Herrick Feinstein

The leader of this Am Law 200 firm tells us why life at midsize firms is so enjoyable for lawyers, from culture to work-life balance to gaining hands-on experience.

* Donald Trump follows up loss in E. Jean Carroll defamation case by calling her a liar. Crackerjack legal team this guy’s got. [NY Times]

* Law school deans scrambling to save the LSAT, seeking a rule requiring no more than 25 percent of grads admitted without a test. You know, before y’all blew them off, you could’ve worked with U.S. News to tank the rankings of schools that overused the non-test option. But you just had to throw your fit, didn’t you? [Reuters]

* Article poses that legal churn makes law firms inherently unstable. Yeah… that’s how free markets work. [American Lawyer]

* DOJ racking up wins in crypto cases. [Law360]

* Study confirms there’s no returning from hybrid work schedules no matter what the firms may want. [Bloomberg Law News]

* Client suing Herrick Feinstein for $1.1B over blown deadlines. [Bisnow]

Glass ceilings are meant to be broken.

Your path to partnership doesn't have to be traditional.

* Former tax partner gets two year prison sentence. Maybe he can claim a good behavior deduction. [New York Law Journal]

* Chilling report on South Carolina’s routine violation of constitutional norms. [New York Times]

* Top in-house counsel share their thoughts on forging a privacy policy. As we all know, the first rule of Fight Club is you do not talk about Fight Club. [Law.com]

* Austria’s racism manages to punish a law student in a shark costume. It’s the saddest moment for sharks since Left Shark. [Lowering the Bar]

* Checking in on Rogers Stevens, the Blind Melon guitarist who now works as a mid-level Labor and Employment attorney at Ballard Spahr. [Coverage Opinions]

* Experts say the Cowboys edict that the team will bench anyone who kneels during the anthem doesn’t run afoul of the NLRA… yet. [Law360]

* A conversation with Ellisen Turner, Irell & Manella’s newly minted managing partner, about race and discrimination and the added pressure that comes with being a person of color in the legal industry. [Am Law Daily]

Even conservatives are concerned about the damage that invoking the nuclear option for Judge Gorsuch’s SCOTUS nomination will do.

* “This is going to haunt the Senate, it’s going to change the judiciary, and it’s so unnecessary.” Senate Democrats have secured the votes to filibuster Judge Neil Gorsuch’s Supreme Court nomination, all but ensuring that Senate Republicans will invoke the nuclear option, and even conservatives are concerned about the damage it will do. [New York Times]

* It turns out that the Wallace Global Fund tried hire another Biglaw firm to replace Morgan Lewis & Bockius prior to kicking the firm to the curb over its representation of President Donald Trump. Apparently Arnold & Porter “would have been perfect,” but that firm represents Trump too, so it was a “deal killer.” [Big Law Business]

* “It’s like a marriage but infinitely complex. In the beginning, it was appealing, but as you went along you see the synergies are not there.” Following a short romance, it looks like Crowell & Moring and Herrick Feinstein are breaking off their engagement before wasting their time getting married and going through a messy divorce. [New York Post]

* You give love legal ethics a bad name: Remember Tara Lenich, the ADA who was accused of forging judges’ signatures to wiretap a love interest and a coworker in a “love triangle gone wrong”? She pleaded guilty to two charges of illegal wiretapping, and could face up to 10 years in prison and a fine of up to $250,000. [Brooklyn Daily Eagle]

* If you’re a prospective law student with a learning disability or attention disorder, you may be worried about keeping up with the rigors of legal study. Don’t let it get you down. Request an accommodation, but make sure you do so before it’s too late or you may screw yourself out of getting the help you need. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News]

Baby, it's cold outside, and these firms have got the urge to merge.

* “As a federal prosecutor for 19 years… I know better.” Leslie Caldwell, who oversees the Justice Department’s criminal division, sent a letter of apology to federal prosecutors across the country for remarks made at a Federalist Society event where she intimated that many of them don’t understand rules for white-collar criminal cases. [WSJ Law Blog]

* It seems that D.C.-based Crowell & Moring and New York-based Herrick Feinstein are hoping to bump into each other under the mistletoe this year, because they’re reportedly in close merger talks. A combination would create a firm with about 570 lawyers and $478 million in gross revenue. We’ll have more on this later. [Am Law Daily; Real Deal]

* Biglaw behemoth Dentons is politely bowing out of the competition when it comes to a takeover of the European and Middle Eastern arm of King & Wood Mallesons. With Dentons out of the picture, it’s unlikely that a single firm will rescue the entirety of the branch, but numerous firms are interested in picking apart bits and pieces. [Legal Week]

* Calling their behavior “uncivil,” Judge Steven O’Neill was forced to scold lawyers on both sides during a dramatic shouting match that erupted at Bill Cosby’s sexual assault trial after the defense team insisted that the comedian’s accusers ought to be named in public documents, saying they’re “witnesses in a trial, not children.” [USA Today]

* Miami-Dade Circuit Court Judge Victoria Brennan, who was accused of using a metal pipe to smash a man’s windshield this summer (but was never formally charged), is going to step down from her position on the bench. Her last day will be December 31, and per her resignation letter, she is “looking forward to the future.” [Miami Herald]

Getting your job should be more like dating.