Gibson Dunn

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 03.01.17

* Amazon is struggling to protect law enforcement from turning the Echo into a permanent wiretap. Maybe they should ask Alexa if she can find some caselaw. [Law.com] * Is this the next Solicitor General? [National Law Journal] * In case you missed it, a bunch of whiny snowflakes are complaining that law schools don't respect their opinions. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post] * If you're wondering what life might be like in a totalitarian version of America, consider this profile of Jones Day. [American Lawyer] * Kellogg Huber is now Kellogg Hansen for those keeping score at home. [Kellogg Hansen] * Summer Associate hiring hit a wall last year. Not a good sign for the fragile 3-hour lunch industry going forward. [Am Law Daily] * Dewey & LeBoeuf's Stephen DiCarmine has gotten the government's documents surrounding the Frank Canellas plea deal. [Law360]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 02.07.17

* Judge William C. Canby Jr, Judge Michelle T. Friedland, and Judge Richard R. Clifton will hear tonight's oral argument on Trump's travel ban. Or should we say they're the "so-called judges" who will hear tonight's argument. [CNN] * Weil Gotshal announces significant gains in both revenues and profits. No associates were mangled in the making of this news. [Am Law Daily] * Former Bio-Rad GC Sanford Wadler wins big in his whistleblower retaliation case. Bio-Rad has attempted to cast him as a jerk who yelled at his underlings, but the jury realized that just made him "a lawyer" and not a justification to terminate him. [Corporate Counsel] * Vizio settled with the FTC over turning all of their customers into unwitting "Nielsen Families." But you should still be worried about that toaster that's been spying on you. [Litigation Daily] * Dewey still even care about this case? [Law360] * Gibson Dunn opens a Houston office because oil and gas are still big business. [Texas Lawyer] * You may have seen the viral post about a subway car full of New Yorkers who go to work scrubbing swastika graffiti off the walls. The man who started the effort was Wilson Elser associate Gregory Locke. [Am Law Daily]

By Joe Patrice
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 01.11.17

* After hearing powerful testimony from victims' relatives, a federal jury sentenced Charleston church shooter Dylann Roof to death. [BuzzFeed] * Dahlia Lithwick on yesterday's Jeff Sessions hearing: the nominee "will be handily confirmed," and Democrats "are rightly very, very afraid." [Slate] * An interesting puzzle for the Supreme Court: free speech and credit card fees. [New York Times via How Appealing] * Also from Howard Bashman, also about free speech: Gibson Dunn partner Miguel Estrada "warns City of Philadelphia that his hourly rate is very expensive." [How Appealing] * More about Morrison & Foerster snagging former Justice Department national security chief John Carlin -- the latest in a series of high-profile hires of former government lawyers, including Kathryn Thomson and Jessie Liu. [Law.com] * Some good news out of the Charlotte School of Law: students might be getting their spring semester loan proceeds after all. [ABA Journal] * Speaking of money, Volkswagen is going to pay a lot of it -- perhaps $4.3 billion in fines -- to resolve the federal criminal investigation into its cheating on vehicle emissions tests. [New York Times]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.22.16

* The antitrust battle between Apple and Nokia has heated up. Apple filed a new lawsuit against nonpracticing entities, Acacia Research Corp. and Conversant Intellectual Property Management Inc., alleging an abusive anti-competitive scheme. [Law.com] * Gibson Dunn partner Debra Wong Yang may be in line to lead the SEC under President Trump. [CNN] * North Carolina failed to repeal their controversial law regulating the use of public bathroom by transgender people. [Washington Post] * New York City's plan to destroy data collected in connection with its IDNYC card program is on hold pending a hearing in a Staten Island courtroom. [New York Times] * 2016 was a record breaking year for the SEC's Whistleblower program. [National Law Journal]

By Kathryn Rubino
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 12.07.16

* "Voters deserve to know that personal priorities will never take precedence over the national interest." Thanks to President-elect Donald Trump's unwillingness to release his tax returns, a New York lawmaker has introduced the Tax Returns Uniformly Made Public (TRUMP) Act, which would require presidential and vice presidential candidates to disclose their income tax returns going back five years to appear on the ballot in New York. [Big Law Business] * In what's being considered a blow to college athletes, the Seventh Circuit has ruled that they are not employees deserving of a minimum wage under the Fair Labor Standards Act. Fortunately, there may be a bright spot of hope in a concurring opinion because it shows that "[t]he nature of the relationship between kids who play FBS football and their schools, leagues and the NCAA ... is a business relationship." [Huffington Post] * Weil Gotshal snagged a prominent antitrust partner from Simpson Thacher, and it just so happens that he's already great friends with the attorney with whom he'll work alongside of as co-head of the firm's antitrust practice. Congrats to Kevin J. Arquit (and to Steven A. Newborn, who'll be reunited with a friend). [DealBook / New York Times] * President-elect Trump may turn to another prosecutor turned Biglaw partner to lead the SEC following the departure of Chairwoman Mary Jo White. It looks like Debra Wong Yang, chair Gibson Dunn's crisis management practice, may become Wall Street's "top cop" under the Trump administration. [Wall Street Journal (sub. req.)] * If you thought that the American Bar Association had learned its lesson after the closure of Indiana Tech Law, then you thought wrong, because the ABA has granted the UMass Law School full accreditation. Feast your eyes upon these glorious bar exam passage statistics from the last two July administrations of the test. [Lowell Sun]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.14.16

* Senator Mike Lee, an influential member of the Senate Judiciary Committee (and a former Supreme Court clerk himself), explains why Republicans won't confirm Judge Merrick Garland to SCOTUS in the lame-duck session. [Washington Post via How Appealing] * Jaroslawa Zelinsky Johnson, former managing partner of Chadbourne & Parke's defunct Kiev office, wants in on Kerrie Campbell's sex discrimination suit against the firm. [American Lawyer] * In other news about alleged gender bias in Biglaw, it looks like partner Traci Ribeiro's lawsuit against Sedgwick is bound for arbitration. [Law.com] * The latest bad news for Theranos: a hedge fund is suing the company for securities fraud, and it's represented by a pair of high-powered Gibson Dunn partners, former federal prosecutors Reed Brodsky and Winston Chan. [Corporate Counsel] * Kasowitz Benson's recent legal work on behalf of Donald Trump is just the latest example of the firm representing litigious tycoons. [New York Law Journal] * As some firms exit China, others enter the market; Hogan Lovells just announced a strategic alliance with Fujian Fidelity Law Firm in Shanghai. [Big Law Business] * In my ancestral homeland of the Philippines, President Rodrigo Duterte poses a threat to the rule of law, but remains very popular with the people. [New York Times]

By David Lat
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.13.16

* Green Party presidential nominee Dr. Jill Stein will appear at Vermont Law School today, where she'll meet with members of the law school community to speak about her plan to transition the country using 100 percent renewable energy. Law students will be especially excited to hear about her plans to cancel all student loan debt. [VTDigger] * “Talk to your classmates, especially those with different views. Even if you come away from it disagreeing even more, at least you know what makes them tick, which is a useful thing.” Last week, Justice Elena Kagan went back to Harvard Law, the school where she once served as dean, to share helpful tips with law students. [Harvard Crimson] * Federal prosecutors may have dropped their corruption case against ex-Gov. Bob McDonnell after SCOTUS threw out his convictions, but now he's got some pretty hefty legal bills to pay to Jones Day and Holland & Knight. Right now, he owes more than $10M to the partners who helped clear his name. [Richmond Times-Dispatch] * A lot of big-time lateral moves were announced yesterday, including Kirkland & Ellis's mass hiring of all Bancroft lawyers, but Gibson Dunn's news may top all the rest we've yet to cover. Stuart Delery, the former acting associate attorney general of the Justice Department, will join the firm as a partner in Washington, D.C. [Big Law Business] * Ex-Canadian prime minister Stephen Harper has found a new home -- or rather, a "strategic affiliation" -- with a global Biglaw firm. He'll be working out of the Calgary office of Dentons, where he'll work with many former colleagues and advise firm clients on market access, managing global geopolitical, and economic risk. [Huffington Post]

By Staci Zaretsky