cryptocurrency

The IRS isn’t the only government agency to warn people about 'pig-butchering' scams.

* The collapse of crypto is paying off for lawyers. [NY Times]

* Federal Circuit moves to dismiss Judge Pauline Newman’s lawsuit challenging the court deciding to kick her off panels arguing that no court can question their internal affairs. Sounds like the Federal Circuit is taking a lot of lessons from the Supreme Court. [Reuters]

* A primer for Ken Paxton’s impeachment trial. [Law360]

* All-white federal district courts still exist. Because people like this still exist. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Dechert facing sanctions over dragging out discovery. [American Lawyer]

* NY begins cracking down on Airbnb. [NY Daily News]

* Google doesn’t think much of the government’s antitrust action. It might want to try a quick Bing search on antitrust law. [Reuters]

* Asking ChatGPT to write a poem about being a law student. [LegalCheek]

* Insiders may find it a little sketchy, but Goodwin coupling layoffs with a big lateral hire may be the norm in a market where the “recession” is only hitting specific groups. [Law.com]

* A deep dive into Sullivan & Cromwell’s cryptoexchange adventure. [Financial Times]

* Elon Musk testifies that publicly stating that he had “funding secured” when he had not, so much, “secured” any “funding” was “the right thing to do.” Juries appreciate a complete lack of remorse! [Law360]

Faith is what gives cryptocurrency its value, and a lot more people are going to be losing their religion after FTX's rapid, high-profile implosion.

Whether you’re a lawyer who’s looking to stay ahead of the curve or you’re simply curious about this new technology, there are many reasons to learn about blockchain.

We should not expect corporate America, even those with a 'green' ethos, to manage their addiction to speculative finance.

* Attorneys in DC can now accept cryptocurrency as a form of payment. As detailed in yesterday’s Morning Docket, accepting cocaine as a form of payment is still off limits… [Bloomberg Law]

* Florida’s governor recently signed a new law requiring parental consent for abortions. [New York Daily News]

* OAN has lost a defamation lawsuit against Rachel Maddow, and now they may have to pay the legal fees for her high-priced Biglaw attorneys. [San Diego Times]

* A Baltimore family is suing a local restaurant for refusing service to them based on how they were dressed. [TMZ]

* A judge has dismissed a New York lawyer’s defamation lawsuit against someone who called him an “ambulance chaser” online. This attorney should brush up on his First Amendment law. [Westfair Communications]

* A teenager dubbed “Baby Al Capone” is being accused in a lawsuit of stealing tens of millions of dollars in cryptocurrency. Geraldo Rivera should see what’s in this kid’s vault… [New York Post]

* A lawsuit about a teacher being fired because students had access to a topless photo of her has been allowed to proceed. [Newsday]

* A class action against grill manufacturer Traeger went up in smoke because a class has not yet been certified in the matter. [Salt Lake Tribune]

* A New Jersey judge who suggested that a woman could “close your legs” in order to prevent a sexual assault has been removed from the bench. [Newsweek]

* The United States Attorney for the Eastern District of Texas resigned yesterday without an explanation for where he was going. [ABC News]

* Check out this podcast about whether you can be replaced by a robot lawyer. Hope the machine overlords don’t replace me as the Morning Docket writer. [ABA Journal]

* Chuck Grassley asking Justice Department to launch a criminal inquiry into Michael Avenatti and his client. So now Grassley cares about investigations. [Law360]

* Does Megyn Kelly have a prayer in her looming battle with NBC? Personally, I don’t think they should fire her — they should make her sit in her office and do nothing for 40 hours a week like they did with Ann Curry. Curry did nothing to deserve that — Kelly on the other hand…. [Law and Crime]

* NYAG suit over Trump Foundation breaching charity rules during the campaign looks like it’s got legs. [Courthouse News Service]

* Justice Kagan doesn’t completely blow off the idea of 18-year terms for the Court, which is something. [National Law Journal]

* Georgia seeks an emergency stay of the temporary restraining order barring the state from disenfranchising absentee voters because injustice delayed is injustice denied. [Daily Report Online]

* Lawyer couple disciplined for talking to each other. [Law.com]

* Japan’s letting the cryptocurrency industry police itself. This will end well. [MIT Technology Review]

These nine takeaways are important action items for those both seeking clarity, and those in positions to provide it.

His wife was also arrested for child endangerment.

* Former New Jersey Governor Chris Christie is a little worried about President Trump’s flair for hyperbole, saying that Trump should never “walk into that room with” special counsel Robert Mueller, because when you make “false statements to federal agents, that’s a crime, that can send you to jail.” [The Hill]

* This is not an April Fools’ joke. On April 1, Foley & Lardner finalized its Tex-Mex merger with Gardere Wynne Sewell. We repeat, this is not an April Fools’ joke. Foley will maintain its headquarters in Milwaukee Wisconsin. Best of luck to the combined firm! [Texas Lawyer]

* Long Island Judge Robert Cicale was arrested after allegedly breaking into a former intern’s house to steal a pair of her panties. At his arraignment, he admitted that he’d done it before, and in his confession, he said “he has urges to steal women’s underwear.” We’ll have more on the alleged panty thief later. [NBC New York]

* According to a new report by Fairfax Associates, law firm mergers are set to meet (or perhaps beat) 2017’s record. Twenty tie-ups have been completed in 2018 thus far, with another 13 announced mergers set to close later this year. [American Lawyer]

* New York firm Morrison Cohen recently launched the “MoCo cryptocurrency litigation tracker,” a tool investors can use to monitor when doing due diligence on crypto assets. There are currently 63 cases in the U.S., and some of the industry’s biggest players have been named as defendants. [Brave New Coin]

* This weekend, Sheppard Mullin — and Lankler Siffert & Wohl for that matter — will be pulling for Abacus: Small Enough To Jail, the stellar documentary about the only bank prosecuted for the housing crisis that starred the lawyers who represented Abacus and its family owners. [New York Law Journal]

* In the first year of its merger, Arnold & Porter Kaye Scholer earned 1 percent over its legacy firm totals. Firm chairman Richard Alexander describes the firm as “generally… pleased.” But not pleased enough to keep Kaye Scholer on its branding. [National Law Journal]

* Robert Schulman is hoping the Second Circuit can get him out of his drunken insider trading conviction. [Law360]

* Texas Wesleyan is looking for a new baseball coach after firing the last one for rejecting a Colorado recruit and telling the kid the school wouldn’t recruit from states with legal weed. [VICE News]

* Now we have sovereign cryptocurrency which kind of defeats the whole point, but whatever. [Bitcoinist]

* Your daily reminder that white supremacists are bad people. [ABA Journal]

* Speaking of white supremacists, FSU Law students have started to notice that their main academic building is a tribute to a segregationist and that maybe that’s a bad thing. [Tallahassee Democrat]

* The Supreme Court heard argument in Janus yesterday and, well, labor rights were fun while they lasted! [National Law Journal]

* Marvin Washington’s pot decriminalization suit dismissed, continuing the Jets losing streak. [Law360]

* The explosion of Emoji keyboards presents a problem for eDiscovery. So bust out those Rick & Morty stickers if you want to keep your insider trading habits from prying eyes. [Legaltech News]

* How does a receiver deal with Bitcoin? How can currency with no “home” be seized? A Jones Day partner is figuring that out. [The Recorder]

* Supreme Court debates whether or not Amex can prevent merchants from offering incentives to keep people from using their Amex card. So if it gets more difficult to use your corporate card, blame the justices. [Courthouse News Service]

* The head of legal relationship management for Barclays discusses the bank’s model for dealing with outside counsel. [Big Law Business]

The marijuana Bitcoin ban may eventually extend to the U.S. marijuana industry at-large.