Claud “Tex” McIver

Biglaw Partner’s Conviction For Murdering His Wife Overturned By State Supreme Court

It's not yet clear if he'll be retried.

Morning Docket: 07.11.18

* "We never once saw him take a shortcut, treat a case as unimportant, or search for an easy answer." According to 34 of Judge Brett Kavanaugh's former clerks, the man is apparently not just a judge, but also a saint, and they wanted the Senate Judiciary Committee to know all of the details. [National Law Journal] * Nice guys get confirmed fast? More on Judge Kavanaugh's sainthood. The man coaches not one, but two girls' basketball teams, he's a superb "carpool dad," and he takes a family friend's daughter whose father died to the school’s annual father-daughter dance each and every year. He's just so nice! [Washington Post] * Damn, it's not just Arizona Summit's graduates who can't practice law in Arizona. Three lawyers from Kirkland & Ellis -- including Paul Clement, Viet Dinh, and Christopher Bartolomucci -- were booted from the school's case against the ABA for failing to comply with out-of-state attorney admission procedures. [Law360] * Acording to the Boston Larger Law Firm Managing Partner Group, "much work needs to be done" when it comes to attorneys who have experienced inappropriate sexual behavior at work. Per a recent study, 60 percent of respondents had either received messages of a personal or sexual nature, been touched inappropriately, or witnessed a coworker being touched inappropriately. [Boston Business Journal] * Lawyerly Lairs: Convicted Murderer Edition. The 80-acre ranch of Claud "Tex" McIver, the former Fisher Phillips partner who shot his wife in the back, is now on the auction block, and there's a dispute over who will receive the proceeds. [Daily Report]

Morning Docket: 05.24.18

* For Tex McIver, love means never having to say you're sorry... for shooting your wife in the back. [Daily Report Online] * Vivia Chen wonders if my personal trolling that finally convinced Aaron Schlossberg to release a statement distancing himself from his racist tirade. The answer is yes. [American Lawyer] * Michael Avenatti got some bad news in court the other day when a judge ordered his firm to pay $10 million to a lawyer who used to work with them and alleged the firm shorted him on his share of the profits. [NY Post] * Ben Brafman's working overtime to convince federal prosecutors to stay out of the Harvey Weinstein matter. If successful, Brafman would just have to tell Cy Vance that Weinstein is rich and that should shut down the whole inquiry. [New York Law Journal] * Trump's continued attacks on federal law enforcement are... bad. Thankfully, trickster god Rod Rosenstein has a plan. [Atlantic] * The appeals court upheld the ruling striking down California's assisted suicide law. That's probably the right result in this case. [NPR] * AI is changing the legal sector. Especially when you realize that AI isn't what its hype men were selling a couple years ago. [Forbes] * MSU has a new lawyer and he'll have his hands full. [Corporate Counsel]

Biglaw Partner Guilty In Wife’s Shooting Death

The Biglaw partner found guilty on all but the most serious charge.

Morning Docket: 04.19.18

* The proposed cap on federal student loans for graduate students will make life a lot rougher for law students who will have to resort to the more expensive private market for tuition bucks. On the other hand, it could devastate the bottom-tier schools who rely on the government gravy train to bilk students into buying a degree they can't use. So it's not all bad news. [Law.com] * When it comes to appointing a Special Master, the government and Michael Cohen have wildly different preferences. The government would like a retired Magistrate, someone well-versed in making tough calls in discovery disputes. Cohen's camp would prefer a former prosecutor, which you should read as "someone who currently represents criminals and has a vested interest in defining privilege broadly." Trump's lawyers haven't submitted a list of preferred candidates but we can go ahead and pencil in Jeanine Pirro, Andrew Napolitano, and Judge Judy. [New York Law Journal] * While we're talking about Cohen, he just dropped his libel suits against Buzzfeed and Fusion GPS over the Steele dossier. So there's definitely a pee tape. [Politico] * Oh, and documents suggest he owes $110K in taxes. [Law360] * Meanwhile, New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman has asked state lawmakers to eliminate a state law that prevents state prosecutions of individuals who have already reached the plea or a jury is sworn in a federal case. Or, more to the point, when someone in that situation is pardoned. [NY Times] * There are hints that the jury may acquit Tex McIver of the most serious charges related to his wife's shooting death. As a reminder, McIver shot her in the back while she rode in the front seat of their car when his gun, which he says he had loaded and ready because he was worried about Black Lives Matter, went off when the car hit a speedbump. [Daily Report Online] * If you notice some new changes to your Facebook privacy protections, you might think that's a response to Zuck's recent congressional testimony. But actually, it's just Facebook playing shell company roulette to make sure you're not covered by GDPR. [Reuters] * The organizer of the Charlottesville "Very Fine People On Both Sides" rally popped into the UVA Law library yesterday. Vigilant students kept an eye on him. [Cavalier Daily] * We'd also be remiss if we didn't express our sadness over the loss of Judge Harry T. Stone. Harry Anderson's portrayal of the free-wheeling but fair judge contributed to making Night Court one of the greatest, and most honest, courtroom television shows of all time. [CNN]

Morning Docket: 04.12.18

* A sneak peek at Am Law 200 reports. [American Lawyer] * Two lesser charges against Tex McIver shot down. [USNWR] * The Waffle House sextortion case ends in acquittal. Defendants celebrate at IHOP. [Daily Report Online] * Four Thomas clerks are behind the new "HAWA" legal challenge to make Harvard All White Again. [National Law Journal] * A quick look at Robert Khuzami, the former SEC Enforcement honcho who most likely fulfilled the SDNY USAO's role in ordering the Cohen raid. [Courthouse News Service] * JP Morgan decided to join the cryptocurrency revolution by declaring that customer purchases of cryptocurrencies were really "cash advances" instead of regular transactions... a move that allowed them to charge higher fees. Now cryptoheads are suing. Look, you can't have it both ways. [Law360]

Morning Docket: 03.07.18

* Stormy Daniels, the porn actress who was paid six figures in exchange for not spilling the beans about her affair with Donald Trump, is now suing him, claiming that the "hush agreement" she entered into prior to the election is invalid because he never signed it. [Washington Post] * File this under Not Top Ten: Former ESPN legal analyst and sports anchor Adrienne Lawrence, a onetime associate of Greenberg Traurig, Arent Fox, and McGuireWoods, has filed a sexual harassment suit against the sports network, claiming that SportsCenter anchor John Buccigross constantly harassed her. [American Lawyer] * Not only will the government be able to seize more than $7.3 million of disgraced pharma bro Martin Shkreli's assets -- including his one-of-a-kind Wu-Tang Clan album -- but prosecutors want to throw him behind bars for no less than 15 years. [New York Law Journal] * Attorney General Jeff Sessions will announce today that the Justice Department will be filing suit against California over its "sanctuary state" laws. As alleged in the complaint, the Golden State's laws -- AB 450, SB 54, and AB 103 -- were all created to impede immigration laws. [USA Today] * "When I heard the gun went off accidentally, that just didn’t ring true. Someone has to pull the trigger. They just don’t accidentally discharge." Prospective jurors in former Biglaw partner Claud "Tex" McIver's murder trial weren't exactly buying his defense. [Atlanta Journal-Constitution] * Forget about the egregious law school tuition you'll have to pay in the future, because it can cost quite the pretty penny to apply to law school in the first place. You may want to look into fee waivers so you can save yourself some cash. [U.S. News] * Billy McFarland, the millennial entrepreneur who organized the disastrous Fyre Festival, has taken a plea deal after defrauding the investors who bought into the failed event. He's looking at sentence of eight to 10 years in prison. [Big Law Business]

Morning Docket: 03.05.18

* No donation is too small, and no donor is too young: Former Senate candidate and former judge Roy Moore is begging his supporters via Facebook for cash for his legal defense fund because his "resources have been depleted" and he's "struggled to make ends meet." [Washington Post] * The Trump administration wants to stop federal judges from issuing nationwide injunctions, and the Justice Department is using the travel ban case to ask the Supreme Court to "reject the deeply misguided practice." Will SCOTUS put these "so-called judges" in their place? [Associated Press] * Remember Claud "Tex" McIver, the Biglaw partner who shot his wife in the back and killed her, allegedly blamed the incident on a Black Lives Matter protest? Jury selection for his murder trial begins today. [Daily Report Online] * No, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg isn't advising LeadInvest, a company promoting cryptocurrency investments in Texas, and neither are former U.S. Solicitors General Theodore Olson, Seth Waxman, and Paul Clement. The Texas State Securities Board sent a cease-and-desist letter demanding that the company remove photos of the justice and the lawyers from its site. [National Law Journal] * And the Oscar for Best Lawyer goes to... John Quinn of Quinn Emanuel has served as outside counsel to the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences since 1986, and he attends every show with the ABC contract in his pocket in case a legal issue pops up. [Corporate Counsel] * Is it time to bring back the lists and rankings commemorating the "hotties of law"? Vivia Chen has a hot take, and thinks that in this puritanical era, it's high time that we stop pretending lawyers are asexual. So long as both men and women are included on the lists, what's the harm? Right now, a lot. [American Lawyer]

Lawyer Who Killed His Wife Allegedly Attempting To Improperly Influence The Case

Maybe don't be trying to do favors for witnesses from your jail cell.

Morning Docket: 12.23.16

* Claud "Tex" McIver, the Fisher & Phillips partner who accidentally shot and killed his wife and allegedly blamed the incident on a local Black Lives Matter protest, has been charged with involuntary manslaughter (a felony) and reckless conduct (a misdemeanor). McIver will now be retiring from the firm at the end of the year, instead of in 2017 as originally planned. [Big Law Business] * "We keep being told that the administration was so surprised. Then you read what the government released. How can you possibly have been surprised?" Students at Charlotte Law are incredibly angry that the school was dropped from the federal loan program, and many feel like they were duped by the administration. Some students have even contacted local law firms to discuss filing suit against the school. [Charlotte Observer] * "Your father is ruining the country. Why is she on our flight? She should be flying private." The unruly passenger who allegedly accosted future first daughter Ivanka Trump on a JetBlue flight to Florida yesterday is -- you guessed it -- a lawyer. Daniel J. Goldstein, a graduate of UCLA Law, once worked as a labor relations specialist at the U.S. Mint before moving to Brooklyn. His current place of work is unknown. [Forward] * According to the results of an investigation by a law firm hired by the University of Oregon, law professor Nancy Shurtz committed "discriminatory harassment" by wearing a blackface costume on Halloween, in violation of the school's anti-discrimination policies. The report does not indicate if Professor Shurtz was punished, but she is no longer on paid leave and is not scheduled to teach this spring. [The Oregonian] * Michelle K. Lee, the outgoing director of the Patent and Trademark Office, says the "interactions that we have been having [with the president-elect's transition team] are very positive," and that although Donald Trump's relationship with the denizens of Silicon Valley has at times been rocky, she thinks "any administration would have a strong and robust intellectual property system as a priority." [WSJ Law Blog] * Alec Baldwin will be playing controversial Brooklyn prosecutor Michael Vecchione in a new TV series in development that was adapted from the lawyer’s 2015 book, Crooked Brooklyn (affiliate link). Not to worry, because we're sure that the actor will still be able to find the time during his shooting schedule to impersonate and infuriate President-elect Trump with his portrayals on Saturday Night Live. [Page Six / New York Post]

Biglaw Partner Killed His Wife, Allegedly Because Of ‘Black Lives Matter’

Lawyer shoots his wife. His own irrational fears to blame?

Morning Docket: 10.04.16

* "[G]reed is not a component of the law of fiduciary duty anywhere." Donald Trump's campaign may have claimed he has "a fiduciary responsibility to his business, his family and his employees to pay no more tax than legally required," but legal experts found that assertion pretty laughable, seeing as there's no such thing as a fiduciary duty to oneself. [DealBook / New York Times] * An attorney who serves as an advisor to the ABA's Standing Committee on Gun Violence says he accidentally shot and killed his wife when his gun went off after hitting a speed bump. He claims he had the gun out because they were in an area where Black Lives Matter protests had been held and was afraid they were about to be carjacked. [People] * For the first time since the days of Abraham Lincoln, the Supreme Court opened its new term with a vacancy on the bench certain to be filled in the upcoming presidential election. Without the late Justice Antonin Scalia's voice, the Court is left split along ideological lines, with four conservative justices and four liberal justices. [Reuters] * According to Chief Justice John Roberts, "judges are not politicians, even when they come to the bench by way of the ballot," but that doesn't mean elected judges behave as judicially as they're expected to when retention elections are near. In fact, "[a]ll judges, even the most punitive, increase their sentences as re-election nears." [New York Times] * The EEOC has filed a suit against Denver Law, alleging that female full-time professors are paid less than their male counterparts. Nine female professors work at the school full-time, and on average, they're paid about $20K less than full-time male professors. Denver Law says it stands by its "system of evaluation and merit pay." [Denver Post]