George Clooney

Plus Amal Clooney throws shade at Skadden.

* Impending constitutional crisis alert: President Trump is opposed to his White House aides — especially former White House Counsel, “real lawyer” Don McGahn — testifying before Congress because they already cooperated with special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation. [Washington Post]

* Meanwhile, fake lawyer Michael Cohen, who served as legal counsel to Trump for about decade, will soon report to his Federal Correctional Institution – Otisville, which has been referred to as a “castle behind bars.” At least he’ll get to hang out with The Situation. [Daily Beast]

* Bill Cosby is suing Quinn Emanuel over its “unconscionable fees,” claiming that the firm overstaffed his case to the tune of $8.55 million over the course of nine months. Maybe stop checking you emails so much? [American Lawyer]

* George and Amal Clooney will be on campus at Columbia Law tomorrow for the official launch of TrialWatch, an initiative that will monitor trials acros the globe to protect human rights and eventually create a global justice index. [Law.com]

* Another happy ending for Robert Kraft (for the time being): Prosecutors have been blocked from releasing footage that allegedly shows the New England Patriots owner receiving sexual favors in a massage parlor. [Reuters]

* On the next episode of “Empire,” Olabinjo and Abimbola Osundairo, the brothers who helped stage a racist and homophobic attack against Jussie Smollett, will file a defamation lawsuit against the actor’s attorneys. [Big Law Business]

* Cooley Law has a new president and dean following the departure of Don LeDuc. James McGrath will join the school from Texas A&M Law, where he serves as associate dean of academic support and bar services. Good luck! [WMU Cooley Law]

A passion for fashion may lead the lawyer to hang up her robes.

In a mostly straightforward interview, Amal Clooney talks about deep political issues... then she throws some shade.

* Amal Clooney of Doughty Street Chambers, who happens to be married to George Clooney, is being heralded as an “exotic, luxe-brand Princess Diana upgrade.” Lesson learned: marry a celebrity and your legal credentials look awesome. [New York Magazine]

* If you’re into fashion at the high court, this satirical news website managed to get an exclusive photo of all of the Supreme Court justices in their new spaghetti strap sun-robes. You know what Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg must be thinking about her colleagues: “Do you even lift?” [The Onion]

* The William Mitchell Law professors who filed suit against the school to protect the tenure code after its merger with Hamline Law was announced have voluntarily dropped their case. Apparently no harm will come to the precious after all. [National Law Journal]

* Vicente Sederberg, a firm that focuses on marijuana law, will sponsor a three-year professorship for marijuana law and policy at Denver Law. Sam Kamin will be the first to hold the position. Come see him at ATL’s marijuana reception in June. [The Cannabist]

* Everyone in the legal community likes to complain about the fact that law reviews are useless because no one reads them. We dare you to complain about an entire law review issue dedicated to the legal problems presented in AMC’s Breaking Bad. [WSJ Law Blog]

One of the unsung perks of sitting on the high court is grabbing dinner and drinks with power couples.

* A representative for Amal and George Clooney has denied the rumors of an impending divorce plastered all over the newsstands this week. “This story is totally made up in order to sell their magazines.” Now we can go back to wondering when Amal is planning to sue President Obama. [Aceshowbiz]

* Roe v. Wade is 42 years old (or 126 trimesters) today. How much of the original holding is left? Not that much actually. [TBT Legal]

* Some 1st or 2nd year in D.C. is banging another associate and felt obliged to give us an anonymous blow-by-blow account. Think of it as a Penthouse Letter to the ABA Journal. [Reddit]

* Speaking of Penthouse, the affidavit from the Prince Andrew/Alan Dershowitz sex scandal is just bats**t amazeballs. Check out the full document on the next page. [South Florida Lawyers]

* “Jews in the U.K. never won a reported discrimination case against non-Jewish defendants.” I mean, who’d have thought the country that brought us The Merchant of Venice would have issues with Jews? [Tablet]

* Americans decry European laws prohibiting certain kinds of hate speech. But Professor Faisal Kutty explains that liberal societies have their own secular sacred cows even if they don’t want to admit it. [Al Jazeera]

* If you presume the clientele for litigation financing services are helpless, you’re selling them short. [LFC 360]

* The latest threat to unsuspecting Americans: zombie debt! [Public Justice]

* NYU admits it probably should have told the police when a student allegedly lit a classmate on fire and videotaped it. Ugh. NYU’s gone soft. In my day, we set each other on fire all the time and we liked it dammit! [Chronicle of Higher Education]

Amal Clooney's lifetime achievements are far greater than those of her husband, George Clooney. Where's her award?

Her marriage, not her legal work, had a hand in her selection as the most fascinating person of 2014.

* The Fifth Circuit is allowing the Texas voter ID law to be enforced during the upcoming election, even though it was recently struck down by a federal judge. After all, “preserving the status quo” is very important down south. [Bloomberg]

* We suppose that’s why the Supreme Court stepped in to make sure that abortion clinics in Texas were allowed to reopen following their shut down. Take that, Fifth Circuit. [New York Times]

* AG Eric Holder is showing off some fancy legal footwork before he walks out the door. Federal prosecutors can no longer ask defendants to waive their IAC claims when pleading guilty. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Davis Polk & Wardwell is a Biglaw firm where hotties roam, and it looks like this top Justice Department prosecutor who started his career there is returning home there to roost. [DealBook / New York Times]

* It’s the debt: With headlines like “Law school applications plummet – at U of L too,” the University of Louisville School of Law can’t even convince alums from its undergrad school to attend. [Courier-Journal]

* Amal Alamuddin changed her name to Amal Clooney on her firm’s website. It’s as if she wants to rub the fact that she’s a human rights lawyer who just got married in everyone’s face. [New York Daily News]

* Congratulations to Tony West on his new gig as General Counsel of PepsiCo. It sounds like an exciting and challenging opportunity. Plus, you know, free Mountain Dew. [Politico] * What the hell? The feds stole a woman’s identity and made it into a Facebook page. Well, now she’s found out and she’s suing. Identity theft was one thing, but the way the DEA Agent kept spamming the woman’s friends to play Candy Crush Saga was just unacceptable. [Buzzfeed] * Time for some court news: Ninth Circuit joined the chorus in striking down gay marriage bans in Idaho and Nevada. [Ninth Circuit] * It’s Nobel Prize time, and one of the winners for Physics has a personal story about how important it is to hire a good lawyer. In fact, it was about $180 million important. [Slate] * We constantly beat the drum of how law schools need to adjust to reality and stop duping students into terrible financial decisions. But here’s the PR secret that’s kept law schools from, by and large, collapsing: they sell the experience. [Law and More] * An open letter begging Amal Alamuddin not to quit her day job now that she’s married to some acting guy. [The Careerist] * New York City paid $50K to settle a lawsuit brought by the family of a child who killed herself after school officials allegedly did nothing despite several warnings that the girl was being brutally bullied. There’s a lot of “in my day…” types who read this site who may not care about bullying, but this is more a question of irresponsibility. If your job is to provide a safe learning environment and you fail, you pay. [DNA Info] * At oral argument, the Court seemed generally supportive of the Muslim inmate hoping to grow a beard. If this intuition is right, soon individual people may have the same religious rights as corporations! [Supreme Court Brief] * Finally, thanks to the Rutgers-Newark Law School chapter of the American Constitution Society for hosting a great event today where Elie and I previewed the upcoming SCOTUS Term. My personal highlight was watching Elie’s head explode while talking about Young v. UPS.

* Well here’s a headline: My Solo Practice Ended My Marriage. [Law Firm Suites] * Pennsylvania Attorney General claims officials sent and received porn via state email accounts for years, “including top state jurists and 30 current employees of the state Attorney General’s Office.” If the AG’s office is swapping porn at all hours, somehow […]

* There’s a very good chance that if you go in-house, you could wind up making more money than even the wealthiest of Biglaw partners. But how much more? Take a look at the latest GC compensation survey. [Corporate Counsel]

* GM has hired outside counsel to review the way the company handles its litigation practices. Since we’re not sure which, we’ll take bets on whether this “well-respected outside law firm” is Wachtell or Jenner & Block. [WSJ Law Blog]

* A federal judge in California ruled that the state’s death penalty was unconstitutional. A defendant living with the “slight possibility of death” violates the Eighth Amendment. Damn appeals! [New York Times]

* “He hasn’t been charged with anything at the moment and we’ll deal with the charges when they’re filed.” Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl hired Yale Law lecturer Eugene R. Fidell, a military law expert (and husband of noted legal journalist Linda Greenhouse). [New Haven Register]

* We all know that George Clooney’s fiancée, Amal Alamuddin, has both beauty and brains. What we didn’t know is that she poses for incredibly embarrassing pictures, just like the rest of us. [Us Weekly]

* How do Americans feel about the Supreme Court’s recent cellphone privacy ruling, Riley v. California? [Digital Constitution / Microsoft]

It's official: George Clooney popped the question to a lawyer!

* First things first: remember to send us your legally themed Halloween costumes! [Above the Law] * George Clooney may be dating the “hottest female barrister in London.” [Legal Cheek] * This painting suggests there’s a senior partner who gets away with wearing sandals to work. [Lowering the Bar] * This is a really useful practice tip: how to cite URLs in briefs without having them look all messed up. [The Volokh Conspiracy] * O.J. Simpson’s house sold at a foreclosure auction for a mere $655,000. This must be a disappointing deal for him — I’m sure he expected to make a killing. [Daily Business Review] * Blackacre blocks access to a public beach. But the owner of Blackacre uses the Mexican-American War as an excuse to ignore the easement. Apparently he wins. People are also entirely awful. [Valleywag] * I also hate when McDonald's screws up my order, but it's not worth getting the police involved. [Legal Juice]