be SCOTUS justice Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault and misconduct, leaving out Julie Swetnick’s claims to the chagrin of her lawyer. [Wall Street Journal]

* So, just how limited in scope will the FBI’s new Kavanaugh inquiry be? Trump claims that the bureau has “free rein,” but no one who has contradicted the judge’s claims about his drinking and partying as a high school and college student are going to be interviewed. [New York Times]

* HLS is second best at feeling shame: Following student protests against Kavanaugh teaching at Harvard Law, the elite law school’s dean won’t come out and say whether the accused jurist will still have a job in legal academia come 2019. [HuffPost]

* ICYMI amid the Kavanaugh craziness, a judge ruled that the plaintiffs in Blumenthal v. Trump — the 201 Democratic members of Congress — have standing to sue the president for his alleged violations of the emoluments clause. [National Law Journal]

* That was quick! In the span of just a few days, Elon Musk settled the securities fraud lawsuit filed against him by the SEC, and the deal calls for him to pay a $20 million fine and step down as Tesla’s chairman for the next three years. [New York Times]

* Many believe that today’s Supreme Court is one of the hottest benches in history; Adam Feldman uses data to assess the claim. [Empirical SCOTUS]

* As for who takes the SCOTUS bench, contingency plays a major role — along with credentials and conservatism, as Ian Millhiser explains. [ThinkProgress]

* Most people have their minds made up about Thursday’s Supreme Court confirmation hearings featuring Dr. Christine Blasey Ford and Judge Brett Kavanaugh — but if you’re still trying to process the proceedings, David Oscar Markus offers five simple rules for evaluating the witnesses. [The Hill]

* Ann Althouse has some reflections on Judge Kavanaugh’s emotional testimony and “present-day conservative masculinity.” [Althouse]

* David Bernstein proffers this interesting solution to the Kavanaugh nomination situation — but don’t hold your breath for its implementation. [Volokh Conspiracy / Reason]

* If the road to hell is paved with good intentions, “the EU is busy building a three-lane highway that leads to a particularly dark place,” according to Charles Glasser. [Daily Caller]

* Lawyer Luddites: “AI in the legal space is not scary,” as explained by David Kleiman of Bloomberg Law. [Artificial Lawyer]

* Indeed, as Greg Lambert argues, lawyers — especially “working partners” — need to join the innovation conversation. [3 Geeks and a Law Blog]

* Is anything going on today? [BBC]

* Anything at all? [USA Today]

* Dan Snyder and Cadwalader settle their massive malpractice suit so Snyder can focus full time on his team’s inevitably heartbreaking collapse. [Law360]

* Speaking of Washington’s football franchise, the heiress of its former owner is facing criminal charges for allegedly saying, “hurry up Jew” before beating a lawyer in the head until he bled. Lovely organization Washington’s got there! [Fox News]

* After months of bad press, America’s tech giants are calling for a federal privacy law. Or, more accurately, after California passed a privacy law, America’s tech giants are calling for a neutered federal law to preempt California’s. [Reuters]

* Since Rod Rosenstein might be leaving our public lives as early as today, here’s an in-depth look at one of his most bonkers cases. [Washingtonian]

* DLA Piper adds the former ambassador to Argentina as a special advisor. In other news, David Mamet’s son used to be the ambassador to Argentina? Was anyone else tracking that? UPDATE: OK, I feel vindicated that I hadn’t missed something huge. DLA Piper confirms that he’s not actually David Mamet’s son. I would’ve thought that would have been a bigger deal. [National Law Journal]

* Amazon’s commitment to screwing over its workers and leaving taxpayers to foot the bill runs right up to the NLRA line. But it’s cool since that law won’t survive Kavanaugh’s first year. [Gizmodo]

* Why PwC’s new Fragomen partnership is a big deal. [Law.com]

* The Senate Judiciary Committee has hired an outside counsel who’s an expert in sex crimes prosecution to question Supreme Court nominee Judge Brett Kavanaugh and Dr. Christine Blasey Ford. She’ll be doing the bidding of Republican senators, while Democratic senators will do their own questioning. [CNN]

* That same SJC will vote on Kavanaugh’s SCOTUS nomination the very next day, less than 24 hours after Dr. Ford’s testimony concerning allegations that the judge sexually assaulted her. Everyone must be looking forward to the show hearing even more now. [POLITICO]

* But if Kavanaugh’s nomination somehow gets Borked or withdrawn on or before Friday, you better believe that he could face disciplinary action when he returns to his seat on the D.C. Circuit. A complaint has already been filed, but most are “dismissed fairly promptly.” Let’s see what happens. [Big Law Business]

* Should he stay or should he go now? Sources say Deputy AG Rod Rosenstein has no plans to quit and President Donald Trump’s advisers say he’d be willing to keep the DOJ’s second in command on the job. “The president is genuinely conflicted,” but no one knows if his urge to say “You’re Fired!” will be too great. [Wall Street Journal]

* Say hello to the China 45, a ranking of Chinese law firms with the highest gross revenue, revenue per lawyer, and profits per equity partner for the prior calendar year. When it comes to the firms with the biggest financial footprints, only one “American” Biglaw shop made the cut. Take a wild guess on which one it was. [American Lawyer]