Guns / Firearms

Lose gracefully? Nah...

His body was found in a wooded area.

* Sam Bankman-Fried denied pre-trial release after arguing that his alleged witness tampering, not unlike the value of cryptocurrency, wasn’t what it looked like on paper. [Reuters]

* After opening door a crack to allow some transparency in proceedings during the pandemic, the federal courts look to curtail live audio access. [Law360]

* Lawyer informs Texas Senate that Ken Paxton approved every bit of investigation at heart of impeachment. [Texas Tribune]

* Trial to begin to decide constitutionality of “America’s most extreme gun control law.” The law just requires gun owners to get a permit and bans magazines over 10 rounds. Again, this is what passes for the “most extreme” law in the country. [Fox News]

* Gibson Dunn alters diversity scholarship criteria as activists ramp up threats to sue law firms for pursuing initiatives to make the profession less white. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Meanwhile, two law schools are back in compliance with ABA accreditors after improving faculty diversity and likely putting them out of compliance with these litigious activists (Another law school is back in compliance after improving its finances… which is less controversial). [Law.com]

* Governor asks to change state’s public records law to keep her travel under wraps. [ABC]

* Ron DeSantis rammed through massive tort reform in December to the delight of Florida residents who barely understand torts. They’re about to find out what it all means when insurance companies refuse to pay up for Idalia. [Mother Jones]

* Remember the Second Amendment exists to protect your right to hide guns in your belly fat. [People]

* NY AG says Trump overinflated his net worth by upwards of $2.2 billion in a shock to absolutely no one. [CNN]

* Texas GOP’s “Death Star” legislation, designed to give the state legislature the power to strike down local laws and ordinances destroyed like all Death Stars because of tiny, yet fatal, flaw. In this case it’s because it’s entirely unconstitutional. Wow… that’s much bigger than the womp rats I used to target in my T-16 back home. [Law360]

* Alex Murdaugh loses phone privileges. [NY Post]

* Squire Patton Boggs partner set to take break from violent, rough and tumble Biglaw world to referee Rugby World Cup. [LegalCheek]

* In new phase of Hollywood strike, workers have filed comments with the FTC asking it to probe industry consolidation. And while fair compensation is a great reason to break up Hollywood, at least someone has to be mad about WarnerBrosDiscovery doing… any of the things it’s done. [Bloomberg Law News]

Fine line between surrender and victory.

* Federal courts consider continuing COVID-era streaming of proceedings. Just like all the ethical rules, this won’t apply to the Supreme Court. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Some firms have moved to four mandatory office days… but it’s been a “slow trickle.” And Biglaw isn’t used to slow trickles when it comes to policy changes. [American Lawyer]

* Judge rules state ban on high-capacity magazines does not violate Second Amendment. So start the clock on this getting struck down. [CNN]

* Biglaw attorney quits to bicycle from Canada to Argentina. [LegalCheek]

* Shocking no one, when police bar the ticky-tack justifications for pretextual stops, pretextual stops go down. [Reuters]

* More Twitter execs suing for unpaid legal bills. This guy really hates Biglaw fees, huh? [Law360]

* A slice of history when first-year associates were only making $70K. That’s $188K in today’s dollars. Of course private law school tuition averaged under $10K/year then, which under be around $27K/year in today’s dollars. Instead it costs around $50K so associates are still falling behind. [Intuitive Career Coaching]

* Federal judge wants the dysfunctional Federal Circuit to go to couples therapy — or mediation as he called it. [Bloomberg Law News]

* California decides it’s far too difficult to hold employers liable for exposing employees to COVID so it just… won’t. [Law360]

* Judge in trouble for lip synching. Like you’d WANT to hear a judge’s singing voice? [ABA Journal]

* Supreme Court looks to make it safe for violent domestic abusers to stockpile guns again. Maybe they’ll bother to read the cases they cite… unlike the circuit court. [Reuters]

* Top ten highest paid CEO list reveals it’s good to be in legal tech. [CNBC]

I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume Kavanaugh will be in favor of overturning the prohibiting laws.

One officer yelled, 'Hands up.' It didn’t register, so we looked at them blankly. We were so confused.

... and now he'll have more judges to get mad at.

* Don’t you hate it when you get to the eve of trial and have to admit your disclosures about the client’s leadership structure have been wrong all this time? No… because that doesn’t happen in real life. Unless you’re representing Fox News. [Law360]

* Kentucky is going to auction off the gun from the Louisville shooting? Like, for real? [Washington Post]

* Breaking up is hard to do as EY learns. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Johnson & Johnson “faces skepticism” over bankruptcy shenanigans in strong contender for understatement of the year. [Reuters]

* It’s good to be from Missouri. If you’re a law firm anyway. [American Lawyer]

* “10 pics of Pedro Pascal dressed like law firms” is surprisingly true to the headline. [LegalCheek]

Turns out that bankruptcy is way less fun than this guy thought it would be.

The Founders really should have been clearer with their clauses.

He joked that the prospect of killing the prosecutors was 'tempting' because of course he did.

You can only hope these students can pick up the shattered remains and seek solace and refuge in each other’s arms, harbor hope, and not remain jaded by such senseless acts.

A funny thing happens when you check the professor's work...

Context matters!

* Just because the law determines that someone is a dangerous threat to others, the Fifth Circuit rules that court orders still can’t take away their guns because that’s a fundamental right. You know, walking around as a free person is a fundamental right too… can the justice system still put criminals in prison? [Reuters]

* Lizzo is now officially 100 percent that bitch. [Law360]

* Baker McKenzie office managing partner steps aside amid investigation into office-wide discrimination claims. [LegalCheek]

* Mergers are going to get bigger. Which is the point of all mergers, but we mean a lot bigger. [American Lawyer]

* Data breaches are going to get costlier to deal with. So maybe plan ahead? Or don’t… plaintiffs lawyers need work too. [Law.com Barometer]

Criminal charges here were certainly unexpected.

* FINALLY. Firm leaders willing to come right out and say that “recession” fears are overblown at this point. Regular followers of Above the Law might have heard this point five or six hundred times over the last six months. [American Lawyer]

* Covington sued for non-compliance in client data leak investigation. If a leak happens in the woods and no one properly investigates it, does it even happen, really? [Law.com]

* Supreme Court allows New York gun regulations to stand while Second Circuit litigation continues. Congratulations New York! You get to exercise the state sovereignty to regulate guns guaranteed by the actual text of the Second Amendment… for a few more months. [Law360]

* Sam Bankman-Fried is blogging on Substack now? Perfect client, 10 out of 10, no notes! [Reuters]

* New high-powered firm set up to fight threats to democracy. It’s a growth industry. [New York Times]