* A new lawsuit alleges that tuna served at Subway is not really tuna. Guess they knew something smelled fishy... [Washington Post]
* A prominent entertainment attorney, who represented novelists like Dan Brown and John Grisham, has passed away at 77. [Variety]
* A New York attorney has been charged for allegedly defrauding real estate investors. [Department of Justice]
* Investors are suing AstraZeneca for allegedly sustaining losses due to purported issues testing the company's COVID-19 vaccine. [Bloomberg Law]
* President Biden's brother supposedly advertised his relationship with the president in a law firm advertisement. Didn't President Carter's brother use his celebrity to sell beer? [NBC News]
* A Texas lawyer is accused of smuggling meth into a county jail. Maybe this lawyer has been watching too much Breaking Bad. [Houston Chronicle]
* The lawyer for a man accused of firing shots after an argument over masks escalated claims his client is "not handling the pandemic well." That seems like an understatement. [NBC News]
* A Chinese artificial intelligence company has filed a multibillion-dollar lawsuit against Apple, alleging that Apple infringed on its patents. [CNBC]
* Senate Republicans are divided over whether they would move to fill a Supreme Court vacancy that occurs before the election. [Hill]
* A mysterious death has resulted in a $2 million life insurance settlement. Sounds like the plot of a John Grisham novel... [Daily Business Review]
* An attorney who spent more than 10 years on the run has been sentenced to three years in prison for developing and selling illegal tax shelters. Sounds like a good plot for a John Grisham book. [Accounting Today]
* A lawyer for former National Security Adviser John Bolton alleges that the White House is claiming Bolton's new book contains classified information that cannot be revealed. [CBS News]
* The Florida Supreme Court has suspended an attorney who has filed thousands of questionable lawsuits against property insurers. [Insurance Journal]
* The Attorneys General of most U.S. states and territories have filed litigation against 26 drugmakers for allegedly fixing the price for generic drugs. [Reuters]
* NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory has paid $10 million to settle an age discrimination lawsuit alleging that it systematically fired employees over 40 and replaced them with younger workers. Sounds like a twisted kind of Midsommar... [CBS News]
* "This is not a game for us. This is deadly serious. We're here to find the truth, to uphold the Constitution of the United States." House Speaker Nancy Pelosi will not hold a full vote to authorize a formal impeachment inquiry into President Trump -- yet. [POLITICO; CNN]
* Rudy Giuliani, President Trump's personal lawyer, has officially failed to comply with a congressional subpoena. According to Giuliani, despite the fact that he's reportedly the subject of numerous federal investigations, Jon Sale is no longer repping him, saying, "At this time, I do not need a lawyer." Good luck with that, bro. [The Hill]
* You may remember Mossack Fonseca from the Panama Papers case, but now you'll remember the firm as the one that sued Netflix for libel and trademark infringement for portraying its attorneys as villains in the new movie “The Laundromat.” Catch the flick this Friday from your couch. [Big Law Business]
* Students from Penn Law are marching to demand that Professor Amy Wax be shown the door. "We’re hoping that today people will join our call to fire her just to create a more inclusive space at the Law School that actually rectifies the harm that is being done." But will it work? [Daily Pennsylvanian]
* In case you missed it, jurors recommended life in prison for Sigfredo Garcia after finding him guilty of murdering Professor Dan Markel, and a judge another 30 years on top for conspiracy to commit murder. Prosecutors still intend to retry Katherine Magbanua. [Tallahassee Democrat]
* Sign up here if you’d like to take part in a conversation between best-selling author John Grisham and former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara (S.D.N.Y.) tonight. I’ll be there to cover the event for Above the Law, and I hope to see you there. [TimesTalks]
* Remember how EU ambassador Gordon Sondland was forbidden to testify before Congress? And how he texted the Ukrainian ambassador that the president wanted "no quid pro quo’s of any kind"? He's about to testify that language was dictacted by Trump himself. Hmm... [Washington Post]
* Rudy Giuliani, Trump's personal attorney who Trump is attempting to distance himself from, is reportedly being investigated by federal prosecutors over his ties to the removal of former Ukranian ambassador Marie L. Yovanovitch and whether he violated lobbying laws in the process. [New York Times]
* After much negative publicity and a student protest, Louis Lehot, the DLA Piper partner who was accused of sexual assault by a fellow partner, was kicked to the curb by the firm. [American Lawyer]
* Art Lien, who brings the Supreme Court to life for the rest of us, is one of the last courtroom sketch artists in the nation. The justices are still against cameras in the highest courtroom in the land, but even Lien thinks his days may be numbered. [Quartz]
* In case you missed it, the jury in the Dan Markel murder trial convicted Sigfredo Garcia of first degree murder but declared a mistrial for his co-defendant, Katherine Magbanua. Garcia faces the death penalty, and Magbanua will remain jailed until her case is retried. [Tallahassee Democrat]
* Sign up here if you’d like to take part in a conversation between best-selling author John Grisham and former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara (S.D.N.Y.) this Wednesday. I’ll be there to cover the event for Above the Law, and I hope to see you there. [TimesTalks]
* "I don't know them, I don't know about them, I don't know what they do. I don't know, maybe they were clients of Rudy's. You'd have to ask Rudy." President Trump is trying his hardest to distance himself from Igor Fruman and Lev Parnas, Rudy Giuliani’s recently arrested associates. He may have been in pictures with them, though, and his son might have as well. Oopsie. [The Hill]
* "Together, we will blow our whistles against Barr, President Trump, and their enablers in Congress." AG Bill Barr is scheduled to speak today at Notre Dame Law on "religious freedom," and protesters are expected to be there, where they'll literally be blowing whistles. [South Bend Tribune]
* Years after his brutal murder, the Dan Markel case is finally in the hands of a jury. Luis Rivera has already taken a deal, but will Katherine Magbanua and Sigfredo Garcia be found guilty? [Tallahassee Democrat]
* Minnesota Law is celebrating its largest first-year class in about a decade. The school, which is ranked 20th by U.S. News now has reliable employment statistics for graduates, has been recovering from the recession's effects on law school enrollment. [Minnesota Daily]
* In case you missed it, Kim Kardashian West is trying to help Brendan Dassey of "Making a Murderer" in his quest to receive clemency from Wisconsin Governor Tony Evers. Per Gov. Evers, "Brendan's case will be given the same thoughtful review and consideration as any other case." [Esquire]
* Sign up here if you’d like to take part in a conversation between best-selling author John Grisham and former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara (S.D.N.Y.). I’ll be there to cover the event for Above the Law, and I hope to see you there. [TimesTalks]
* According to an eight-page letter from White House Counsel Pat Cipollone, the White House will not cooperate in the impeachment inquiry because not only does it violate “the Constitution, the rule of law, and every past precedent,” but it also “lacks any legitimate constitutional foundation" and is merely an effort to "nullify the outcome of the democratic process" by negating the 2016 election and influencing the 2020 election. Well then! [Washington Post]
* In case you missed it, here’s what made a federal judge say, “Wow.” In an effort to keep redacted portions of the Mueller report from Congress, representatives from the DOJ essentially argued that a decision to release the Watergate grand jury evidence was “wrongly decided.” [Slate]
* Despite having been dragged into the DLA Piper sexual assault controversy, Kamala Harris has a lot of Biglaw support, and the newly formed National Lawyers Council for Kamala is hoping to raise at least $100,000 by the end of the month to help her campaign for the presidency. [American Lawyer]
* An investigation is currently underway at Yale Law School, where late this past weekend, anti-Semitic graffiti -- a swastika with the word “Trump” next to it -- was found on the steps to a side entrance to the school. [NBC Connecticut]
* Sign up here if you'd like to take part in a conversation between best-selling author John Grisham and former U.S. attorney Preet Bharara (S.D.N.Y.). I'll be there to cover the event for Above the Law, and I hope to see you there. [TimesTalks]
* Corporations: 1. Unpaid Interns: 0. [Hollywood Reporter]
* Don Jr.'s claim of attorney-client privilege over a conversation he had with Daddy probably won't stand up if Mueller pushes the issue. [Talking Points Memo]
* A review of John Grisham's latest -- when law students go rogue. [Law and More]
* How liberal or conservative are the judges in your state? See the chart on page 1743 of this new study! [SSRN]
* Working moms conquer their toughest holiday challenges. [CorporetteMoms]
* Jobs Attorneys Hate for $100, Alex. Publicly pulling back from your client's "misunderstanding." [The Root]
* The battle between former Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino and Papa John. [Deadspin]
* Fresh off his six-month stint as White House chief of staff, Reince Priebus will be returning to Am Law 200 firm Michael Best and Friedrich, where he'll serve as president and chief strategist. He'll lead the firm's government affairs practice group, and he plans to help clients with their Trump problems. Best of luck, those clients might need it. [POLITICO]
* Sorry, consumers, but the Senate had to call in VP Mike Pence in the middle of the night to kill the the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau rule banning mandatory arbitration clauses in credit card and checking account agreements. Damn all those "frivolous lawsuits by special interest trial lawyers"! [The Two-Way / NPR]
* Author John Grisham was inspired to write his latest novel, The Rooster Bar (affiliate link), after reading an article in The Atlantic by Paul Campos about for-profit law schools and the student loan crisis. Well, at least someone is going to make some money after learning about a for-profit law school. [CBS News]
* Biglaw firms are trying to reduce the amount of their leased square footage. According to the CBRE Group, on average between the first quarter of 2016 and the second quarter of 2017, firms in 26 markets were able to shrink their office space by about 27 percent. But did their headcount shrink along with it? [Wall Street Journal]
* Major lateral hire alert: Paul Basta left Kirkland & Ellis this summer, and now he's landed at Paul Weiss, where he'll be working as the co-chair of the firm's corporate restructuring practice. Alan Kornberg, the practice group's current chair, called Basta's arrival at the firm "sort of a dream come true in a way." [Big Law Business]
* According to a study conducted by Professor Carlos Berdejó of Loyola Law School, prosecutors tend to give white defendants better plea deals than black defendants. We needed a study to confirm that some prosecutors discriminate based on race? [Slate]
