Goodwin Liu

* According to a new report, “personal attacks and language that politicizes or otherwise casts doubt on the judicial branch as a whole has the potential to cause significant damage to our democracy.” Thanks, Trump. [Big Law Business]

* Why are there so few minority law clerks?
California Supreme Court Justice Goodwin Liu and Federal Judicial Center director Jeremy Fogel are trying to solve this “mystery” in conjunction with the ABA. [National Law Journal]

* A former IRS staffer has pleaded guilty to unlawfully accessing Michael Cohen’s confidential financial information and distributing it to Michael Avenatti, who once represented Stormy Daniels. He faces up to five years in prison and up to $250K in fines. [New York Post]

* With hundreds of flights canceled, Hong Kong’s airport had been at a complete standstill due to protestors clashing with police until this Biglaw firm managed to intervene. Be sure to thank Hogan Lovells for getting an injunction on airport protests. [American Lawyer]

* In case you’ve been wondering about what bar pass rates and law school debt have looked like for the past decade or so, you can see it in some stunning graphics right here. [Law.com]

* Thanks to the Lousiana Supreme Court, NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell won’t have to testify just yet in the Rams-Saints NFC Championship game lawsuit. Everything is on pause while the state’s high court decides whether the case should be allowed to continue at all. [NBC Sports]

The biggest impediment to anything meaningful moving the needle of diversity is the lack of honest discussion.

* The Supreme Court’s latest ruling in the travel ban litigation: good news for grandparents, bad news for certain refugees. [How Appealing]

* And in the travel ban battle, the parties aren’t pulling their punches. [Democracy in America / The Economist]

* Nor does Joshua Matz: “The Supreme Court is now a co-owner and co-author of the travel ban.” [Take Care]

* Justice Goodwin Liu and a team of Yale Law School researchers have issued an important new report about Asian Americans in the legal profession today. [The Portrait Project]

* A defense of that controversial David Brooks column about salami. [Volokh Conspiracy / Washington Post]

* And a defense of due process when it comes to allegations of sexual assault on college campuses. [The Federalist via Instapundit]

* In other higher-education news, here’s the tweet that got Nick Lutz suspended from the University of Central Florida. [Althouse]

* How do millennials view the legal industry? Drew Rossow and Elan Fields discuss. [Legal Tookit / Legal Talk Network]

* “Every single racial slur you can think of for Asian Americans is a trademark right now. And almost any kind of slur you could think of for any group is a registered trademark right now. The law’s not working.” Asian-American rock band The Slants will make their debut before the Supreme Court this week, and when all is said and done, trademark law’s prohibition on the registration of disparaging marks may be forever changed thanks to their First Amendment argument. [Washington Post]

* Zachary Warren, the low-level Dewey & LeBoeuf employee who wound up being criminally charged along with the failed firm’s head honchos, has been cleared of all charges. After completing 350 hours of community service in accordance with the requirements of a deferred prosecution agreement, Warren’s indictment has been sealed, and he’s now working as an associate at Williams & Connolly. [Big Law Business]

* For all of their talk about wanting to prevent women from leaving the practice of law, many Biglaw firms that once made big promises about onsite day-care facilities have allowed those plans to fall to the wayside after being hamstrung by significant costs and liability issues. Today, about 10 law firms have set up day-care programs for attorneys’ children, and for those that have, it’s a real “distinguisher in recruiting.” [Am Law Daily]

* According to the results of a new study performed by Justice Goodwin Liu of the California Supreme Court in conjunction with students at Yale Law School, while Asian-Americans are plentiful within our country’s attorney workforce, very few of them have managed to ascend to the most prestigious leadership roles in the legal profession. What could be causing this to occur? Implicit bias may be playing a role. [Washington Post]

* “[I]t would be your word against mine and nobody will believe you.” A Republican politician in Connecticut who “love[s] this new world” because he “no longer [has] to be politically correct” currently stands accused of grabbing a town employee by the p*ssy pinching a town employee’s groin. He’s been charged with fourth-degree sexual assault, and he’s scheduled to appear in court at the end of the month. [Westport Daily Voice]

* The University of Washington at Tacoma is rethinking its plans to create a law school that’s separately accredited from the one at the University’s Seattle campus. Before moving forward, UWT wants to build up its undergraduate pre-law program to make sure the demand will be there in the future. Unlike some schools, “[t]he last thing [UWT] want[s] to do is to start a law school and it not to be successful early.” [News Tribune]

He's dating a former student of his -- and separated from his wife, a top adviser to Hillary Clinton.

Not an official list, but still an impressive collection of contenders.

We place odds on the potential nominees for Antonin Scalia's Supreme Court seat.

Which state-court and federal district judges send their clerks to the U.S. Supreme Court?

The State of California and the Obama administration square off at the California Supreme Court.

* If Biglaw firms wants to get back into a financial sweet spot like in their days of yore, they had better get in on these billion-dollar international arbitrations while the getting is good. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Women lawyers, please take note: your future depends on it. Apparently the key to making partner in Biglaw is to the get the backing of general counsel at big money corporate clients as a gender. [Corporate Counsel]

* ¡Ay dios mío! ¡Escándalo! Holland & Knight yoinked 10 attorneys, including three partners, right out from under Chadbourne & Parke’s nose to open up its new Mexico City office. [South Florida Business Journal]

* “If we actually got another million dollars going forward to spend on something, is the highest and best use to produce attorneys?” Even in a flyover state like Idaho, the answer to that question is a resounding yes when it comes to law school expansion. [Spokesman-Review]

* “A jurisprudence of ‘don’t ask, don’t tell’ does not properly safeguard [a defendant’s rights].” California Justice Goodwin Liu is raging against policies on race-based peremptory jury challenges. [The Recorder]

* “I’ve been doing Paula Deen in a strongly metaphorical sense.” The magnate of marmalade’s case may be settled, but that doesn’t mean sanctions have been taken off the table. [Courthouse News Service]

* The hefty price of killing? Following his acquittal in the death of Trayvon Martin, George Zimmerman is now asking Florida to pay for his legal expenses, to the tune of $200,000 – $300,000. [Orlando Sentinel]

How will the Supreme Court affect President Obama, and how will President Obama affect the Supreme Court, as we enter the 44th president's second term?

Will a commencement speaker this year cause a controversy?

* Prop 8 made an appearance today at the California Supreme Court before newly seated Justice Goodwin Liu. As suspected, the liberal Liu immediately made the proponents have sex with each other as he cackled “I hate families.” [Poliglot / Metro Weekly] * Next time a TSA agent sticks her hand down your pants and […]

Congratulations to Goodwin Liu — until today Professor Liu, but after today, Justice Liu. In July, California Governor Jerry Brown nominated the 40-year-old Liu, a law professor at Boalt Hall, to serve on the California Supreme Court. The nomination was subject to the approval of a three-member state commission. What did the commission have to […]

Goodwin Liu, the Berkeley law professor whose nomination to the Ninth Circuit fell victim to a filibuster, is getting a nice consolation prize. Governor Jerry Brown just nominated Professor Liu to the California Supreme Court.

Reports indicate that cloture has not been invoked for Goodwin Liu’s nomination to the Ninth Circuit. That means the filibuster is still on. That means he’s going to be a law professor, not a judge (at least until the next election cycle). Senators Susan Collins (R-ME), Olympia Snowe (R-ME), and the totally [curse words] Ben […]

* Starbucks sued for not being nice to dwarfs. I propose to fix this by offering a dwarf-sized coffee that is the volume of a full-sized dwarf. That way, everybody would learn that dwarfs might be small in stature but huge if you had to drink one. [ABA Journal] * Happy is the lawyer who […]

* Doing hood rat stuff with your friends is less likely to land you in the adult court system now. [New York Times] * The Quinnipiac Law School registrar might be headed to the pokey on mortgage fraud charges. Add/Drop is now… CLOSED!!!!! No idea what that means. [Hartford Courant] * Law prof Liu lingers […]