Harvey Weinstein

* According to President Donald Trump, former White House counsel Don McGahn “had a much better chance of being fired” than special counsel Robert Mueller because Trump claims he was “[n]ever a big fan” — but that’s probably because McGahn refused to issue a public statement saying he didn’t believe the president obstructed justice. [Washington Post]

* President Trump wants to stop federal judges on lower courts from issuing nationwide injunctions that are screwing up his plans to make America gross again. Even VP Mike Pence hopes the Supreme Court will step in to put an end to the practice. [The Hill]

* Ronald S. Sullivan Jr., the Harvard Law professor who is representing accused rapist Harvey Weinstein, has lost his job as a faculty dean at an undergraduate house thanks to his controversial client. [Boston Globe]

* “ I know that when I walk into a room that I’ll be underestimated. I’m aware that I need to prove myself. It doesn’t bother me.” Hailyn Chen, a 43-year-old litigator of Chinese descent, is the new co-managing partner of Munger, Tolles & Olson. Congratulations! [American Lawyer]

* Professor Ian Samuel of Indiana Law has resigned from his job following the conclusion of the Title IX misconduct probe against him, which “probably had the side effect of saving [his] life” because he “was becoming an ugly man.” [Big Law Business]

* Now that its managing partner is taking his business to Blank Rome, Morris & McVeigh, one of New York City’s oldest law firms, will be closing its doors after about 157 years in business. [New York Law Journal]

* Harvey Weinstein will face sex trafficking charges. [Law360]

* “LSU Creates Model for Colleges Embroiled in Varsity Blues Scandal.” Yeah, um, no offense but LSU didn’t have to anything to worry about. [Corporate Counsel]

* MoFo’s horribly ill-advised sanctions motion meets the swift demise it deserved. [The Recorder]

* Meanwhile, the Jones Day attorney named in its gender bias case has left. [American Lawyer]

* Sears is suing Eddie Lampert and Steve Mnuchin for destroying the company. [CNBC]

* Ninth Circuit hands Trump’s immigration plans another defeat. [Courthouse News Service]

* Roger Stone’s heading to court today. That should be a scene, man. [National Law Journal]

* Corrupt legislatures… not just for U.S. Congress anymore! The ABA House of Delegates bails out for-profit law schools again. [Law.com]

* The New Yorker has a deep dive into Plessy v. Ferguson as “The Case That Enshrined White Supremacy.” Dude, let me introduce you to Shelby County. [New Yorker]

* Texas is pretending thousands of “illegal” immigrants have voted over the years. The methodology is basically “they were once not citizens… then years later they voted!” I only highlight this story because in 6 months when it gets unceremoniously dropped by ACTUAL CRIMINAL DEFENDANT Texas AG Ken Paxton it’s worth remembering how completely insane this all is. [Courthouse News Service]

* Fugitive ex-Hunton attorney gets 7 years… or over 61,000 billable hours. [Law360]

* Not to defend Harvey Weinstein, but should we really be using a human trafficking law here? [Time]

* Now they want to make animal cruelty a federal felony. Could we maybe start with making a federal case out of “shooting unarmed kids in the back”? [WECT]

* With Ben Brafman off the case, Harvey Weinstein is going with the Casey Anthony/Aaron Hernandez/Kobe Bryant defense team. For a New York courtroom. [New York Law Journal]

* And some of these new Weinstein lawyers previously represented Rose McGowan on an unrelated matter. She is… less than pleased with this development. [Yahoo]

* Reed Smith facing $500 million malpractice claim from Zombie Bear Sterns. [American Lawyer]

* Deutsche Bank neck deep in global money-laundering inquiry. At least there’s no way this could ensnare any major political figures. [Law360]

* Federal judge strikes down Iowa’s “we’re banning abortion but not calling it that” law. [Jurist]

* What will happen to the legal profession during the next recession? Well, it could well be quite the reckoning. [Forbes]

* A deep dive into the crackdown on law schools that can’t get graduates past the bar exam hurdle. [AZ Central]

* Trump instructed Michael Cohen to lie to Congress, which was a rotten thing to do to America’s hottest lawyer. [Buzzfeed]

* Skadden settles with government over Manafort fiasco to the tune of $4.6 million. [NY Times]

* Ben Brafman officially out as Harvey Weinstein’s lawyer. [Law360]

* Net neutrality case will press forward after the DC Circuit told the FCC it couldn’t use Trump’s shutdown as an excuse to delay the case. [National Law Journal]

* Clients planning to spend more on tech and less on lawyers… this is how it begins, people. [International]

* Lawyer contends that 51-year-old man who punched an 11-year-old girl was acting in self-defense. This is why our profession can’t have nice things. [Huffington Post]

* The top tech legal cases of the last 20 years. [Ars Technica]

* Law school placed on probation and in a refreshing turn of events, the school claims to be working with the ABA instead of hiring Paul Clement to sue. [Atlanta Journal Constitution]

* Woman charged with fake witchcraft because 2018 just keeps on giving. [NPR]

* Secret Cohen filings? Hm. [CNBC]

* Wait, the law is set up to help people like Harvey Weinstein? No kidding. [Gothamist]

* Killing Bill O’Reilly’s Lawsuit Against Lawyer. [Hollywood Reporter]

* Federal judge still respects asylum law, no matter what the administration says. [Courthouse News Service]

* ACLU and Center for Constitutional Rights score win with court order proclaiming the obvious: No, you can’t blanket deny asylum seekers. [Associated Press via Huffington Post]

* Cyrus Vance accuses someone of seeking publicity over justice. [Variety]

* Are you suggesting that law firms and clients don’t listen to each other? [American Lawyer]

* The Trump administration wanted to share census answers with the cops… which is why they were so hot to get those illegal citizenship questions on there. It’s like 3D checkers of bumbling xenophobia over here. [Washington Post]

* The SEC’s whistleblower program handed out more awards this year than ever before! Unsurprisingly, the article makes no mention of Justice following up on any of these financial crimes. [Law360]

* Third Circuit taking a stab at New Jersey’s ban on high-capacity magazines — just as the Framers’ envisioned. [New Jersey Law Journal]

* What are law schools training students for? Debt management, maybe?[Forbes]

* Apparently there’s some kind of election today? In any event, law firms are taking on a huge role as volunteers. [American Lawyer]

* Flush with nearly $250 million in fundraising, Northwestern Law says it’s facing a “difficult time.” Time to cut back on those platinum casebooks. [Law.com]

* Pressure mounts in the UK to make all law firms — not just those bigger than 250 employees — publish gender pay gap data. Meanwhile, US law firms are still so iffy on whether or not to allow associates to give birth that parental leave is a huge deal. [LegalCheek]

* Weinstein defense team wants all charges dropped alleging faulty indictment process. It feels like this is an argument half of Riker’s could benefit from but won’t. [CNN]

* Calm before the storm? Supreme Court refuses to disturb ruling that the Second Amendment doesn’t protect randos carrying concealed weapons. I feel a lot of these punts are designed to let the Kavanaugh fervor die down for a year before they revisit women’s suffrage. [The Hill]

* Another day, another insider trading conviction overturned. [Law360]

* They’re all good lawyers, Brent. [Corporate Counsel]

* A quick primer on the key Judge Kavanaugh opinions to understand before this grueling process gets underway. [Law360]

* Dianne Feinstein hiring MoFo to vet Brett Kavanaugh. [The Recorder]

* After briefly flirting with looking outside the two schools, the Supreme Court will remain exclusively for people who attended either Yale or Harvard (including Justice Ginsburg, who transferred from Harvard). [Washington Post]

* Uber brings in top Justice Department attorney. [Wall Street Journal]

* Harvey Weinstein spared fate of living on Riker’s Island after judge lets him out on bail. Just like any random person accused of raping three women would be! [Mercury News]

* The Young Lawyer Editorial Board scolds profession for slow progress on diversity. This drive has to start somewhere and it may as well be at the firms since it’s increasingly clear that the law schools don’t have the courage to do it. [American Lawyer]

* Ty Cobb going to scum punk shows now. I have no joke for this. [The Hill]

* Harvey Weinstein has turned himself in to the NYPD. [Vox]

* Happy GDPR Day! [Wall Street Journal]

* Emmet Flood attended the DOJ’s briefing for congressional leaders because defense attorneys are always allowed to attend internal conversations about law enforcement tactics in ongoing investigations. [Talking Points Memo]

* Elon Musk may want to put away the Twitter machine for a bit now that he’s stepped into possible labor law violations. [Engadget]

* The Samsung-Apple war continues with a jury awarding Apple $539 million for IP infringement. [Law360]

* Professor Steven Calabresi is arguing that Robert Mueller’s whole job is unconstitutional. We’ve really come a long way from conservatives hailing the appointment of a no-nonsense lifelong Republican, haven’t we? [The Hill]

* Also, Calabresi is completely wrong. [Legal Skills Prof Blog]

* For Tex McIver, love means never having to say you’re sorry… for shooting your wife in the back. [Daily Report Online]

* Vivia Chen wonders if my personal trolling that finally convinced Aaron Schlossberg to release a statement distancing himself from his racist tirade. The answer is yes. [American Lawyer]

* Michael Avenatti got some bad news in court the other day when a judge ordered his firm to pay $10 million to a lawyer who used to work with them and alleged the firm shorted him on his share of the profits. [NY Post]

* Ben Brafman’s working overtime to convince federal prosecutors to stay out of the Harvey Weinstein matter. If successful, Brafman would just have to tell Cy Vance that Weinstein is rich and that should shut down the whole inquiry. [New York Law Journal]

* Trump’s continued attacks on federal law enforcement are… bad. Thankfully, trickster god Rod Rosenstein has a plan. [Atlantic]

* The appeals court upheld the ruling striking down California’s assisted suicide law. That’s probably the right result in this case. [NPR]

* AI is changing the legal sector. Especially when you realize that AI isn’t what its hype men were selling a couple years ago. [Forbes]

* MSU has a new lawyer and he’ll have his hands full. [Corporate Counsel]