Darren Wilson

A Year After Ferguson Burned

When police do their jobs, the country is safer for everyone.

Morning Docket: 10.09.15

* Bob McCulloch, the prosecutor who handled (mishandled?) the Michael Brown / Darren Wilson case in Ferguson, Missouri, was recently named as "Prosecutor of the Year" by the Missouri Association of Prosecuting Attorneys. This probably wasn't a good idea. [Slate] * American Apparel filed for bankruptcy, and rather than Biglaw firms representing the embattled clothier, they're trying to snatch up fees. Skadden, White & Case, and Paul Hastings are each owed quite the pretty penny. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * Which law school dean was just named as senior counsel at Dentons, the largest law firm in the world? That would be Nicholas Allard of Brooklyn Law School. Perhaps this law dean's academic cash flow wasn't all that it was cracked up to be. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle] * "Unless the industry cleans itself up, we can expect more lawsuits like this in the future." In an interesting turn of events, the marijuana industry is now seeing its first product liability suit. A protip for growers: No one wants to smoke fungicide. [Los Angeles Times] * Just when you thought patent trolls couldn't get any worse, they started to harass members of the fashion industry. Copyright trolls (i.e., Stephen Doniger and Scott Alan Burroughs) are suing over textile prints left and right, and that's so last season. [Fortune]

Morning Docket: 08.25.15

* Baker & McKenzie was dethroned by DLA Piper as the the Biglaw king of gross revenue. The firm is blaming its poor performance -- a 4.3 percent drop -- on "currency fluctuations." Better luck on snatching back glory next year. [Am Law Daily; Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * It's hard out here for a pimp with an allegedly small peen: Terrence Howard's divorce settlement was overturned by a judge after evidence was brought forward to suggest the actor was coerced into signing it. Apparently his ex was blackmailing him over the size of his manhood. [ABC News] * There's a new sheriff judge in town, and he's cleaning up the Ferguson, Missouri, courts. His first order of business was to wipe out all arrest warrants issued before December 31, 2014, in the wake of the Michael Brown police shooting last August. [Reuters] * Dean Philip Weiser of Colorado Law has announced that he'll be stepping down from his position in July 2016. He'll be remembered for keeping costs low and putting asses in seats during a time when it was difficult to do both concurrently. [Denver Business Journal] * “On one level I give them kudos for playing hide the ball." Gibson Dunn is fighting a subpoena issued by defense attorneys for computer metadata related to its Bridgegate report that cleared New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie of all wrongdoing. [Bergen Record]

Berkeley Law Prof Breaks Down The Role Of The Police

Real talk from Berkeley Law prof john a. powell on racism, a year after Ferguson.

Non-Sequiturs: 08.03.15

* Michigan coach Jim Harbaugh likes hanging out with the Supreme Court. Harbaugh characterizes Justice Thomas as very enthusiastic. Seriously. This guy thinks someone else is enthusiastic. [Wall Street Journal Law Blog] * Darren Wilson isn't racist, everybody. I mean, he thinks black people have bad upbringings and prefers to eat out "Where it’s not a mixing pot,” but he really wants you to know he's not racist. [Gawker] * Whatever happened to the SCOTUS clerks of ten years ago? [Excess of Democracy] * How terrifying is Heien v. North Carolina? Cops are now stopping people for air fresheners and using it as a pretext to search the car... and courts are approving it. [The Marshall Project] * A Shearman & Sterling partner arrested in a DWI sweep. [The East Hampton Star] * Do you use LinkedIn Pulse to grow your brand? You probably should. [Law and More] * The true story of a prosecutor who went undercover and strapped on a wire for over 3 years to root out corruption in the judicial system. His new book is titled Operation Greylord (affiliate link). [My Fox Chicago] * Health care discrimination against the mentally ill is illegal. That doesn't mean it doesn't happen. [Vox] * If you missed Lat's events at the ABA meeting over the weekend, here's a recap of one. [American Bar Association]

Non-Sequiturs: 12.16.14

* Law firm suffers Viagra hack. If it persists for more than four hours... [Legal Cheek] * An in-depth and frightening look at "Witness 40" in the Ferguson Grand Jury proceedings: a bipolar woman with a long history of making racist comments who lived nowhere near Ferguson and testified only after Officer Wilson's story was revealed -- which she parroted back. Bob McCulloch thought this was a stellar witness. Bob McCulloch is also bad at his job. [The Smoking Gun] * Charleston local government wants InfiLaw out of town. Is there anyone left who wants InfiLaw to take over Charleston? [TaxProf Blog] * Congratulations to U.S. Attorney Sarah Saldaña on her confirmation as head of ICE. [International Business Times] * Pet piercing will soon be illegal in New York, so get that dope nose ring for your dog today! [Lowering the Bar] * Canadian "band" Skinny Puppy demands $660,000 from the U.S. government for using their music as torture material without permission. As a compromise can we just pledge to strap Dick Cheney down and force him to listen to 15 consecutive hours of Skinny Puppy and call it a day? [Gawker] * Cleveland WR Andrew Hawkins pens a thorough, even-handed takedown of butthurt police union leaders demanding he apologize for taking the stance that police should try not to kill unarmed 12-year-olds. So apparently this is what the Browns are good at. [Talking Points Memo] * David chats about the backstory behind Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link).

Morning Docket: 12.03.14

* Everyone's "BFF" Anthony Elonis, of the Elonis v. U.S. case that's currently before the Supreme Court, is facing additional scrutiny over a snarky note he sent to an ADA last year about burning a cross on the prosecutor's lawn. Wow, he sounds like really a "fun" guy. [WSJ Law Blog] * I was gonna go to class, but then I got high: DU Law is teaching a class about how to sell lots and lots of weed. Just kidding. According to the professor, the class is actually about the legal issues that come up when selling lots and lots of weed. [Cannabist] * The HRC's 2015 Corporate Equality Index is out, and noticeably absent from the list of Biglaw honorees is Boies Schiller. We suppose the firm forgot one of its name partners is helping to overturn gay-marriage bans across the country. [Am Law Daily] * The University of Iowa College of Law is asking -- nay, begging -- the Supreme Court to block a retrial of Teresa Wagner's claims of political bias discrimination. This is just one of the things law schools will do to keep their faculties liberal. [Associated Press] * From Yale to Wayne State, law students are getting involved in protests to spread the word about social injustice in Ferguson in the wake of Michael Brown's death. If you have a problem with this, someone from NYU might too. [National Law Journal] * Winter break is the perfect time for undergraduate students to start working on their law school applications, but we're more than willing to bet the future gunners out there have already sent all of theirs in. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

Law School Dean Suggests Black People Lack ‘Reason’ And Other Delightful Post-Ferguson Talk

And just for good measure, an NYU law student composes a "parody" of the situation and it goes about as well as you'd expect.

Morning Docket: 12.01.14

* Some think SCOTUS should be the biggest issue of Election 2016. Why? Because most of the justices are old as hell, and they'll only be older, more decrepit -- and potentially more likely to retire -- before or come voting time. [Washington Post] * Deans from "middle-ranked" schools continue to question the results of the July 2014 bar examination. Sure, recent grads were part of the law school brain drain, but there's no way they were "less able" than their older (and wiser) classmates. [WSJ Law Blog] * Darren Wilson resigned this weekend, but it wasn't because he killed an unarmed teenager in August. Wilson's lawyer says his client quit because other Ferguson officers could've been harmed if Wilson remained on the police force. [Reuters] * There's only one thing that's worse than a gunner, and that's a septuagenarian gunner. At 73 years old, Jim Edwards is the oldest student at the Nashville School of Law, and he "view[s] what [he's] doing as a calling from God." Aww. [USA Today] * This recent law school graduate may not have a job, but she figured out a creative way to make a small dent in her debt. She makes custom string art and sells it on Etsy. We're willing to bet Texas Tech Law counts her as employed. [Dallas Morning News]

Non-Sequiturs: 11.26.14

Ed. note: Above the Law will be dark on Thanksgiving and on a reduced publishing schedule on Friday, November 28, while we recover from turkey-induced comas. * Holy backfire Batman! Florida desperately wanted to display a nativity scene in the State Capitol because it's more important than making real laws. Now they're probably going to be forced to display a scene from the Satanic Temple. [Slate] * Researchers assert that college prestige has no bearing on the quality of the teaching. Would this carry over to law schools? [TaxProf Blog] * The National Bar Association, representing predominantly African-American attorneys and judges, has issued a response to the grand jury's decision in the Michael Brown shooting. [The National Bar Association] * Speaking of Ferguson, apparently the investigator listed Darren Wilson as the "victim." If you needed any more evidence of the power of semantics. [Lowering the Bar] * The CATO Institute talks about the First Amendment and One, Inc. v. Olesen. It's an hour-and-a-half panel discussion. Pretty impressive for a 24-word (plus one citation) decision. [C-SPAN] * Is it a lie? Well, that depends on what your definition of "lie" is? [Dorf on Law] * Are over the knee boots appropriate office attire? [Corporette] * 8 women who left the law to follow their passions. [One 400] * Yesterday, we suggested you should write more thank you notes. Well, here are some reasons why you shouldn't. [The Muse ]

The View From Up North: Tragedy In Ferguson, Missouri

On a day-to-day basis the American racial divide is still a canyon, broad and deep. How can we fix it?

Morning Docket: 11.26.14

* Indiana Tech Law has yet another new dean after a little more than a year of operations -- he currently serves as a dean at the second-best law school in the nation, Cooley Law. [Journal Gazette] * A Pennsylvania lawyer allegedly had sex with a 14-year-old girl in his office, and prosecutors have already reserved a "special place in hell" for him, and possibly a jail cell. [Philadelphia Inquirer] * "We feel like we’ve been left hanging in a really stressful time.” While Bingham McCutchen partners and top staffers made moves, less senior staffers were left crying and without a clue. :( [Am Law Daily] * Since a grand jury failed to indict Darren Wilson in Michael Brown's death, people are counting on the DOJ to come through for them. "I just don’t think Ferguson has a leg to stand on," says one negative nancy law professor. [National Law Journal] * After being down in the dumps for a while due to the recession, according to Citi Private Bank Law Firm Group, law firm leaders are feeling more confident and optimistic about the economy -- as one can see from these bonuses. [WSJ Law Blog]

Non-Sequiturs: 11.25.14

* Grand juries rarely let someone go without an indictment unless it's a cop. Apparently pigs do not make for ham sandwiches. Instead of wishing for another rubber stamp indictment, this may be a good time to demand that everyone benefit from such skeptical grand juries. [FiveThirtyEight] * Well that's an interesting name... [Legal Juice] * Have you written a thank you note lately? Probably not. But you should. [What About Clients?] * Professor Ilya Somin reviews Lat's Supreme Ambitions (affiliate link) and talks about the importance of blogs. We agree with him. [The Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * Maybe you should ditch that temp legal job and go into PR? [Law and More] * Kinney Recruiting expands its operations to Chicago. [Kinney Recruiting]

A Mock Cross-Examination Of Darren Wilson’s Testimony

Somebody needed to cross-examine Darren Wilson's testimony. I do what I can.

Eyewitness Testimony Sucks, Says Ferguson Prosecutor

Eyewitnesses in the Michael Brown case told too many different stories for a true bill.