Daily Fantasy Sports

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 06.20.17

* Martin Shkreli's attorney is frantically trying to undo the damage his client caused on social media. Shkreli is looking to get his bail reduced because of financial hardship... and offering big rewards on social media. For his part, attorney Benjamin Brafman is arguing that the judge just shouldn't believe Shkreli's social media claims. I guess this is the "seriously not literally" thing we've heard so much about. [Law360] * With the addition of yet another attorney, this time Elizabeth Prelogar -- a former Miss Idaho actually -- Robert Mueller's investigation of Donald Trump is now officially a Biglaw firm. [National Law Journal] * Are firms giving clients a good deal... or just a better deal than the inflated prices they advertise? [Corporate Counsel] * More professors join the gender discrimination suit against Denver Law School. [Law.com] * Norton Rose Fulbright tries to get its mind of the troubled Chadbourne merger... by executing another merger. [Legal Week] * On that note, should Biglaw generally step back and question the wisdom of mergers? [Am Law Daily] * What are you willing to wager that the FTC blocks the daily fantasy sports merger? [Litigation Daily]

By Joe Patrice
Non-Sequiturs

Non-Sequiturs: 08.03.16

* What, exactly, did it take for Donald Trump to evade avoid the draft? [PrawfsBlawg] * The Supreme Court just temporarily blocked a court order allowing a transgender teen to use the bathroom according to their identity. [CNN] * Just in time for your $180K scale... Eric Schneiderman loses a talking point, and New Yorkers can all go back to making a killing at DraftKings. [Associated Press] * FBI arrests DC law enforcement officer for helping ISIS. If he was as good a terrorist as DC is at policing, then maybe we should have left him out there. [ABC News] * The battle over tougher bar passage standards rages on. [WSJ Law Blog] * And the Tim Kaine love letter about law school. [ABA Journal] * A good website really is key to a thriving, modern law practice. [Reboot Your Law Practice] * The ten-year anniversary of the tragic murder of Robert Wone. [Who Killed Robert Wone?]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.22.16

* WHATCHA GONNA DO, BROTHER, WHEN THIS JURY'S PUNITIVE DAMAGES AWARD RUNS WILD ON YOU?!? Gawker was hit with an additional $25M in punitive damages yesterday in Hulk Hogan's sex-tape lawsuit, on top of the $115M award the jury had already slapped the media company with last week. That loud typing sound you hear is the appeals being furiously written. [Reuters] * They were gonna grant you leave to file, but then they got high? The Supreme Court has puff, puff, passed on the opportunity to hear a challenge posed by Nebraska and Oklahoma to Colorado's legalization of marijuana. Justices Thomas and Alito dissented, contending that the case fell within the Supreme Court's original jurisdiction. [NPR] * This took longer than the iOS 9 download: Hot on the heels of the announcement of new Apple products, we got the news that the tech giant and its rival, Samsung, will face off next term before SCOTUS in a patent case that's been going on since the iPhone 4 was still considered the latest and greatest in smartphone technology. [WSJ Law Blog] * "Once you start seeing leading law firms offering this, it's going to become more prevalent and pretty rapidly, because it's going to be required to compete." Lawyers with law school debt will probably jump at the chance for their firms to pitch in to repay their loans, but don't forget, all of that assistance will be taxable as income. [U.S. News] * "My job is to enforce the law, and starting today, DraftKings and FanDuel will abide by it." In a settlement reached with New York AG Eric Schneiderman, the sports betting daily fantasy sites will cease operations in the state, and in exchange, the AG will hold off on additional litigation that could force them to pay restitution to their losers. [ESPN]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 11.16.15

* DraftKings and FanDuel aren't going to take a knee and allow New York Attorney General Eric Schneiderman to rip away their gamblers clients. Both daily fantasy sites have refused to stop conducting business in New York, and have instead filed suit against Schneiderman with some hefty Biglaw backing. [WSJ Law Blog] * During a recent speaking engagement at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, Justice Antonin Scalia explained why he writes such scathingly quotable dissents: "I’m writing dissents mainly for you guys—for law students. I know it will be in the casebooks." [University of St. Thomas NewsRoom] * SCOTUS granted cert in a challenge to Texas abortion laws, and some wonder how this decision will affect other states' laws. If the justices don't think these restrictions represent an undue burden, then women may as well hang up their ovaries and go home. [Reuters] * We'll have to rely on old faithful, Justice RBG, to raise the torch for women. She recently sat down for tea with Gloria Steinem to discuss women's rights. "Ruth is better at getting along with people with whom we profoundly disagree," says Steinem. [New York Times] * The "least sexy" part of a merger? If you want to know what took the Dentons / Dacheng merger so long to be formalized, Dentons CEO Elliott Portnoy says it had to do with website, logo, communications, and marketing issues. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.08.15

* Remember the judge who challenged a public defender to a fistfight in court? He was suspended by the Florida Supreme Court, and has 20 days to explain why he should keep his job. With all due respect, your great right hook isn't a good enough reason, Your Honor. [Florida Today] * Screw the historic SCOTUS decision, because this Alabama probate judge really doesn't want to issue same-sex marriage licenses. In fact, he doesn't think any judges in the state should have to do so. He wants the federal government to issue them instead. [AL.com] * In the wake of the latest daily fantasy sports scandal involving DraftKings, FanDuel has hired the kind of legal representation that you'd want on your team for a Hail Mary play. Hut! Hut! Hike! Time to suit up, Debevoise and Kirkland. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * The University of Chicago Law School has a new dean. We'd like to wish a warm welcome to Thomas Miles, a "rookie dean" who likely has enough prestige points under his belt to lead one of the best law schools in the nation with great ease. [Crain's Chicago Business] * Today is the 25th Annual National Depression Screening Day, so if you're a lawyer or a law student who's feeling anxious or depressed, please feel free to take an anonymous online screening quiz. There are people and programs who can help you. [Am Law Daily]

By Staci Zaretsky