Jerry Brown

Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.06.16

* Rudy Giuliani will be taking a "voluntary leave of absence" from Greenberg Traurig thanks to his activities related to Donald Trump's campaign for the presidency. Is Giuliani's move truly voluntary, or was the prominent partner forced to take a break as Election 2016 draws closer and the race for the White House becomes even more heated? We'll have more on this development later today. [Observer] * In 196 deals with a total volume of $379.6 billion, White & Case is ranked No. 1 on Bloomberg’s M&A charts for global deals in the first three quarters of 2016. The firm surpassed the likes of SullCrom (No. 2), Wachtell Lipton (No. 3), Davis Polk (No. 4), and Skadden (No. 5). This time last year, Skadden was leading the pack. [Big Law Business] * In one of the first cases related to race that SCOTUS grappled with this Term, some say it appeared as though the justices may side with a black death row inmate in search of a new sentence because his own lawyer used an expert witness at trial who testified that the man was more likely to be dangerous in the future because of his race. [Reuters] * Government lawyers continue to flock to Biglaw firms, and this time, the lateral hire is a "true patriot, who believes in service to the nation as a calling." WilmerHale welcomes Alejandro Mayorkas, a former U.S. Attorney who has worked for the the past three years as No. 2 at the Department of Homeland Security. Congratulations! [WSJ Law Blog] * "I just hope that when people think the rules don’t apply to them, they will think twice before they abuse their power." Thanks to a California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, it is now a felony punishable by up to three years in prison for state prosecutors to tamper with evidence or hide exculpatory material from the defense. [Los Angeles Times]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.03.16

* The New York Times has obtained Donald Trump's tax records from 1995, revealing a nearly $916 million loss that would have enabled him to cancel out an equivalent amount of taxable income over an 18-year period. Marc Kasowitz, name partner of Kasowitz Benson, represents Trump, and has threatened the paper with "prompt initiation of appropriate legal action" for its publication of his client's tax records. [New York Times] * George Mason University will host a grand opening ceremony this week for the twice renamed Antonin Scalia School of Law Antonin Scalia Law School -- a ceremony that five SCOTUS justices will reportedly attend -- and some students and faculty are planning to protest the Koch brothers' funding of scholarships by wearing red tape over their mouths to symbolize their voices being taken from them. [Big Law Business] * Katherine Magbanua, the woman who is suspected of connecting Florida State University law professor Dan Markel's alleged killers, Sigfredo Garcia and Luis Rivera, with the family of Markel's ex-wife, Wendi Adelson, has been arrested on murder charges. According to police, she has "received numerous benefits from the Adelsons since Markel’s murder." We'll have more on this later today. [Tallahassee Democrat] * According to Judge Beth Bloom of the Southern District of Florida, Orlando-based firm Butler & Hosch violated the WARN Act when it closed suddenly in May 2015 and conducted mass layoffs of more than 700 employees without giving them 60 days of advance notice. The firm, which is bankruptcy, could be on the hook for millions of dollars in damages. We may have more on this later today. [Orlando Sentinel] * Following the embarrassment that was former Stanford swimmer Brock Turner's light sentence in the sexual assault of an unconscious woman at his school, California Gov. Jerry Brown has broadened the state's legal definition of rape to include penetration with a foreign object, mandate prison time if the victim was unconscious at the time of the assault, and forbid judges from granting probation or parole in such cases. [Reuters] * "Frankly, USD has been a bit behind in that, in part, up until 2014, we had no problem with the bar exam. When you’re hitting in the high 80s or 90s, you don’t worry about much." Unofficial results from the South Dakota bar exam are out, and after years of declines in passage rates for graduates of South Dakota Law, administrators are ready to take action now that only about 50 percent of graduates passed the test. [Argus Leader] * "I was empty and then this woman walked into my life. I didn’t think it would happen again and it did. She is it." LGBT rights pioneer Edie Windsor, the plaintiff whose Supreme Court case rendered DOMA unconstitutional in 2013 and laid the groundwork for the high court to declare that marriage equality was a fundamental right just two years later, remarried in New York last week. Our very best wishes! [New York Times]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.27.16

* “Even with a new Republican appointee, [Justice Clarence] Thomas is likely to remain somewhat isolated on the extreme right.” In the case of Justice Thomas, it wouldn't even matter if Donald Trump won the presidency -- he'd still be the most conservative justice in the modern history of the Supreme Court. [New York Times] * The Supreme Court's long conference was yesterday, and we'll likely find out later today (or in the days to come) the cases for which the justices decided to grant certiorari for the 2016-17 term. One of those cases may be NCAA v. O'Bannon, where the question of sports amateurism for the purpose of athletes' pay is up for debate. [CBS Sports] * Hot on the heels of the news that Dentons dragged down revenue per lawyer rankings for the entire 2016 Global 100 thanks to its mega-merger with Dacheng, the firm had a more upbeat announcement. Partners Mike McNamara, Jeff Haidet, and Peter Wolfson have ascended to national and global leadership positions. Congrats! [Big Law Business] * Under a new California law signed by Gov. Jerry Brown, actors may conceal their age and force websites like IMDb to remove their age from bio pages in order to shield themselves from age-based discrimination in casting. Critics of the law are calling this an attack on free speech -- and it's too little, too late for Junie Hoang. [WSJ Law Blog] * Judge Leonard I. Garth, Third Circuit Court of Appeals jurist, RIP. [Washington Post] * Daniel O. Bernstine, president of LSAC, RIP. [ABA Journal]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 10.06.15

* While we're loath to continue giving this woman airtime, it turns out that infamous Kentucky clerk Kim Davis's law firm, Liberty Counsel, was recently declared a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center. This fits the overall narrative here quite nicely, don't you think? [Salon] * After 12 days of deliberation, the jury in the criminal trial of Dewey & LeBoeuf's former execs has shown no signs of reaching a verdict, but instead, signs of exhaustion. In fact, one juror needed medical attention because she deliberated too hard. [Am Law Daily] * This seems to be a common phrase lately: law firm mergers are breaking records again. Altman Weil says more firms announced mergers in the first three quarters of 2015 than in the first three quarters of any year in almost a decade. [Big Law Business / Bloomberg] * "I was left to reflect on what I would want in the face of my own death." Thanks to Governor Jerry Brown, California is now the fifth state to legalize physician-assisted suicide. The End of Life Option Act will take effect sometime in 2016. [Los Angeles Times] * If you're an undergraduate student who's planning to go to law school, then you better be building relevant lawyering skills. Master the art of bullsh*tting before you graduate and you'll be ahead of the game. [Law Admissions Lowdown / U.S. News & World Report]

By Staci Zaretsky
Morning Docket

Morning Docket: 09.14.15

* A former DJ is suing Taylor Swift because he claims that he lost his job after he was falsely accused of grabbing the singer's ass. When contacted for comment, Swift said, "I've got a blank motion to dismiss, baby, and I'll write your name." [Associated Press] * BakerHostetler's partners unanimously agreed to do away with its two-tiered partnership structure. We would've been shocked the firm was going to kick its nonequity partner title to the curb, but we broke the news on it last month. [Am Law Daily] * Albany Law's new dean thinks she may have a solution to the school's enrollment problem, which is down by 38 percent since 2010. She wants to hire more professors, even though the school's existing professors aren't exactly pleased. [Albany Business Review] * California's legislature approved a landmark bill that will permit physician-assisted suicide for terminally ill patients. If Governor Jerry Brown refuses to sign the "death with dignity" law, supporters will likely bring it to a ballot referendum. [New York Times] * A Brooklyn bride alleges in a recently filed lawsuit that she's still waiting for her wedding pictures... more than two years after her wedding took place. She's clearly not a bridezilla, because if she were, a lawsuit wouldn't have even been necessary. [New York Post]

By Staci Zaretsky
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Congratulations to Justice Goodwin Liu!

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 […]

By David Lat