We recently sat down with Adonica Black, Global Talent Development and Inclusion Director for LexisNexis, to discuss the current state of D&I in the legal industry.
* The Charleston Water System has filed a lawsuit against flushable wipes makers for allegedly making products that aren't fit for flushing. Bet they hope their case doesn't go down the drain... [ABC News] * Maryland has finalized a $577 million settlement of a lawsuit claiming the state underfunded historically black colleges and universities. [Capital Gazette] * A lawsuit filed by a Southwest Airlines flight attendant blames the airline on her husband's death from COVID-19. [Fox News] * A Maryland lawyer has been suspended from practice for giving paralegals the power to settle cases. [Daily Record] * Since Above the Law has not had a "Lawyerly Lairs" segment in a while, just wanted to relate that a Florida attorney is selling her swanky beachfront home for a pretty penny. [Real Deal]
Four insights and misunderstandings to help demystify GenAI for legal professionals.
* The Supreme Court is allowing Texas to enforce its strict voter identification law during the upcoming election, but Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, hero to the masses, wrote a rather scathing dissent in opposition. [New York Times] * Michael Millikin, GM’s beleaguered GC, will be stepping down from his position while the Justice Department continues its probe into the company’s fatal ignition switch failures. A replacement has not yet been named. [WSJ Law Blog] * Baltimore Law and Maryland’s HBCUs hooked up to assist underrepresented minorities get into law school. Full scholarships come with GPAs of at least 3.5 and LSAT scores of at least 152. [USA Today] * Kent Easter, the lawyer who was convicted for planting drugs in a school volunteer’s car, was sentenced to serve six months in jail. His law license will likely be suspended (just like his wife’s was). [OC Weekly] * Accused Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev isn’t doing well in court, and his trial hasn’t even started yet. Motions to dismiss his case and to suppress evidence were denied. [National Law Journal]
* According to Justice Kagan, Justice Ginsburg “is responsible for eliminating sex discrimination from American law.” Whoa, that’s a nice thought, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves with wishful thinking. [New York Law Journal] * After handing out pink slips staff, Heenan Blaikie lawyers sat down and voted to dissolve the Canadian firm’s partnership and wind up its business. It’s kind of like Dewey, but with maple syrup! [Legal Post / Financial Post] * Jack W. Butler, the bankruptcy bigwig who managed to negotiate the American Airlines / US Airways merger, will leave his home at Skadden Arps after 23 years and head to Hilco Global. [DealBook / New York Times] * Vermont Law School has partnered with several historically black colleges and universities in order to put warm bodies in empty seats promote the expansion of racial diversity in the legal profession. [VT Digger] * David Savner, a corporate partner at Jenner & Block, recently donated $1 million to his alma mater, Northwestern Law, to fund a high-tech classroom. It must be nice to be rich. [Crain's Chicago Business] * The ABA Journal wants to know what the “oddest” elective course you ever took in law school was. If you took a “Law and _____” class and didn’t get an “A,” you should hang your head in shame. [ABA Journal]
What is to be done about low bar exam passage rates at historically black law schools?