Judge William Alsup

These firms ain't loyal.

The Google v. Sonos trial might not see the case go to the jury for verdict until the end of May.

* Senators Cory Booker and Kamala Harris were both appointed to the Senate Judiciary Committee yesterday afternoon. Booker is the first African-American man to ever serve on the SJC, and Harris is the second African-American woman to ever serve on the SJC. Congratulations! [The Hill]

* Rescind immigration protection from current DACA recipients? Dream on! That’s not going to happen under Judge William Alsup’s watch. He issued a nationwide injunction to block the Trump administration from denying program renewals for “dreamers.” [Washington Post]

* Sorry, North Carolina, but according to the Middle District, your congressional map is unconstitutionally gerrymandered. This is the first time that a federal court has blocked a congressional map because it was “motivated by invidious partisan intent.” [New York Times]

* Donald Trump’s personal lawyer Michael Cohen has filed defamation suits against Fusion GPS and BuzzFeed over the Steele dossier following Senator Dianne Feinstein’s publication of a transcript of the Senate Judiciary Committee’s interview with Fusion’s co-founder. The legal action was announced over Twitter, obviously. [POLITICO]

* “Lawyers like shiny things, and so there has been a huge spike in interest in blockchain law, especially over the last year.” This is just one of the reasons why so many Biglaw firms now have blockchain practice groups and task forces. [Big Law Business]

* Norton Rose Fulbright has closed its doors in Abu Dhabi, making it the largest law firm to shutter an office in the Middle East. [American Lawyer]

* Professor Toby Heytens of UVA Law has been named the next solicitor general of Virginia. He’ll be taking his second leave of absence from the law school during his term. He took his first leave to serve in the U.S. Solicitor General’s Office. [Daily Progress]

* No, contrary to popular belief, Radiohead has not filed suit against Lana Del Rey for similarities between their hit song “Creep” and her song “Get Free” — but the band really should consider doing so, and their lawyers ought to become as “relentless” as Del Rey claimed on Twitter. Take a listen, here. [Rolling Stone]

* Okay, let’s get this straight: Roy Moore’s Jewish lawyer isn’t Richard Jaffe, the one who voted for Doug Jones; no, Roy Moore’s Jewish lawyer is Martin Wishnatsky, the one who “has accepted Christ” as his savior. [Washington Post]

* In our last Supreme Court Clerk Hiring Watch, we focused a bit on the fact that rumored retiree Justice Anthony Kennedy hired a full set of clerks for OT 2018, but in case you missed it, Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg already has a full set of clerks for OT 2019. The Notorious one isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. [Newsweek]

* Lawyers for the Department of Justice who are attempting to defend the Trump administration’s rescission of the DACA program have asked Judge William Alsup, who is handling the case, to ignore our “very stable genius” president’s recent tweets regarding the immigration policy. [The Recorder]

* Evan Greebel, pharma bro Martin Shkreli’s ex-lawyer, is facing hard prison time for conspiracy, but one of the juror’s who convicted him is having second thoughts. The former Biglaw partner better hope that Judge Kiyo Matsumoto decides to reopen his case. [Big Law Business]

* In what may have been some sort of a Christmas miracle, the legal sector witnessed a very slight uptick in jobs in December. Beggars can’t be choosers, so a gain of 600 jobs is better than nothing at all. Employment in the profession is still nowhere near where it once was before the recession. [American Lawyer]

* Lewis Donelson, cofounder of Baker Donelson, RIP. [Memphis Business Journal]

This legal battle between Google and Uber has it all: cutting-edge technology, juicy facts, and top-tier legal talent.

Even the smartest, most tech-savvy folks can get caught in trade-secret shenanigans.

* A judge has ruled that Andrew Schmuhl, the attorney accused of torturing and nearly killing the managing partner of the law firm his wife was fired from, will not be allowed to use an involuntary intoxication defense at trial. We may have more on this later today. [Washington Post]

* Congratulations to Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg! A newly discovered species of praying mantis with a decorative neck plate, the Ilomantis ginsburgae, has been named after Her Honor thanks to her “commitment to women’s rights and gender equality… and her appreciation of the jabot.” This is an honor that is truly fitting for the Notorious R.B.G. [New York Magazine]

* Partners continue to head for the exits at Kenyon & Kenyon. This time, the chair of the IP firm’s life sciences and chemical prosecution practice fled for Fox Rothschild, and he took two others with him. What’s going on as this firm, and did they decide finally decide to officially pull the plug on the summer program? Let us know. [Big Law Business]

* “There’s absolutely no showing of any federal violation. The citizens of California are smart enough to know what their rights are.” Sorry, Bernie bros, but because unaffiliated voters’ rights haven’t been harmed, voter registration will not be reopened ahead of next week’s primary in the Golden State. Best of luck in the polls. [Los Angeles Times]

* People are still raging against this JOP: The Nevada Attorneys for Criminal Justice, a group of defense lawyers 150 strong, have filed an ethics complaint against Judge Conrad Hafen, saying he showed a “complete disregard for the law” when he handcuffed a public defender as she tried to represent her client. [Las Vegas Review-Journal]

* Boyce Martin Jr., chief judge emeritus of the Sixth Circuit, RIP. [Courier-Journal]

* Forget playing with Wade. LeBron took his talents to South Beach to avoid tons of state taxes. [The Legal Blitz] * Steve Susman of Susman Godfrey just completed the 180-mile trek from Houston to Austin by bike. Susman took part in this MS fundraiser with his grown kids and 35 other Susman Godfrey team members. Kudos. [National MS Society] * The Obama administration is entering a showdown over its use of the “state secrets” privilege. The government is concerned that if it cannot shield “no-fly list” paperwork, it might chill their frank discussion of racial profiling. [Politico] * A new in-house tool to replace outside counsel? Sure it may be cheaper, but can a computer get you playoff tickets? [Associate's Mind] * Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg’s new book, Lean In: Women, Work, and the Will to Lead (affiliate link), received a good deal of praise, but her model of “trickle-down feminism” is a tad suspect. [JDs Rising / Minnesota Lawyer] * We have a follow-up to the earlier Nevada benchslap. Now we have video of the judge handing out contempt charges for no reason. Wow. That’s some hardcore abused discretion. [Las Vegas Law Blog] * Remember the L.A. Law puppets video from a couple weeks ago? Well, it’s now a series. Watch Episode 1 after the jump….

* Dewey know when Judge Martin Glenn will issue his ruling on the failed firm’s proposed partner contribution plan? If all goes according to plan, we can expect to learn if the PCP’s been approved or rejected as early as next week. [Am Law Daily]

* Hot on the heels of Google’s digital-book settlement, the company announced that it would be appealing its copyright infringement jury verdict in the Oracle trial. One thing’s for sure: Judge Alsup will be angered terribly by this. [Bloomberg]

* David Askew, formerly the director of Edwards Wildman’s pro bono program, will now lead the National Association of Minority and Women Owned Law Firms as CEO and general counsel. [Corporate Counsel]

* The American Bar Association submitted an amicus brief in support of using race as a factor in college admissions, because diversity in college education is a must for diversity in law schools, duh. [ABA Journal]

* Remember the family law judge who got caught beating his daughter in a video that went viral? Now he wants the Texas Supreme Court to reinstate him, over his ex-wife’s objections. Good luck with that. [CNN]

* Dewey retired partners with unfunded pensions get a seat at the table for this bankruptcy circus? Yeah, but only because the U.S. Trustee did something unheard of and appointed a committee of former partners as creditors. [WSJ Law Blog]

* Yesterday was definitely a great day to be gay on the east coast. In addition to the First Circuit’s DOMA decision, a New York appellate court ruled that being called gay is no longer defamatory per se. [New York Law Journal]

* Milberg is the latest firm to dump Paul Ceglia of Facebook lawsuit fame, but Dean Boland, his other lawyer, says the Biglaw firm just “serve[d] as a distraction.” Somebody please give this man a dislike button. [Buffalo News]

* Humblebrag of the day by Judge Alsup of Oracle v. Google fame: he’s written lines of code “a hundred times before.” He also squashed Oracle’s API copyright infringement claims like bugs. [Courthouse News Service]

* Remember Kimberly Ireland, the Kansas attorney who falsely accused Judge Kevin Moriarty of waxing his gavel beneath the bench? She got a retroactive two-year suspension. [ABA Journal via Legal Profession Blog]

* Elizabeth Warren has confirmed that she told Harvard Law and Penn Law that she was a Native American, but only after she had been hired. She didn’t get any action of the affirmative variety, no sir. [Associated Press]

* Recent law school graduates are a little more desperate than we thought they were. At least 32 people have already applied for that BC Law job advertising a salary below minimum wage. [Boston Business Journal]

* Activision settled a lawsuit with two Call of Duty developers, but isn’t worried about an effect on its financials due to a strong third quarter performance. And you can thank your damn Elite packages for that. [PCMag]

* Aw, come on, Mort, Dewey really have to pay you $61M? In case you missed it last night, the only thing that made the former vice chairman’s departure memo dramatic was the insane amount that he claims he’s owed. [DealBook / New York Times]

* Congratulations to Jacqueline H. Nguyen on her confirmation to the Ninth Circuit. She’s the first Asian American woman to sit on a federal appellate court, so she’s earned our judicial diva title (in a good way). You go girl! [Los Angeles Times]

* Google might’ve infringed upon Oracle’s copyrights, but a jury couldn’t decide if it constituted fair use. Sorry, Judge Alsup, but with that kind of a decision, you can bet your ass that there’ll be an appeal. [New York Times]

* A Harvard Law professor has come to Elizabeth Warren’s defense, claiming that an alleged affirmative action advantage played no role in her hiring. And besides, even if it did, it only played 1/32 of a role. [Boston Herald]

* Classes at Cooley Law’s Tampa Bay campus began last night. Unsurprisingly, the inaugural class is double the size originally projected, because everyone wants to attend second-best school in the nation. [MLive.com]

* Albany Law will be having a three-day conference on the legal implications of the Civil War. This could be a little more exciting if presenters wore reenactment garb and did battle when it was over. [National Law Journal]

* Jury selection is underway in a second degree murder trial that will forever be known as the case where a defendant first raised the “Snooki Defense.” He didn’t kill his wife… but her spray tan did. [CBS Miami]

With proceedings in the “World Series” of high-tech law cases underway (aka Oracle v. Google), lawyers have discovered that the judge overseeing the matter is, well… kind of a hard-ass....