Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 04.06.17

Is this Supreme Court nominee a plagiarist? * SCOTUS nominee Judge Neil Gorsuch has been accused of plagiarizing borrowing language and sentence style from other authors and incorporating it into a book and a law journal article without proper citation. On the bright side, at least one of the authors whose language he copied doesn't seem to have a problem with it. [POLITICO] * As it turns out, Chadbourne & Parke isn't too keen on having a partner who filed a $100 million gender discrimination suit against the firm still working there. A spokesperson for Chadbourne says that the partners will convene to vote Kerrie Campbell out of the partnership. We'll likely have more on this later today. [Am Law Daily] * According to Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group, the leaders of some of America's largest law firms had the wrong idea about how 2016 would turn out. Legal demand went down, not up as hoped for; realization rates did not improve, as expected; and revenue at many firms dropped, instead of increasing. Ouch. [Big Law Business] * Professor Verna Williams will serve as the special assistant to the provost (i.e., interim dean) of the University of Cincinnati College of Law while Dean Jennifer Bard is on administrative leave. Williams was one of the UC professors who opposed Bard's leadership, once referring to the situation as "untenable." [Cincinnati Enquirer] * Speaking of Dean Bard, she has obtained legal representation and claims that her removal from her position was improper. Per her attorney, "[t]he interim provost placed Dean Bard on administrative leave without the slightest factual basis for doing so," and the law faculty were unwilling to put students' needs ahead of their own. [Law.com]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.12.16

* Riding high after his victory in New Hampshire, Donald Trump settled his $500 million lawsuit against Univision for the network dropping his beauty pageants. Ay dios mio, this must be some sort of a YUGE GRANDE ploy to win the Hispanic vote. [USA Today] * Dickstein Shapiro lawyers must be feeling pretty good about themselves right now. Their mass lateral move to Blank Rome isn't a merger, it's an "asset acquisition." You see that? You're all "assets"! Remember that next time a partner makes you cry. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * The ABA is considering toughening bar passage requirements for law school accreditation. Under the plan, schools would have to prove that 75 percent of graduates who took an exam within two years of graduation passed. Good luck! [ABA Journal] * Uh-oh! Are partners at large law firms getting screwed? Biglaw firms are asking for bigger capital contributions (30-35 percent of earnings on average), and holding on to that money for longer periods of time when those partners leave. [Am Law Daily] * Minnesota Law has been hit pretty hard by the law school crisis, with losses expected to hit $16.1 million by 2018. When the school's soon-to-be ex-Dean first started in 2008, "everything was good," but now, it's a huge sh*tshow. [Twin Cities Pioneer Press]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 08.14.15

* Judge Lance Mason, who was suspended from his duties earlier this year, recently pleaded guilty to charges related to a brutal attack made on his wife. He'll be sentenced in September, and faces up to 36 months in prison. [Northeast Ohio Media Group] * No one will be getting lucky in Kentucky under this clerk's watch: Two months after SCOTUS declared a constitutional right to same-sex marriage, this state court clerk is still turning away gay couples and refusing to issue marriage licenses. [New York Times] * Per the latest report from Citi Private Bank’s Law Firm Group, even though this year started out well, the bank is revising its financial performance forecast, and not in a good way. Hopefully firms will be able to weather the latest monetary storm. [Am Law Daily] * Starting in mid-October, lawyers and law firms will be able to purchase .law domain names. A few influential law firms -- DLA Piper, Skadden Arps, and SCOTUSblog-affiliated Russell & Goldstein -- have gotten first dibs on them. Congrats! [WSJ Law Blog] * Law librarians at large and medium-sized firms feel underutilized and underpaid, and that's unfortunate, because like Liam Neeson in Taken, they've got a very particular set of skills, skills they've acquired over a very long career. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg BNA]

By Staci Zaretsky